19 complete school years, 684 weekly assignments, and the full teacher guide for every one of them. Plus the research paper underneath it and the packet we hand to principals. Nothing is a preview and nothing is behind a form.
Run it in your classroom, adapt it for your district, or read it purely to decide whether we know what we are doing. All three are the point. You owe us no report, no email and no account.
And if a year of this works, it will be because of the person who ran it, not the paper.
Six school years of discrete mathematics, Grades 1 to 6. One assignment a week, two pages, sequenced against the California pacing guide so each week lands near the standard the class is already teaching. Each year stands alone: starting at Grade 5 leaves nothing missing.
Grade 1MathematicsPublished
What Goes Together
Sort it: things go together for a reason, and you can say the reason.
36 weekly assignments, two pages each, plus a contents spread and a certificate. Sequenced against a typical California Grade 1 pacing guide and proofed in grayscale so it prints on a classroom copier.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
Answer keys for the main activity, the practice set and the Challenge Zone, plus a running note and the standards tie for every week. Written so a teacher needs no prior background in the mathematics. A script that ships with the source checks the answers against the problems as printed, 249 checks in all.
Grade 2MathematicsPublished
Things Worth Noticing
See it: these objects exist, and they are interesting.
36 weekly assignments, two pages each, plus a contents spread and a certificate. Sequenced against a typical California Grade 2 pacing guide and proofed in grayscale so it prints on a classroom copier.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
Answer keys for the main activity, the practice set and the Challenge Zone, plus a running note and the standards tie for every week. Written so a teacher needs no prior background in the mathematics. A script that ships with the source checks the answers against the problems as printed, 231 checks in all.
Grade 3MathematicsPublished
Count Every Way
Count it: there is a system, and a reason you missed nothing.
36 weekly assignments, two pages each, plus a contents spread and a certificate. Sequenced against a typical California Grade 3 pacing guide and proofed in grayscale so it prints on a classroom copier.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
Answer keys for the main activity, the practice set and the Challenge Zone, plus a running note and the standards tie for every week. Written so a teacher needs no prior background in the mathematics. A script that ships with the source checks the answers against the problems as printed, 324 checks in all.
Grade 4MathematicsPublished
It Cannot Be Done
Rule it out: an invariant proves a thing impossible without checking every case.
36 weekly assignments, two pages each, plus a contents spread and a certificate. Sequenced against a typical California Grade 4 pacing guide and proofed in grayscale so it prints on a classroom copier.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
Answer keys for the main activity, the practice set and the Challenge Zone, plus a running note and the standards tie for every week. Written so a teacher needs no prior background in the mathematics. A script that ships with the source checks the answers against the problems as printed, 539 checks in all.
Grade 5MathematicsPublished
The Best Way
Cost it: a method has a price in steps, and prices can be compared.
36 weekly assignments, two pages each, plus a contents spread and a certificate. Sequenced against a typical California Grade 5 pacing guide and proofed in grayscale so it prints on a classroom copier.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
Answer keys for the main activity, the practice set and the Challenge Zone, plus a running note and the standards tie for every week. Written so a teacher needs no prior background in the mathematics. A script that ships with the source checks the answers against the problems as printed, 430 checks in all.
Grade 6MathematicsPublished
Find the Rule
Generalize it: a pattern becomes a rule with a letter, and then the rule gets proved.
36 weekly assignments, two pages each, plus a contents spread and a certificate. Sequenced against a typical California Grade 6 pacing guide and proofed in grayscale so it prints on a classroom copier.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
Answer keys for the main activity, the practice set and the Challenge Zone, plus a running note and the standards tie for every week. Written so a teacher needs no prior background in the mathematics. A script that ships with the source checks the answers against the problems as printed, 458 checks in all.
Science
6 school years, published and free
Six school years, Grades 1 to 6, complete. Looking and listening, then the land and what things are made of, then causes, where energy goes, what is too small or too far to see, and systems from a cell to the climate, with materials a classroom mostly already has and every step printable in black and white.
Grade 1SciencePublished
Look and Listen
Look closely and listen carefully: what the parts of plants and animals do, what makes a sound, what light does, and what the sky does again and again.
36 weekly investigations, two pages each: plants and animals and the parts that help them, sound, light and shadows, then the sun, the moon and the stars. Each page 1 has one sentence a six-year-old reads alone, and an adult reads the rest aloud. Every table of results is labeled as practice data.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 106 of them checked by a script that ships with the source: every number is recomputed from the practice data, and every worded answer is held to its expected wording. A second script checks every sentence a child reads alone against a first-grade word list.
