I’m a big fan of Core Knowledge’s dozens of student readers, free as pdf downloads. But the materials are harder to use (at least for homeschoolers) at the preschool and kindergarten levels. Earlier I compiled relevant preschool materials; see my related post. Here I’ll walk you through the kindergarten materials and include relevant links to Core Knowledge. See also my post on materials for grades 1–8.
I have also collected 108 Core Knowledge student books and readers for all levels, including a preschool compilation, not including workbooks and other materials. (These are all Creative Commons.) I’ve put a zipped file of this content on DropBox; you’re welcome to download it.
History & Geography and Science
I’ll start with the History & Geography and Science. Each unit includes a lengthy teacher’s guide as well as “student book,” which I find particularly useful and to which I’ll directly link. A given unit might also include other materials that I regard as less useful.
Let’s Explore Our World! | Student Book (pdf)
Native Americans | Student Book (pdf)
Exploring and Moving to America | Student Book (pdf)
The Mount Rushmore Presidents | Student Book (pdf)
Pushes and Pulls | Student Book (pdf)
Needs of Plants and Animals | Student Book (pdf)
Changing Environments | Student Book (pdf)
Weather Patterns | Student Book (pdf)
Language Arts
The “Assessment and Remediation” guides linked below contain some great worksheets and read-aloud materials as well as a lot of instruction for teachers. The “Big Book” focuses on reading. The “Skills” books contain worksheets that you might want to print out—these are really good. The “readers” should work great with a Kindle or comparable device (or printed out). I omitted the “Big Books” for units 6–8 because they’re redundant for the “readers” (oddly).
Unit 1 Skills | Skills (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 2 Skills | Skills (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 3 Skills | Skills (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 4 Pet Fun | Skills (pdf) | Big Book (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 5 Ox and Man | Skills (pdf) | Big Book (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 6 Kit | Skills (pdf) | Reader (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 7 Seth | Skills (pdf) | Reader (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 8 Sam | Skills (pdf) | Reader (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 9 Zack | Skills (pdf) | Reader (pdf) | Remediation (pdf)
Unit 10 Scott | Skills (pdf) | Reader (pdf)
Domain Materials
A dozen units are called “domains” (I’m not sure why). I find this material difficult to use in a homeschool environment because it is split between very-long teachers’ guides and sets of “image cards” and “flip books” that students are supposed to look at as a teacher discusses them.
Honestly, the best way (that I know) to get (much of) the relevant Core Knowledge materials in these areas is to buy or borrow E. D. Hirsch’s What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know (paid link).
If you do want to use the teachers’ guides in conjunction with the image cards and flip books, following are the relevant links.