The Core Knowledge Foundation Lesson Plans
http://www.coreknowledge.org/lesson-plans
Years Covered: K-8 (plus preschool; see my thread in the Lesson Plans forum.)
Lesson Plans/Schedules Included: A complete list of core subjects and topics is given for each year. There are many lesson plans for some topics, fewer for others, and none for some. Besides the lesson plans, you will need to download the content and skill guidelines file, and the Biblical literacy file if desired, from this page:
http://books.coreknowledge.org/home.php?cat=314
Distinguishing Features: These lessons were written for use in a Core Knowledge curriculum. The Core Knowledge Foundation has identified the basic pool of knowledge that is intrinsic to U.S. culture; it turns out that this pool of basic, necessary knowledge is not that large. Teachers are expected to add lessons relevant to local culture (state, city, etc.). So this is not a complete curriculum, but a checklist of basic knowledge with lesson plans, for you to expand as needed. The free lessons were written independently by educators working with the Core Knowledge curriculum, which is why you have a lot of choices for some topics and just the checklist of important knowledge for others. If you want to use this curriculum, you will need to write some lessons.
Additional Cost: Moderate if suggested books and CDs can be checked out and the necessary Core Knowledge and teacher-developed PDFs can be read from the monitor.
Gentle? The question doesn't arise.