Is your school a Google school? Google Classroom is the ideal platform to build community from day one. It offers numerous ways to support teaching and learning, making it perfect for 2nd grade. Start your year off right with Google Classroom!

How to Start Your Own 2nd Grade Google Classroom

To create a Google Classroom class, log into your school account and click the nine squares on any Google screen. Then, select the Classroom icon. If it's not visible, click “More,” or go directly to classroom.google.com.

Students can join your class with a code, or your admin can create classrooms for you using Clever. If students don't know their school emails, you can easily import them, allowing them to log in with a single sign-on like Clever or their Google account.

If you have a co-teacher, go to the “People” tab to grant them access. You can also manually add students here.

Staying Organized When Using Google Classroom For 2nd Grade

Our students are young and not all of them are fluent readers. This means we need to make navigating Google Classroom as intuitive and easy as possible.

General Settings

I like to keep the Google Classroom Stream focused. By default, assignments automatically post to the Stream, but this can confuse students. I prefer to use the Stream for my announcements only and direct students to the organized content.

I also set “Only teachers can post and comment” to minimize distractions. The GIF below shows where to find these settings and which ones I choose.

Topics for Your 2nd Grade Google Classroom

After setting up your Stream, move on to the Classwork section. Adding assignments can quickly create clutter, especially since there's no way to archive past assignments. Here are my two favorite ways to organize Google Classroom for 2nd grade. It might take some trial and error to find what works best for you and your students.

Topics by Week

Here's how I like to organize my Classwork page. At the top, click the “Create” button to make assignments and topics. Topics let you group assignments and appear on the left-hand menu for easy access, so students don't have to scroll through everything.

During distance learning, I organized assignments by week, which helped students and parents quickly find what they needed, especially if they missed a day.

Adding emojis to Topic titles makes it easier for students who aren't strong readers to find assignments by subject. I use an emoji keyboard extension to do this quickly.

You'll notice two other topics I include in this organization- Today & Resources.

I use the “Today” section to post daily assignments. It only takes a minute to move tasks in and out of topics, making it easier for my students without taking up much of my time.

In the “Resources” section, I post digital manipulatives and other tools. The digital resources from the Lucky Little Toolkit are perfect here. I label them with subject-related emojis, so students can easily find and access them whenever needed.

Topics by Subject

If organizing by weeks isn't your cup of tea, then creating topics for each of the subjects in your grade book may work for you! When using this organization method I use emojis in the topic titles to make it easier for my struggling readers to navigate.

In this example, I use the “Today” topic and create separate topics for each subject, adding relevant resources and assignments. Students can quickly find what they need using the topics navigation bar on the left.

Old Assignments

A challenge with Google Classroom is assignments piling up. I avoid deleting them for reuse and documentation purposes, but this can lead to students submitting old work. To address this, I add a lock emoji to the title of assignments no longer accepting submissions.

This will not change anything about that assignment in your Google Classroom but my students know that once they have locks in the title I can accept them anymore. This simple change drastically cut down on random submissions.

Another way to declutter past-due assignments is to copy them over to an empty classroom. This will make them easily available for the next school year! Here's a YouTube video walkthrough if you're interested in doing that.

Building Community Using Google Classroom

Once your students are enrolled in Google Classroom, use it to build community beyond just content. Post messages on the Stream to engage your class or use the Classwork tab, which offers options like:

• Assignment
• Quiz Assignment
• Questions
• Material

These features aren't just for assignments—they're great for student engagement and getting to know your learners.

Assignment

You can use the “Assignment” option to share an “About Me Lapbook” project. This lets students showcase their uniqueness creatively.

Quiz Assignment

Create a Google Form Quiz in Classroom to gather important student information. You can ask questions from the lapbook or focus on learning needs.

I ask students about their strengths, areas for improvement, favorite school aspects, things they want to learn, and highlights from the previous year. In Google Classroom, access the “Responses” tab to view individual or compiled answers. You can also click the green spreadsheet button to organize all responses in one place. This helps you get to know your students and build community.

Question

I love using questions to encourage student interaction. You can use the question option, which requires students to answer before seeing others' responses, or post a question as a stream announcement. This helps students collaborate, build relationships, and lets you get to know them better.

Try using questions as a quick writing activity before your ELA block, as a morning warm-up, or as a calm way to end the day?

Try a question like, “What is one superpower you wish you had?” Easy, non-threatening questions are great to start the year. Avoid “What did you do this summer” type of questions, especially when many kids may have faced financial struggles or illness, particularly during this time.

Material

Use “Material” to share the syllabus and class rules. Create a Google Slides presentation and select “Make a Copy for Each Student” to have each student add a slide with a class rule. Compile their slides into a final rule slideshow. Alternatively, use “Students Can Edit” for a shared presentation where each student adds their own rule.

Of course, digital learning materials like Digital Toothy, Digital Spiral Math and ELA, Digital Spelling, and Digital Phonics Mats are perfect to share as assignments on Google Classroom. Once you're ready to start diving into content, check out those resources for your lucky little learners!