Math Mammoth Grade 2 complete curriculum
Math Mammoth Grade 2 complete curriculum belongs to the Math Mammoth Lightblue Series. The second grade curriculum comprises two worktexts (A and B), an answer key, tests,and an easy access to script-made free calculation worksheets, which provide extra practice when needed.
The two books for grade 2 focus on
- memorizing the basic addition and subtraction facts with single-digit numbers
- developing fluency with multidigit addition and subtraction
- place value with 3-digit numbers.
Also included is introduction to multiplication concept, measuring and geometry topics, clock reading and money. Please see the table of contents for 2-A and 2-B for complete lesson lists.
Some main features of the Lightblue Series books are:
- focuses on understanding of mathematical concepts
- uses clear explanations, lots of visual exercises and pattern exercises
- mastery oriented: concentrates fairly long on a topic, with fairly few topics per grade
- emphasizes mental math and developing number sense
- very little teacher preparation needed
AN ADDED BONUS! Buying this in Kagi store (as a download), you will also get Soft-Pak programs completely FREE. The 7 programs in Soft-Pak (4 math, 1 language arts, 2 testing) offer both on-screen and printable activities in a low-graphic, high content format. Read more and see screenshots.
Introduction
The main topics during second grade, as in first grade, are the study of addition and subtraction and place
value till 1000.
In second grade, children learn to add and subtract two and three-digit numbers mentally and in columns
(under each other). They learn to carry to tens and to hundreds (also called regrouping), and how to
borrow either from the tens or from the hundreds. The topics of borrowing two times and borrowing over
zero tens are in this curriculum left for the third grade.
Mental math is very important, as it builds number sense and solidifies the understanding of place value.
Children learn by heart the common addition and subtraction facts, and understand how to use them when
adding two-digit numbers. They practice many kinds of mental math with three-digit numbers as well (in
the B book).
Other topics studied are reading the clock to the five-minute intervals; measuring length, weight, and
volume; shapes and a few simple geometry concepts; and money topics. These topics are important as
well, since they are everyday applications of mathematics.
When you use these books as your only or main mathematics curriculum, they can be like a "framework",
but you still have liberty in planning your child's studies. While addition, subtraction, and place value
topics are best studied in the order they are presented, you can choose to study clock, coins, and geometry
topics in a different order. This does not totally apply to the chapter on measuring, as it uses 3-digit
numbers.
Changing the topic might even be advisable if your child is "stuck" on some concept. Sometimes the brain
"chews the cud" in the background, and the concept they was stuck on can become clear after a break.
This curriculum aims to concentrate on a few major topics at a time and study them in depth. This is
totally opposite to the continually spiraling step-by-step curricula, in which each lesson typically is about
a different topic from the previous or next lesson, and includes a lot of review problems from past topics.
This does not mean that your child wouldn't need occasional review. However, when each major topic is
presented in its own chapter, this gives you more freedom to plan the course of study and choose the
review times yourself. In fact, I totally encourage you to plan your mathematics school year as a set of
certain topics, instead of a certain book or certain pages from a book.
For review, the CD contains an html page that you can use to make extra practice worksheets for
computation or for number charts. You can also reprint already studied pages using the PDF file on the
CD.