Bridges in Mathematics is a comprehensive pre-K through grade 5 curriculum built from the ground up. Alignments to the Minnesota Academic Standards in Mathematics by grade level are found below.

To learn more about alignments to CCSS and other state standards, please visit Bridges Correlations & Alignments.

View the Scope and Sequence for each grade level to read more about how Bridges addresses these standards:

Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5

Bridges has been adopted in over 60,000 classrooms across the United States and internationally.

The Bridges in Mathematics classroom kit contains all the math manipulatives, game pieces, and activity components most classrooms need to implement the program.

To see the full set of materials, please see Bridges Classroom Package contents.

The Bridges Educator Site is an online platform designed to support implementation of the curriculum. Teachers will find resources and a professional community dedicated to supporting implementation.

Bridges blends direct instruction, structured investigation, and open exploration. Designed to develop a robust conceptual understanding of grade-level content, Bridges builds students’ learning experiences with approximately 80 minutes of math instruction each day.

Three core components shape these learning experiences: Problems & Investigations, Work Places, and Number Corner.

Bridges is built on a foundation of faithful visual models. Throughout the curriculum, models are used to help learners construct, understand, and apply mathematical ideas. Using these models, students are encouraged to represent problems and solutions in multiple ways. As students continuously return to the models throughout the year and across grade levels, they add new layers and depth to their conceptual understanding. 

Image

Image

Activities within and across grade levels are carefully sequenced to account for how elementary students make sense of and connect mathematical ideas and processes. For a more in-depth look at the visual models found in Bridges, review the PDF linked below.

Models in Bridges

Informal and formal assessments are woven throughout the Bridges units and Number Corner workouts. These range from tips to help teachers elicit student thinking to individual and small-group interviews and formal paper-and-pencil tasks. Each unit offers ongoing informal and formal observations, work samples, and several written assessments.

The Assessment Guide also helps teachers elicit and assess the eight mathematical practices through questioning and observations. A yearlong Assessment Map shows where and how each of the standards is assessed and where mastery is expected. This gives teachers the information they need to report to students and their families on their progress toward meeting each grading period’s standards.

Bridges’ visual models and flexible grouping offer students multiple entry points. The curriculum also supplies teachers the tools they need to differentiate the needs of their students authentically. Each unit introduction features a Differentiation Chart that indicates where teachers will find specific suggestions for challenges, support, and modifications for English Language Learner students.

Each lesson plan embeds additional professional learning to help teachers anticipate likely student responses and address common misconceptions, as well as suggestions for support and challenge. lesson plan embeds additional professional development to help teachers anticipate likely student responses and address common misconceptions, as well as suggestions for support and challenge.

The Math Learning Center (MLC) believes there are meaningful ways to integrate technology into elementary classrooms as a tool for exploring the structure of our number system, modeling operations, building procedural fluency, and problem solving. We take great care to ensure that the technology tools we create add significant instructional value for students and teachers, and that those tools are consistent with what we know about young students’ development.

To complement the physical manipulatives included in every Bridges classroom kit, MLC has developed a collection of digital display materials.

Image

MLC has also created a set of apps for web browsers and tablets . These apps provide virtual manipulatives designed to develop students’ conceptual understanding of the mathematics they are engaged in.

The Bridges Educator Site provides online resources to support implementation, including videos, an extensive professional development library, and timely tips and advice from Bridges classroom teachers. The site also offers district leaders, principals, and coaches resources to support implementation at the school or district level.

Tour the Bridges Educator Site

1. Welcome
2. Curriculum
3. Curriculum Updates
4. Digital Display Materials
5. Resources
6. Implementation

The Math Learning Center is committed to supporting the implementation of the Bridges curriculum. Adoptions of Bridges in Mathematics include a free two-day Getting Started workshop led by teachers who have used the program in their own classrooms.

Our facilitators work with your classroom teachers, unpacking the structure of the curriculum and exploring math practices in the contexts of the models and strategies.

After your Getting Started workshop, our curriculum consultants are available to provide extended support workshops for a fee. Email support for questions is available at no charge.

MLC also offers regional open workshops, online courses, an annual summer leadership institute, and live and recorded webinars designed to support schools and teachers at different points in their implementation of the curriculum.

A listing of available professional learning opportunities can be found on MLC’s website under PD Opportunities.

The cost of a classroom package is $1,500 per grade K–5 classroom and $1,200 per pre-K classroom. View purchasing information in The Math Learning Center Store .