Teaching 2nd graders is an absolute joy. They have the basics down, and they are ready to explore and learn about the world in more detail. You can expect them to be more curious, focused, confident, and better physically coordinated than 1st graders, and you might even find yourself surrounded by real little perfectionists. The best part is—they’re still not too cool for school!
Still, seeing the sparkle in their eyes and the excitement about learning doesn’t mean that you should approach your classes by just winging it and going with the flow. Thinking ahead and relying on high-quality lesson plans for 2nd graders will make your job easier and help keep the little brainiacs interested, engaged, and inspired.
Table of Contents
- Where To Find Lesson Plans for Second Graders
- How To Recognize Bad 2nd Grade Lesson Plans Online
- What Should Second Grade Lesson Plans Cover?
- Activities To Include in Your Lesson Plans for Second Grade
- Struggling With Planning Your Lessons for 2nd Grade? Try Teach Simple!
- Find Your Next Lesson Plan With Teach Simple
Where To Find Lesson Plans for Second Graders
Whether you’re a homeschooling parent or a teacher handling a class of 20 second graders, preparation is the key. The best way to prepare for your class is to create and follow a good lesson plan—be it for an individual class or for the whole week. You can write a lesson plan on your own, follow the plans that come with your prescribed teaching materials, or look them up online.
Sometimes, you just don’t have the time, energy, or creativity to come up with your original lesson plans full of engaging activities that will keep your hyperactive second graders occupied and help them learn. Prescribed lesson plans may look good on paper, but they won’t always be the best solution for your class. And, let’s face it—sometimes, they’re just too dull.
The best solution seems to be to hop on Google and make use of some of those websites that offer loads of various teaching materials for free or at a low price. What could go wrong, right?
Your Fast Pass for High-Quality 2nd Grade Lesson Plans
If you don’t have time for trying out different materials and need an excellent ready-made lesson plan for 2nd grade fast, check out the list of our top-quality resources that you can use in your next class:
- Writing—Grades 1–2
- Soar—Animated Writing Activity
- Guided Reading: The Snowy Day Lessons
- After the Fall—STEM Read Aloud Lesson Plans & Activities
- Number & Operations: Fractions—Learn the Skill
- Geometry: Decomposing Geometric Shapes
- Math Practice Simplified: Multiplication (Book E): Developing Fluency With Basic Number Combinations for Multiplication
- Measurement: Measuring Weight
- There Are Four Seasons—Audiobook
- Butterfly Life Cycle—Lesson Notes and Worksheets
- Human Body Lesson Plan
- Social Studies Economics Notebook
- American Civil War, Gr. 5–8
- President John F. Kennedy Interactive Foldable Booklets
- Veterans Day / U.S. Armed Forces Activity Packet
How To Recognize Bad 2nd Grade Lesson Plans Online
Have you ever found yourself browsing teacher resource websites for hours, downloading new printables and lesson materials over and over again, or spending some serious dollars in the process and still not finding the right plan for your class? The internet can do that to a teacher, especially if you’re not sure where to look.
To avoid downloading bad materials and wasting your time and money, you should know what to pay attention to when browsing lesson plans online. Sub-par lesson plans:
- Focus on the teacher and not on students
- Have only one kind of activity and assume all students work at the same pace
- Start with slow activities that don’t engage students enough
- Mistake following instructions for learning
- Are vague, repetitive, and poorly organized, with no defined timeline
- Don’t contain assessment activities and don’t promote original thinking
- Fail to meet your curriculum standards
- Have no or poorly defined learning objectives
This last aspect is crucial because every high-quality lesson plan starts with a good, clearly set learning objective.
What Should Second Grade Lesson Plans Cover?
While the kids in your class might be so bright that you’re considering wearing sunglasses inside (or at least just giving them more advanced materials), it’s essential to know the standard objectives your lessons should aim for.
No two lesson plans can look the same (even if we’re talking about Common Core lesson plans for 2nd grade), but there are some standard expectations that should guide you.
English Lesson Plans for Grade 2—Objectives
Kids in the 2nd grade are supposed to become more fluent readers who rely on context to figure out unfamiliar words. On average, second graders are supposed to start at a standardized DRA 8 level and move on to DRA 30 by the end of the year. They should also start writing short descriptive stories in complete, coherent sentences with proper punctuation.
The most common learning objectives for reading and writing in 2nd grade include the following:
| Reading GoalsWriting GoalsDetermine the characters, main plot ideas, and setting Make predictions based on what was read Read silently Retell the read materials Ask and answer wh-questions Decode words with the most common prefixes and suffixes Recognize and read irregularly spelled words | Use different types of sentences (statements, commands, and questions) in a piece of writing Identify and use correctly different parts of speech (nouns and verbs) Differentiate between writing styles (creative, informational, or persuasive) Use and understand contractions, punctuation, and capital letters |
2nd Grade Math Lesson Plans—Objectives
Math lessons in 2nd grade get more advanced in terms of addition and subtraction and introduce patterns that later lead to multiplication. In this grade, students start learning about simple fractions and the characteristics of different geometric shapes and their parts.
