Common Core State Standards for MATHEMATICS

How to read the grade level standards

Standards define what students should understand and be able to do.

Clusters are groups of related standards. Note that standards from different clusters
may sometimes be closely related, because mathematics
is a connected subject.

Domains are larger groups of related standards. Standards from different domains
may sometimes be closely related.
Domain

Number and Operations in Base Ten 3.NBT

Use place value understanding and properties of operations to
perform multi-digit arithmetic.
1. Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest
10 or 100.
Standard 2. Fluently add and subtract within 1000 using strategies and algorithms Cluster
based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship
between addition and subtraction.
3. Multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiples of 10 in the range
10-90 (e.g., 9 × 80, 5 × 60) using strategies based on place value and
properties of operations.

These Standards do not dictate curriculum or teaching methods. For example, just
because topic A appears before topic B in the standards for a given grade, it does
not necessarily mean that topic A must be taught before topic B. A teacher might
prefer to teach topic B before topic A, or might choose to highlight connections by
teaching topic A and topic B at the same time. Or, a teacher might prefer to teach a
topic of his or her own choosing that leads, as a byproduct, to students reaching the
standards for topics A and B.

What students can learn at any particular grade level depends upon what they
have learned before. Ideally then, each standard in this document might have been
phrased in the form, “Students who already know ... should next come to learn ....”
But at present this approach is unrealistic—not least because existing education
research cannot specify all such learning pathways.  Of necessity therefore,
grade placements for specific topics have been made on the basis of state and
international comparisons and the collective experience and collective professional
judgment of educators, researchers and mathematicians. One promise of common
state standards is that over time they will allow research on learning progressions
to inform and improve the design of standards to a much greater extent than is
possible today. Learning opportunities will continue to vary across schools and
school systems, and educators should make every effort to meet the needs of
individual students based on their current understanding.

These Standards are not intended to be new names for old ways of doing business.
They are a call to take the next step. It is time for states to work together to build
on lessons learned from two decades of standards based reforms. It is time to
INTRODUCTION |

recognize that standards are not just promises to our children, but promises we
intend to keep.
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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

Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.

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

Add and subtract within 20.

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.

Work with equal groups of objects to gain foundations for

multiplication.
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. 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

Understand place value.

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. Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.
3. Read and write numbers to 1000 using base-ten numerals, number
names, and expanded form.
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.

Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add

and subtract.
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. Add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies based on place
value and properties of operations.
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. 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. 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

Measure and estimate lengths in standard units.

1. Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate
tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.
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. Estimate lengths using units of inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.
4. Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another,
expressing the length difference in terms of a standard length unit.

Relate addition and subtraction to length.

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. 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.

Work with time and money.

7. Tell and write time from analog and digital clocks to the nearest five
minutes, using a.m. and p.m.
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?

Represent and interpret data.

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. 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

Reason with shapes and their attributes.

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. Partition a rectangle into rows and columns of same-size squares and
count to find the total number of them.
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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