COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS for MATHEMATICS

Mathematics | Grade 2
In Grade 2, instructional time should focus on four critical areas: (1)
extending understanding of base-ten notation; (2) building fluency with
addition and subtraction; (3) using standard units of measure; and (4)
describing and analyzing shapes.

(1) Students extend their understanding of the base-ten system. This

includes ideas of counting in fives, tens, and multiples of hundreds, tens,
and ones, as well as number relationships involving these units, including
comparing. Students understand multi-digit numbers (up to 1000) written
in base-ten notation, recognizing that the digits in each place represent
amounts of thousands, hundreds, tens, or ones (e.g., 853 is 8 hundreds + 5
tens + 3 ones).

(2) Students use their understanding of addition to develop fluency with

addition and subtraction within 100. They solve problems within 1000
by applying their understanding of models for addition and subtraction,
and they develop, discuss, and use efficient, accurate, and generalizable
methods to compute sums and differences of whole numbers in base-ten
notation, using their understanding of place value and the properties of
operations. They select and accurately apply methods that are appropriate
for the context and the numbers involved to mentally calculate sums and
differences for numbers with only tens or only hundreds.

(3) Students recognize the need for standard units of measure (centimeter
and inch) and they use rulers and other measurement tools with the
understanding that linear measure involves an iteration of units. They
recognize that the smaller the unit, the more iterations they need to cover a
given length.

(4) Students describe and analyze shapes by examining their sides and
angles. Students investigate, describe, and reason about decomposing
and combining shapes to make other shapes. Through building, drawing,
and analyzing two- and three-dimensional shapes, students develop a
foundation for understanding area, volume, congruence, similarity, and
symmetry in later grades.

GRADE 2 |
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 COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS for MATHEMATICS

Grade 2 Overview
Operations and Algebraic Thinking Mathematical Practices

• Represent and solve problems involving 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in
addition and subtraction. solving them.

• Add and subtract within 20. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

• Work with equal groups of objects to gain 3. Construct viable arguments and critique
foundations for multiplication. the reasoning of others.

4. Model with mathematics.

Number and Operations in Base Ten 5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

• Understand place value. 6. Attend to precision.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

• Use place value understanding and
properties of operations to add and subtract. 8. Look for and express regularity in repeated
reasoning.

Measurement and Data

• Measure and estimate lengths in standard

units.

• Relate addition and subtraction to length.

• Work with time and money.

• Represent and interpret data.

Geometry

• Reason with shapes and their attributes.

GRADE 2 |
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 COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS for MATHEMATICS

Operations and Algebraic Thinking 2.OA

A. Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.

1. 2.OA.A.1
Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word
problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking
apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and
equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.1

B. Add and subtract within 20.

2. 2.OA.B.2
Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.2 By end of Grade 2,
know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

C. Work with equal groups of objects to gain foundations for multiplication.

3. 2.OA.C.3
Determine whether a group of objects (up to 20) has an odd or even number of
members, e.g., by pairing objects or counting them by 2s; write an equation to
express an even number as a sum of two equal addends.
4. 2.OA.C.4
Use addition to find the total number of objects arranged in rectangular arrays
with up to 5 rows and up to 5 columns; write an equation to express the total as a
sum of equal addends.

Number and Operations in Base Ten 2.NBT

A. Understand place value.

1. 2.NBT.A.1
Understand that the three digits of a three-digit number represent amounts
of hundreds, tens, and ones; e.g., 706 equals 7 hundreds, 0 tens, and 6 ones.
Understand the following as special cases:

a. 100 can be thought of as a bundle of ten tens — called a “hundred.”

b. The numbers 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 refer to one, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine hundreds (and 0 tens and 0 ones).
2. 2.NBT.A.2
Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.
3. 2.NBT.A.3
Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numerals, number names, and
expanded form.
4. 2.NBT.A.4
Compare two three-digit numbers based on meanings of the hundreds, tens, and
ones digits, using >, =, and < symbols to record the results of comparisons.

B. Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and

subtract.
5. 2.NBT.B.5
Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value,
properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and
subtraction.
6. 2.NBT.B.6
Add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies based on place value and
properties of operations.
7. 2.NBT.B.7
Add and subtract within 1000, using concrete models or drawings and strategies
based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between
addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method. Understand
that in adding or subtracting three-digit numbers, one adds or subtracts
hundreds and hundreds, tens and tens, ones and ones; and sometimes it is
necessary to compose or decompose tens or hundreds.
8. 2.NBT.B.8
Mentally add 10 or 100 to a given number 100–900, and mentally subtract 10 or
100 from a given number 100–900.
GRADE 2 |

9. 2.NBT.B.9
Explain why addition and subtraction strategies work, using place value and the
properties of operations.3

1
See Glossary, Table 1.
2
See standard 1.OA.6 for a list of mental strategies.
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3
Explanations may be supported by drawings or objects.
 COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS for MATHEMATICS

Measurement and Data 2.MD

A. Measure and estimate lengths in standard units.

1. 2.MD.A.1
Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as
rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.
2. 2.MD.A.2
Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for
the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of
the unit chosen.
3. 2.MD.A.3
Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.
4. 2.MD.A.4
Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another, expressing
the length difference in terms of a standard length unit.

B. Relate addition and subtraction to length.

5. 2.MD.B.5
Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve word problems involving lengths
that are given in the same units, e.g., by using drawings (such as drawings of
rulers) and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the
problem.
6. 2.MD.B.6
Represent whole numbers as lengths from 0 on a number line diagram with
equally spaced points corresponding to the numbers 0, 1, 2, ..., and represent
whole-number sums and differences within 100 on a number line diagram.

C. Work with time and money.

7. 2.MD.C.7
Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five minutes,
using a.m. and p.m.
8. 2.MD.C.8
Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies,
using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies,
how many cents do you have?

D. Represent and interpret data.

9. 2.MD.D.9
Generate measurement data by measuring lengths of several objects to the
nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements of the same object.
Show the measurements by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is
marked off in whole-number units.
10. 2.MD.D.10
Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a
data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and
compare problems4 using information presented in a bar graph.

Geometry 2.G

G. Reason with shapes and their attributes.

1. 2.G.A.1
Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number
of angles or a given number of equal faces.5 Identify triangles, quadrilaterals,
pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.
2. 2.G.A.2
Partition a rectangle into rows and columns of same-size squares and count to
find the total number of them.
3. 2.G.A.3
Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the
shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc., and describe the
whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths. Recognize that equal shares of
identical wholes need not have the same shape.
GRADE 2 |

4
See Glossary, Table 1.
5
Sizes are compared directly or visually, not compared by measuring.
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