They will experiment with changing the beginning, middle and ending sounds to form new words. They will break longer words apart and deal with them one syllable or part at a time. Second graders read more difficult words. Second graders are reading words with more than one syllable. They learn how to break apart new words, looking for the root word by separating suffixes and prefixes.
Second graders build a list of words they can read.
The first few times they see a new word, they will still have to sound it out and break it down. Sooner or later, however, that word will become part of their permanent memory. Second graders learn that there are different things to read. Second graders explore different types of written material. They learn that people use writing not only for stories, but also for poems, songs, newspapers, signs and more.