Core Knowledge Language Arts®
A comprehensive Preschool–Grade 5 program for teaching skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, Core Knowledge Language Arts® (CKLA®) also builds students’ knowledge and vocabulary in literature, history, geography, and science.
- Research Background: Read about the research on teaching and learning that informed the development of CKLA.
- Program Design: For detailed information on CKLA goals, materials, and implementation, please read the program descriptions for the specific grade levels listed below.
- CKLA FAQ: Browse the Frequently Asked Questions specifically related to Core Knowledge Language Arts in Preschool and K-5.
Free Downloadable Resources
For Preschool to Grade 3, all Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum materials are available for free download except for certain trade book titles. For Grades 4 and 5, several CKLA units are available for free download while others are not due to copyright restrictions. Please review the Terms of Use for free materials.
Download Free CKLA Materials
Enrich CKLA with CKHG
Enrich your CKLA lessons with resources from our Core Knowledge History and Geography™ (CKHG) program. Check out the many additional activities in the CKHG Teacher Guides for grades 3-5. You’ll find virtual field trips, online videos, literature and art connections, and more that you can use to reinforce the CKLA History domains.
Enrich CKLA with CKHGPurchase Printed Materials
In addition to free downloads, professionally printed and packaged CKLA classroom kits are available for purchase. Please note that CKLA materials available for free download are first editions, while CKLA materials available for purchase through Amplify are revised editions.
Purchase Classroom KitsImplementing CKLA
The Core Knowledge Language Arts program provides the tools and resources you’ll need to implement Core Knowledge in your school, including an implementation guide with professional development opportunities, presentations and other useful resources.
Implement CKLACore Classics® Series
In our Core Classics® series, we present stories loved for generations in abridged versions for young readers, faithful to the style, plot, and themes of the originals. The texts support and reinforce knowledge from the CKLA curriculum.
Core Classics are suitable for reading aloud in the upper elementary grades. For middle school students and older, the texts are appropriate for independent reading.
Free Downloadable Teacher Guides
You may download free Teacher Guides to support classroom use of these Core Classics®:
- Don Quixote
- Gulliver’s Travels
- King Arthur and the Round Table
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Robin Hood
- Robinson Crusoe
- Sherlock Holmes
- Treasure Island
Terms of Use
The CKLA materials made available for download are freely available for anyone to use, adapt, and share (with attribution). No one is permitted to extract any images included in our PDF materials for use in any other way; to do so would be a violation of the agreements under which the images were licensed. No one is permitted to sell either the original program, an adaptation of it, or lesson plans that reproduce any part of it. For more information, see the Guidelines to Core Knowledge and the Creative Commons License.