Other common 2nd grade math lesson plan objectives include:
- Using tools, units, and formulas for making measurements
- Distinguishing between even and odd numbers
- Reading and making simple graphs
- Understanding and using place value in three-digit numbers
- Knowing the order of addition and subtraction operations
- Understanding money
- Telling time
Science Class Objectives for 2nd Grade
Second grade science classes are super fun! Even though science curriculums tend to differ a lot, science classes for 2nd grade allow you to explore a bunch of interesting and engaging topics in each lesson.
Some of the most common science topics second graders learn about include:
- Life cycles of different animals (for example, butterflies and frogs)
- Human bones, muscles, and various organs
- Weather and seasons
- Properties and states of matter
- Gravity, magnets, and simple machines
- The solar system
Social Studies Objectives for 2nd Grade
Second graders are expected to expand their knowledge of social relationships and their places in different communities. The usual lesson plans for social studies on this level revolve around:
- Basic economic concepts
- Key national symbols and holidays
- Map reading and interpretation
- Notable historical figures and event sequencing
- Roles and responsibilities of citizens
- Different cultural heritage
Activities To Include in Your Lesson Plans for Second Grade
Even though second graders are now “the older kids” in elementary school, the lesson plans you use should be full of fun learning activities that help them understand and retain the subject matter.
From surprising openers to fun and effective wrap-up activities, the options are practically endless, even though they depend on the group you’re teaching and the topic at hand.
Many free lesson plans you can find online are monotonous and ignore the importance of having a good variety of activities that target different learning styles and paces. Even if you follow a premade lesson plan, try to enrich every class with additional activities that align with lesson objectives and the uniqueness of your group. Here are some ideas that could come in handy:
- English—Many board games can help with developing literacy skills. You can try Scrabble or Apples to Apples Junior. Organize a scavenger hunt in your classroom with written clues, have students create a story based on targeted vocabulary words, or play charades
- Math—Second grade is all about learning how to apply math to real life. Add a find & measure game, use a hula hoop clock for practicing time telling, use coin-counting puzzles, or spin & build printable cookie fractions
- Science and social studies—These subjects allow for even more fun activities in 2nd grade. You could make a foaming rainbow with baking soda and constellations from pipe cleaners or build a lemon battery and a sprout house from sponges. Print out maps, make family trees, or have them create colorful personal timelines
Struggling With Planning Your Lessons for 2nd Grade? Try Teach Simple!
Although it’s creative, lesson planning can get quite demanding, especially if you’re new to teaching second graders. You want your students to love your classes and get the most out of your lessons, but you may find yourself constantly looking for supplemental teacher materials and spending a lot of time (and money!) in the process.
The internet can be an excellent resource for all-level educators, but many dedicated platforms and websites promise high-quality lesson plans and don’t actually deliver. Such websites usually charge per download, which can amount to a significant expense in the end. Even though you can find some free teaching materials as well, the quality is often questionable at best, and they are rarely aligned with the standards of different school districts.
Teach Simple contains thousands of excellent and engaging lesson plans and valuable resources for teachers created by other teachers. On our website, you can find a huge range of standardized teaching resources for all kinds of subjects and topics. Besides lesson plans for second grade, we offer various materials for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, and so much more!
The Benefits of Using Teach Simple
You don’t need to keep too many browser tabs open anymore or spend hours and hundreds of dollars on finding suitable teaching materials for your classes. Teach Simple is a one-stop resource for all your teaching needs because we bring:
- Unlimited downloads—No more paying for every single material of questionable quality. Teach Simple is subscription-based, which means that you get to browse and download all the teaching materials you want for an affordable monthly fee
- High quality and standard alignment—All of our lesson plans and other materials are made and reviewed by other teachers who know the curriculum requirements and specific challenges of teaching different grades and subjects
- Resource diversity—Teachers who contribute to Teach Simple’s library of resources know what it takes to keep their students engaged and motivated, in classrooms or in remote environments. That’s why we offer a vast selection of teaching materials ranging from fully developed lesson plans to supplemental videos, games, activities, flash cards, and other resources that support blended learning
- Revenue sharing—We are passionate about high-quality teaching and understand how important teachers are. For that reason, Teach Simple gives 50% of all monthly revenue to educators who create the lesson plans and other materials available on our platform
- Special education resources—Many websites with teaching resources overlook special education students, but that’s not the case with Teach Simple. We offer teaching materials that students with different needs can benefit from
Find Your Next Lesson Plan With Teach Simple
Whether you’re looking for lesson plans and resources for 2nd graders or perhaps ESL students, you will find what you need on Teach Simple. You won’t lose your mind searching for the right material as you can easily filter our library by subject, grade, and resource type and find the right lesson plan or activity in minutes.Make use of our 30-day free trial to search for and download unlimited materials for your classes. Once you see how convenient it is to browse and try out our lesson plans for 2nd graders, you can choose to commit and continue to have access to world-class teaching resources without the stress of being charged for every downloaded item.
