2nd grade Math: how to help at home
What your child learns in 2nd grade math in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and simple things to try at home.
Focus areas this year
- Number and operations: place value to 1,200, adding and subtracting within 1,000, fractions and money
- Algebraic reasoning: even and odd numbers, 10 or 100 more or less, and equal groups
- Geometry, measurement and data: shapes and solids, length, area, time, and bar graphs
- Personal financial literacy: saving, deposits and withdrawals, borrowing and lending, and producers and consumers
Easy ways to practice math at home
- Practice math facts in short bursts, such as five minutes while dinner cooks.
- Let your child handle small cash purchases, working out the change together.
- Cook together and double or halve a recipe.
- Ask “How do you know?” after an answer, even when it is right.
What each unit covers
Numbers to 1000
Reading and building numbers up to 1000 with hundreds, tens and ones, counting forwards and backwards by 10s and 100s, even and odd numbers, estimating with 100s as benchmarks, and comparing with <, > and =.
Bigger or Smaller
Comparing and ordering numbers, using <, > and =, and noticing numbers close to 50.
Skip Counting
Skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s forward and backward from 0 to 100, using a hundred chart or number line.
Even, Odd and Ordinals
Deciding whether a number up to 100 is even or odd by making pairs, and using ordinal numbers for position.
Facts to 20
Fluent facts to 20 using strategies like making ten and thinking addition to subtract.
Adding to 100
Two-digit adding and subtracting by working with tens and ones, including making a new ten.
Add & Subtract to 1000
Adding and subtracting three-digit numbers using place value, and adding or taking away 10 or 100 in their head.
Balance It
Finding the unknown number that makes both sides of an equation equal, using symbols for unknowns, and spotting number patterns.
Groups & Sharing
Seeing multiplication as repeated equal groups and division as sharing equally, with arrays, pictures and short stories.
Arrays
Adding equal rows to find the total in an array (up to 5 by 5), and cutting a rectangle into rows and columns of squares. This gets ready for multiplication.
Dollars & Cents
US money: pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollar bills. Counting a handful of coins, making an amount, and word problems with the ¢ and $ signs.
Shapes
Describing shapes by their sides, corners (vertices) and faces, and spotting 3D shapes in real life.
Measuring
Measuring with a ruler from zero and choosing between centimeters and meters.
Inches, Feet & Yards
Measuring and estimating length in inches, feet and yards (and centimeters and meters), and finding how much longer one thing is than another.
Five-Minute Clock
Reading clocks to the nearest five minutes, quarter past and quarter to, and knowing when a time is a.m. or p.m.
Graphs
Reading picture graphs: how many, which has the most or fewest, and how many more.
Bar Graphs
Reading bar graphs with four groups: how many more, how many fewer, how many in all, and which question a class survey can answer.
Halves, Fourths & Eighths
Your child splits shapes into equal parts and names halves, fourths and eighths, and learns that the more equal parts a whole is cut into, the smaller each part is.
Saving & Borrowing
Personal financial literacy: your child sees how savings grow over time, tells a deposit from a withdrawal, talks about responsible borrowing and lending, and tells producers from consumers, including the cost to make a simple item.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practicing the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the Texas report card guide.
Common questions
Practice math facts in short bursts, such as five minutes while dinner cooks. Let your child handle small cash purchases, working out the change together. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) 2nd grade math units include Numbers to 1000, Bigger or Smaller, Skip Counting, Even, Odd and Ordinals, Facts to 20, Adding to 100.
Free printable 2nd grade math practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.