Grade 2SciencePublished
Look Closer
Look closer, then look again: what land and things are made of, how they change, and what lives where.
36 weekly investigations, two pages each: land and water and how to map them, what things are made of and how heating and cooling change them, how wind and water change the land, then what plants need and what lives where. Every table of results is labeled as practice data.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 143 of them checked by a script that ships with the source: every number is recomputed from the practice data, and every worded answer is held to its expected wording. The same script checks that every fair test changes exactly one thing.
Grade 3SciencePublished
What Made That Happen?
Every change has a cause, and a fair test, changing one thing at a time, is how you find it.
36 weekly investigations, two pages each, in the order the California Science Framework gives for Grade 3: forces, life cycles, habitats and fossils, then weather. Every investigation uses things a classroom or a kitchen already has, and every table of results is labeled as practice data so a class knows its own numbers are the real ones.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 142 of them checked by a script that ships with the source: every number is recomputed from the practice data, and every worded answer is held to its expected wording. The same script checks that every table the book calls a fair test changes exactly one thing.
Grade 4SciencePublished
Where Did It Go?
Energy is never used up: it moves from one thing to another and changes form, and every week follows it.
36 weekly investigations, two pages each, in the order the California Science Framework gives for Grade 4: speed and collisions, energy and where it comes from, landscapes, waves and earthquakes, then senses, light and signals. Most materials are already in a classroom or a kitchen, and the teacher guide lists the few to gather. Every table of results is labeled as practice data.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 129 of them checked by a script that ships with the source: every number is recomputed from the practice data, and every worded answer is held to its expected wording. The same script checks that every fair test changes exactly one thing, and that no page of the workbook says energy is used up.
Grade 5SciencePublished
Too Small to See
Reason about what you cannot see: particles too small, and stars too far, each known by its evidence.
36 weekly investigations, two pages each, in the order the California Science Framework gives for Grade 5: what matter is made of, how matter and energy move through living things, Earth's systems and its water, then shadows, day and night, and the stars. Nothing is ever tasted, and every table of results is labeled as practice data except one page of real estimates of Earth's water.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 140 of them checked by a script that ships with the source: every number is recomputed from the practice data, and every worded answer is held to its expected wording. The same script checks that every fair test changes exactly one thing, and that no page of the workbook tells a child to taste anything.
Grade 6SciencePublished
Inside the System
Everything is a system of smaller systems: its parts, what flows between them, and what changes when one part does.
36 weekly investigations, two pages each, in the order of California's Grade 6 integrated science: systems from a cell to the body, heat and the weather, regional climates and the living things they shape, then a warming world and a design project to measure and reduce one human impact near school. Temperatures are in degrees Celsius, and every table of results is labeled as practice data.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 146 of them checked by a script that ships with the source: the 115 that come from a page’s numbers are recomputed from the practice data, and the 31 worded answers are held to their sample wording. The same script checks that every fair test, and every version of the week 35 design, changes exactly one thing.
Entrepreneurship
3 school years, published and free
Three school years, Grades 4 to 6. One student, one product and one market day in the first year. Then teams with a written profit split, a forecast made before anything is sold, and finally a rival pricing against you in the open.
Grade 4EntrepreneurshipPublished
The Venture Year
One student, one product, one market day, and an honest answer about whether it made a profit.
36 weekly assignments in entrepreneurship, two pages each. Students find a real problem, design something that fixes it, work out cost and price, and sell it at a class market day in week 31. Real products and real customers, on play money in a closed classroom economy, so students run their own money box.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, every arithmetic answer, the specific wrong turn each week produces, and an honest note wherever a question is a judgment call rather than something with a right answer.
Grade 5EntrepreneurshipPublished
The Numbers Year
Write the forecast before you sell anything, then find out whether the change did anything.
36 weekly assignments, the second entrepreneurship year. Teams of two or three build a line of products, write a forecast before selling anything, sell twice with one deliberate change in between, and find out whether the change did anything. Decimals, margin and break-even throughout.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
Every arithmetic answer, the point of each week, and the specific wrong turn it produces. Every numeric answer is recomputed from the problems by a script that ships with the source.
Grade 6EntrepreneurshipPublished
The Market Year
Two teams, one category, and a price each of them has to defend against the other.
