Planning for your Junior classes is its own kind of challenge. You’re working with a wider age range, shorter attention spans, and kids who learn best with their hands, not just their ears — all while trying to build a class a mentor can actually run without reinventing the wheel every week.
That’s exactly what Junior School curriculum on Curriculum Square is built for. Every class here was created by a homeschool parent who built it for their own co-op first — tested, loved, and ready to hand off to your mentors.
Here’s everything we offer for your youngest students, organized by type so you can find what your co-op needs.
For Your Very Youngest (Ages 4–6)
- Littles Class Template — Plan a full year of class for ages 4–6 in just 20 minutes a week. This customizable planner, paired with a live training, carries you through an entire year without the weekly scramble.
- The Playful Bookclub (ages 4–7) — An 8-month, theme-based book club pairing beautiful picture books with hands-on projects. Eight monthly themes, from Space Exploration to Farm Animals, follow the natural rhythm of the school year.
- All three of our Thematic Units below — Ancient Civilizations, Natural History, Explore! Deserts and Oceans, Insect Activity Unit Study Kit, and Wolf Activity Unit Study — work well for this age group too.
Book Clubs
- Grow a Forest Book Club (ages 11–12) — A 14-week, workbook-style manual that helps a mentor run a memorable book club for kids transitioning from Love of Learning into Scholar classes. Fill in your own books and projects ahead of time so you always know what’s next.
- Number the Stars Book Club (ages 10–15) — Discussion questions, hands-on activities, essay topics, and memorization quotes, all built around Number the Stars.
- Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry Book Club (ages 10–15) — The same trusted book club format, built around Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond Book Club (ages 10–15) — The same trusted book club format, built around The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
Thematic Units
Great for littles, and flexible enough to grow with your Junior classes:
- Ancient Civilizations Thematic Unit — Six weeks exploring history through hands-on crafts, including an Egyptian art project.
- Natural History Thematic Unit — Six weeks of museum-inspired learning, including a Packing Peanuts Art project.
- Explore! Deserts and Oceans Thematic Unit — Fourteen weeks of explorer-themed lessons, with a craft built into every single week.
- Insect Activity Unit Study Kit — Coloring, crafts, and dramatic play, including a bug hotel craft your class will love building together.
- Wolf Activity Unit Study Kit — Lapbooks and craft ideas woven right into the science content.
Scripts & Performance
- A Christmas Eve Journey Script — A heartwarming, funny Christmas play written for younger performers, since so few good kids’ plays exist in the public domain. Print as many scripts as your group needs, with one season’s performance rights included.
- Once Upon a Stage (ages 6–11) — An 18-week fairy tale theater curriculum blending crafts, STEM building, and performance — a great bridge between Junior School and Scholar classes.
Skill-Building Classes
- Junior Physics (ages 8–12) — 18 weeks of hands-on physics, built for co-op classrooms.
- World of Writing — A year-long, 28-week class using fun, engaging activities and lectures to inspire even the most reluctant writers to put pencil to paper.
- Game Builders (ages 8–12) — 28 weeks of game design that teaches logical thinking, diplomacy, and the art of reworking a creation until it’s better.
- Wealthy and Rad Jr. (ages 5–12) — A 14-lesson finance curriculum that makes money management genuinely fun, for families and groups alike.
- Outstanding Wizard Lessons (O.W.L.) (ages 11–12) — A 14-week wizard-school semester where Herbology, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy become real botany, coding, and logic.
- American Girls: A Walk Through History (ages 8–12) — Based on the characters Kaya, Felicity, Caroline, and Kirsten, this class explores each girl’s era through hands-on crafts, activities, and educational field trips. A proven crowd pleaser.
Bridging to Scholar
- Hodge Podge: A Transition Class (age 11) — A mixed bag of skills, on purpose. This class eases new Scholars into presentations and weekly writing before it’s a requirement, typically for 11-year-olds preparing for Scholar classes the following year.
- Land of the Free (ages 12+, adaptable for 9–12) — Not a gardening class: students learn the principles that support freedom by living the habits of a farmer.
Don’t see what you need? Our menu grows every season — reach out and tell us what your co-op is looking for.