FREE Charlotte Mason Literature Curriculum

Reading. I have to say that it’s one of my favorite activities in the world. I’m one of those people who can’t stop themselves from reading cereal boxes, milk jugs, and anything else that has printed words on it. If you’re a Charlotte Mason fan, you know the emphasis placed on reading quality words (and cereal boxes and milk jugs generally don’t cut it!). 

Thankfully, there is a FREE Charlotte Mason literature curriculum available that teaches prose, poetry, and even Shakespeare for elementary. There are free parent guides that take you through the lesson material, which means you can teach Shakespeare even if you don’t remember reading him in high school!

FREE Charlotte Mason Poetry for Early Elementary:

How doth the little crocodile 
Improve his shining tail, 
And pour the waters of the Nile 
On every golden scale! 

How cheerfully he seems to grin 
How neatly spreads his claws, 
And welcomes little fishes in, 
With gently smiling jaws! 

Lewis Carroll

When you first think of teaching poetry to children, the task might seem overwhelming. But with the right poetry selections, learning poetry can be fun for kids! Who wouldn’t enjoy imagining the sneaky little crocodile of the Lewis Carroll poem quoted above? This fun poetry curriculum includes 40 weeks of poetry about nature, revelry, and rhyme by authors such as: 

• Lewis Carroll
• James Whitcomb Riley
• Mary Austin
• Eugene Field
• Robert Louis Stevenson
• Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• Abbie Farwell Brown
• Sara Teasdale

This poetry curriculum is designed for 2nd grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. It’s all available free online, and the handy lesson guide includes vocabulary, enrichment, and more. Click here for free poetry curriculum. 

FREE Charlotte Mason Poetry for Elementary:

The next level of poetry in this free Charlotte Mason curriculum takes kids a little deeper. It fits nicely in 36 weeks and includes lessons on metaphors, similes, and personification. Children can learn from some of the masters of poetry including: 

• Emily Dickinson
• Robert Frost
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Christina Rossetti
• Amy Lowell
• John Keats
• Walt Whitman
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning

This year of poetry is designed for 3rd grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. Like the earlier level highlighted above, it’s completely free and available online. There is also a teacher’s guide, printable pack, and more. Click here for free poetry curriculum. 

FREE Charlotte Mason Poetry for Upper Elementary:

Kids dig deeper into the beauty of language with this full year of poetry lessons focusing on literary devices including rhyming, alliteration, simile, metaphor, personification, foreshadowing, allusion, hyperbole, and onomatopoeia. They’ll read poems by: 

• Robert Browning
• Emily Dickinson
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Christina Rossetti
• Robert Frost
• and many more

This poetry curriculum is designed for 4th grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. It’s all available free online, and the handy teacher’s guide makes the curriculum easy to teach, even if you’re rusty on your metaphors and similes. Click here for free poetry curriculum. 

FREE Charlotte Mason Literature for Early Elementary:

Literature comes alive with this free 36-week Charlotte Mason literature curriculum. Kids can explore the incredible and even magical worlds of Pinocchio, Alice, and Dorothy with these children’s classics. There are optional features included with the lessons that enable the books to be read aloud while the text auto scrolls. These are beautiful, professional recordings, not the automated ones that sound like a computer voice. Kids will spend 12 weeks with each of the following classics: 

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Pinocchio

The handy lesson guide includes vocabulary, enrichment, and review questions. The entire curriculum is available free online. This literature curriculum is designed for 2nd grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. Click here for free literature curriculum.

FREE Charlotte Mason Literature for Elementary:

This 36-week literature curriculum focuses on stories of heroism, magic, and mysteries. Students travel throughout this world and beyond with books including: 

• The Hoosier Schoolmaster by Edward Eggleston (15 weeks)
• Stories from Don Quixote by James Baldwin (9 weeks)
• Kari the Elephant by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (3 weeks)
• Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie (9 weeks)
• The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (additional resource)

As with the early elementary literature curriculum above, these stories all include the option to have the books read aloud while the text auto scrolls. This literature curriculum is designed for 3rd grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. The teacher’s guide helps take the stress out of planning, and the entire curriculum is available free online. Click here for free literature curriculum.

FREE Charlotte Mason Literature for Upper Elementary:

This upper elementary literature curriculum transports readers around the world through stories of fantasy and lore. From ancient history to the not-so-distant past, students can enjoy the following works: 

• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (12 weeks)
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (5 weeks)
• King Arthur and His Knights by Maude Radford Warren (11 weeks)
• Old Greek Stories by James Baldwin (8 weeks)

This year of literature is designed for 4th grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. It’s all online and completely free. All stories include an option for the students to listen to the text as it’s read aloud and the text auto scrolls. There is also a teacher’s guide, printable pack, and more. Click here for free literature curriculum. 

FREE Charlotte Mason Shakespeare for Elementary:

I know what you’re thinking. Shakespeare is for high school literature, not elementary. Normally, you’d be right. But this Shakespeare curriculum is based on Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit. These Shakespeare classics are presented in a paraphrased, rewritten form that is appropriate for elementary students. The best part is that after they’ve been introduced to his work in elementary grades, tackling the original words in high school won’t seem nearly as impossible. This 36-week curriculum studies the following works: 

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Tempest
• As You Like It
• The Winter’s Tale
• Twelfth Night
• Much Ado About Nothing
• Cymbeline
• The Comedy of Errors
• The Merchant of Venice
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Measure for Measure
• All’s Well That Ends Well

This Charlotte Mason literature curriculum includes an option to have the material read aloud to the student while the text auto scrolls. The lesson guide includes a synopsis, vocabulary, enrichment, printables, and more. It’s all free and online. This literature curriculum is designed for 3rd grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. Click here for free Shakespeare curriculum. 

FREE Charlotte Mason Shakespeare for Upper Elementary:

Older elementary students can enjoy stories from Shakespeare thanks to the work of Edith Nesbit and this incredible curriculum. Each lesson includes an option to have the material read aloud to the student while the text auto scrolls. The lesson guide includes vocabulary, enrichment, printable props so students can build their own scenes, and more! In this 36-week course, students will study: 

• King Lear (3 weeks)
• Romeo and Juliet (3 weeks)
• Macbeth (3 weeks)
• Pericles (3 weeks)
• Hamlet (3 weeks)
• Timon of Athens (3 weeks)
• Othello (3 weeks)
• Two Gentlemen of Verona (3 weeks)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (3 weeks of story review followed by 9 weeks with more detail)

This year of literature is designed for 4th grade, but it is easily adapted for a wide range of ages. It’s all online and completely free. The lesson guide makes planning a breeze! Click here for free literature curriculum.