School-Home Connections: At-Home Learning Resources

The Science of Reading (SoR) refers to decades of research from education, cognitive science, and neuroscience on how the human brain learns to read. This research shows that reading is not a natural skill—it must be taught in a structured, systematic way.

Watch the video below to see an example of the Heggerty curriculum in a Lakeville Area Schools kindergarten classroom.

Learn more about the Heggerty curriculum from our teachers here.

One effective strategy for helping students learn the alphabet in sequence is to sing it using familiar nursery rhymes like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Old McDonald Had a Farm'. Singing the alphabet to these rhymes allows for intentional pausing, helping students see and hear each individual letter rather than blending them. When students sing the traditional version of the alphabet song, they often slur the letters L, M, N, O, and P. 

In the video below, you can watch a kindergarten teacher from Lakeville Area Schools guide students through the alphabet by pointing to each letter and incorporating intentional pauses while naming each letter in the alphabet.

View/Download the 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' version of the ABCs.

View/Download the 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm' version of the ABCs.

Watch the video below to learn about letter/sound correspondence. The instructor will go through the sound of each letter in the alphabet, as well as digraphs. Digraphs are two letters that go together to make one sound. 

Lakeville Area Schools is utilizing decodable books to help support emerging readers. Decodable books serve as a useful tool to help students solidify and generalize phonics skills to become fluent readers. They contain multiple examples of the words with the target pattern, and words and patterns previously taught. Once students have been taught explicitly what individual letters say, they are able to use that knowledge when reading a decodable book.

The free online decodable books featured in the flyer below serve as a valuable tool to reinforce and apply phonics skills, empowering students to become fluent readers.

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".

How Do I Support my Child with Becoming a Skilled Speller?

Lakeville Area Schools is using Sonday Essentials as a core resource for whole group phonics and word study instruction. This resource is aligned to grade level expectations outlined in the MN English Language Arts Academic Standards.

Sonday Essentials curriculum is an evidence-based resource aligned to best practices in foundational reading skills. Sonday Essentials provides multi-sensory, explicit instruction that is systematic and cumulative. This is important to ensure a consistent progression of
learning across the elementary grade levels.

Learn more and find resources to support your child become a skilled speller in the flyer below.

Foundational reading skills, such as word recognition and phonics, are essential
for reading success. Once those skills are mastered, readers can focus on
language comprehension. Learn more in the flyer below. 

View Full Page Download Flyer

Read Aloud Book List  Audio Book Information

Families READ Toolkit

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.

Bridges Math Family Update (June 2025): Summer Resources

Bridges Math Family Update (March 2025): Gain a deeper understanding of the Bridges curriculum. 

Bridges Math Family Update (October 2024): Learn more about how Bridges is structured and how your student will learn math this year. 

At-Home Math Activities

Watch the video below to learn more about the benefits of Bridges in Mathematics. 

It's wonderful to partner with you in supporting your child's mathematical journey this summer! To help build on the strong foundation they have developed with Bridges Math this year, we've compiled a collection of engaging online games. These activities are designed to be fun and reinforce key concepts, especially procedural fluency, in a playful way. We hope your child enjoys exploring them!

Each grade level will notice a welcome message when you navigate to the grade level of your choosing, similar to the grade level above

• K Summer Medley
• Grade 1 Summer Medley
• Grade 2 Summer Medley
• Grade 3 Summer Medley
• Grade 4 Summer Medley
• Grade 5 Summer Medley

Below the welcome message students will have choice options to select from.