36 weekly assignments, the third and last elementary entrepreneurship year. Teams are given a category another team also has, choose a position, and price against a rival. Two selling rounds with a response round in between, where every team sees every other team’s numbers and moves at the same time.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every numeric answer. All 176 of them are recomputed from the problems by a script that ships with the source and fails if any answer goes unchecked. Where a question is a judgment call, and this year has many, the guide says so rather than inventing something to mark against.
Financial literacy
4 school years, published and free
Four school years, Grades 3 to 6. A child's own money first, then a plan, then the difference between what a thing costs once and what it keeps costing, then the numbers other people put in front of them and how to check one.
Grade 3Financial literacyPublished
The Choosing Year
There is enough for one of two things, and every choice costs you the other.
36 weekly assignments about a student’s own money. There is enough for one of two things, and every choice costs them the other. Counting, comparing prices, a ledger kept for a month, saving that takes longer than expected, and what a thing costs in hours rather than dollars. Nothing is sold in it.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every numeric answer, all 236 of them recomputed from the problems by a script that ships with the source. No page asks a child what anything costs at their house, and the guide says what to do if one volunteers an amount anyway.
Grade 4Financial literacyPublished
The Planning Year
Decide before you spend rather than while you are spending.
36 weekly assignments about deciding before you spend rather than while you are spending. Money to the cent, a plan with categories that add up, and the record kept beside it that says what really happened. The repeating costs get multiplied out, and the year ends by asking whether the plan itself was right, which is a different question from whether it was kept.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 249 of them: the 243 with a single right answer are rechecked by a script that ships with the source, and the 6 that are the student’s own are named as such. No plan a student writes is marked right or wrong: what can be marked is whether it adds up, and the guide says so on every week that asks for one.
Grade 5Financial literacyPublished
The Keeping Year
A price is what you pay once. A cost is what it keeps costing.
36 weekly assignments on the difference between a price and a cost. What a thing costs to keep, what it costs each time you use it, and the month where the cheaper option stops being cheaper. The second half is money with other people: splitting a cost in fractions that have to add up, owing and being owed, and writing an agreement down before it is needed.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 258 of them: 230 are recomputed from the problems by a script that ships with the source, 9 are checked against the page’s own words, and 19 are named as the student’s own. No decision a student writes is marked right or wrong: what can be marked is the arithmetic inside it, and the guide says so on every week that asks for one.
Grade 6Financial literacyPublished
The Asking Year
The numbers other people put in front of you, and what would have to be true for them to hold.
36 weekly assignments on the numbers other people put in front of you. Percent done properly first, because a student who cannot find twenty percent of a price cannot check anything, then what a percent is a percent OF, what "up to" guarantees, why two discounts in a row do not add, and how the same money looks in two frames. The last trimester is the asking itself: what would have to be true, who benefits from yes, and what to do when a claim cannot be checked.
Workbook: PDF · 77 pages. Guide: Web page · all 36 weeks.
The point of each week, the specific wrong turn it produces, and every answer, all 338 of them: the 332 with a single right answer are rechecked by a script that ships with the source, and the 6 that are the student’s own are named as such. Half this year is claims rather than sums, and where a question has no single right answer the guide says so and says what a good answer contains. Nothing in the book accuses anybody of dishonesty and the guide says that too.
Not books
the argument, and the packet
The research case
Structure Before Fluency
PDF · working paper · 10 pages
The case for discrete mathematics as early-elementary enrichment: the literature, the standards argument, the equity case, plus an explicit account of what the evidence does not support, including the absence of any efficacy trial at this grade.
What a principal needs to decide: the one-pager, what a pilot involves, the full standards crosswalk, the cost sheet, and a complete sample week reproduced exactly as a student receives it.
A curriculum you cannot read is a claim you have to take on trust. Publishing the whole thing, including the answer key and the research caveats, is the fastest way to show a teacher, a principal or a funder exactly what they would be getting.
It also means a school that never talks to us can still run the program. That is a feature, not a leak.
Using these materials
Teachers and schools may print, copy and use everything here at no cost. Attribution is appreciated but not required. We would rather it get used.
If you adapt it for another grade or another district, we would genuinely like to hear how it went, including if it did not work.
Assessment instruments and a teacher training deck next. Then these 684 weeks split into single downloadable assignments, so trying one costs a teacher an afternoon instead of a year. Science is complete for Grades 1 to 6. The upper-grade enterprise material is further out, and we would rather say that than imply they are nearly done.
Nothing here has been taught start to finish in a classroom yet, and none of it carries an outcome claim, because there is no cohort to draw one from. What you can check today is whether the material is any good, which is the whole reason it is all sitting here in the open.