School-Home Connections:

Lakeville Area Schools is introducing a new math curriculum called Bridges in Mathematics, 3rd Edition. Starting in the 2024-25 school year, it will be used in grades 4 and 5, with grades K-3 joining in the 2025-26 school year. 

This curriculum focuses on helping students develop strong math skills by using models to explain their thinking, solve problems and discuss ideas.

Learn more about how Bridges is structured and how your student will learn math this year in the Bridges Math Family Update.

At-Home Math Activities 

High-frequency words are words that show up often in text, such as "the" "and" and "it". These are different from sight words, which are recognized instantly without needing to sound them out. Most high-frequency words follow common phonics patterns, but some have unusual spellings, making them a bit harder for kids to learn.

Even tricky words have patterns that can help kids understand how they are spelled. For example, learning how to read the word "was" can help with words like "want" and "wash". Many high-frequency words can be taught within phonics lessons. This helps kids use their knowledge of sounds and letters to read more fluently. However, words that don't follow regular spelling rules, like "the" or "of" may need special attention and are often taught as "heart words".

 

This school year, Lakeville Area Schools has been continuing to implement the Heggerty Phonological Awareness Curriculum in grades K-1. This program helps students develop essential skills in identifying and working with sounds in words—a key foundation for successful reading in the future.

Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and work with the sounds in words, including recognizing rhymes, breaking words into syllables, and overall language awareness.

Phonemic Awareness is the skill of hearing, recognizing, and working with the individual sounds (called phonemes) that make up a word.