2nd Grade Lesson Plans

Utah State Arts Core for 2nd Grade

DANCE/MOVEMENT

Title of Lesson	Core Subject	Comments
Dancing with Literature	Language Arts/Dance	‍Movement that encourages reading comprehension.‍
Geometry through Movement	Math/Dance	Students will demonstrate their knowledge of geometric shapes and create their own shapes.
Flashlight	Language Arts/Dance	In two 30 minute sessions, the students will understand the author’s overall message as they dance “night, nature, and art” (Boyd) with the use of a flashlight.

DRAMA

Title of Lesson	Core Subject	Comments
To Each His Own Habitat Desert Animals Visual Tundra Animals Visual Ocean Animals Visual	Science/Drama	The students will learn about the animals that live in the desert, the tundra and/or the ocean. They will use discriminating thinking skills when comparing similar animals that live in different habitats. When representing animals from a habitat, the students will speak loudly and clearly for their audience to hear.
Jungle Drums	Language Arts/Social Studies/Drama	This is a process drama based on the book Jungle Drums, by Graeme Base. The students will learn that everyone has a place in the family, neighborhood and community. Everyone is different in some way and we need to accept and celebrate the differences.
Literature in Tableau	Language Arts/Drama	This lesson plan is a guide to recreating stories using a theatrical convention known as tableau. In this lesson, students will analyze the events, characters and setting of a story as they recreate the story in frozen images.
Finding Characters in Poetry	Language Arts/Drama	Students will learn to find characters and emotions in poetry and will learn ways of demonstrating these.
Creating a Process Drama	Language Arts/ Social Studies/ Drama	This is a “how to” instruction guide for teachers who would like to create their own process drama.
The Art of Storytelling	Language Arts/ Drama	Students will be tasked with finding a story, creating a story map, learning the events of the story, practicing the story and retelling the story, using engagement techniques. This lesson plan will take several sessions to complete.
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble	Language Arts/ Social Studies/ Drama	Through process drama, students will learn about the beginning, middle and end of the story and about their own responsibility as a member of a community.
Word Problems	Math/Drama	Students will act out word problems. They will pull out the numbers and create an equation to solve the problem.

MUSIC

Title of Lesson	Core Subject	Comments
Tinga Layo The Donkey Who Does	Language Arts/Music	In this activity the student learns to sing a song to practice verbs. Students will create a list of verbs as a class and write them on the board and then use them in the song, Tinga Layo The Donkey That Does.
Rhythm Poems	Language Arts/Music	Students will create a 4-line poem using vocabulary and facts around a topic, set to basic two beat rhythms.

VISUAL ARTS

Title of Lesson	Core Subject	Comments
Perfect-Portraits	Language Arts/Visual Arts	Students will write an autobiography and will create a ceramic self portrait based on the work of current artist Kimmy Cantrell. Grades 2-6.
Dinosaur Poem	Language Arts/Visual Arts	Students read Dinosaur Books and then write Poetry reflecting what they learned.
What's Your Story	Language Arts/Visual Arts	In 30 minutes, students will create an acrostic poem. They will use descriptive adjectives to describe what they can do and who they are!
Islamic Name Art	Social Studies/Visual Arts	Very adaptable for grades 2-6. Use block names to create a fun art activity.
Classroom Quilt	Social Studies/Visual Arts	Read "Patchwork Quilt" book. Create a quilt patch on a piece of paper about personal culture/beliefs and place all quilt patches of students on a large piece of paper on wall to show diversity in classroom.
Color Wheel Portrait Mural	Social Studies/Visual Arts	Students will learn about the color wheel, how to draw a simple or detailed face (depending on the grade), and then will create a piece of a mural using one or two colors.