WHY CHOOSE CATHOLIC TEXTBOOKS?
Catholic schools deserve the best textbooks. With Catholic Textbook Project, you can bring balance, perspective, and hope back into the hearts and minds of your students—these are the only history textbooks written with the freedom for truth that Catholic schools enjoy. Our textbooks meet and exceed standards while educating and inspiring students with the great drama of our history.
NEW FOR 2027
Stories for Young
Historians
History and Social Studies Curriculum for Kindergarten to 3rd Grade
RAISING THE BAR FOR K–3
The early grades shape how children see the world and their place within it, yet most K–3 classrooms do not have a genuine history curriculum. Instead, they rely on social studies programs that break apart naturally integrated topics into “strands.”
We are pleased to announce the first K–3 curriculum that restores history to its rightful place as the setting where young learners first encounter the big ideas of social studies.
WE BELIEVE...
Children Are Wired for Story.
Stories are a child’s first language—their most natural medium for exploration and discovery. Through vivid narrative encounters with explorers, rulers, saints, and men and women who changed the world, the traditional strands of social studies become meaningful and memorable.
DESIGNED TO WORK TOGETHER
Three integrated components create one coherent learning experience.
READER
The Stories for Young Historians reader invites students into the story, which is the foundation for each lesson.
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Character-driven storytelling reveals virtue and vice
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Narrative chapters cover meaningful historical events
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Commissioned illustrations strengthen comprehension
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Custom maps and timelines connect each lesson
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Certified Lexile© progression supports growing readers
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Key vocabulary is introduced in context
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STUDENT COMPANION
The student companion reinforces and extends each lesson through purposeful skill-building and social studies exploration.
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Map and timeline skills and literacy development intentionally woven into the narrative
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Purposeful and varied activities move students from recall to understanding
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Social Studies Spotlights highlight relevant civics, culture, geography, and economics discussions
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Informational texts are engaging and leveled for shared and independent reading
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“Then and Now” features connect history to students’ own experience
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Glossary and reference tools build content fluency
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TEACHER MANUAL
The manual provides structure without rigidity and options without overwhelm, built for the realities of today’s classrooms.
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Three-step lesson design: Know It, Think About It, Express It
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Clear guidance for easy implementation
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Hands-on History and other classroom activities tied directly to the story
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Flexible pacing aligned to realistic instructional minutes
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Primary and secondary source explorations
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Digital portal with organized, chapter-specific resources
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HISTORICAL TIME PERIODS COVERED
Grade K
Connecting Our World
Kindergarten students discover the world through the lives of saints across the ages. As they explore cultures, communities, technology, and stewardship, they build geographic awareness and encounter models of virtue.
Grade 1
Exploring Ancient Times
From the dawn of history through the Roman Empire, 1st Grade students encounter the ancient world through the lives of key figures and formative civilizations.
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Grade 2
Journeying Across the Middle Ages
From the fall of Rome through the late Middle Ages, 2nd Grade students follow cultures and kingdoms as they grow, struggle, and respond to new challenges across centuries of change.
Grade 3
Bridging to the Modern World
Content advances into the Age of Exploration and the colonial period, showing 3rd Grade students how expanding trade, travel, and technology laid the foundation for the modern era.
THIS WAS WORTH THE WAIT
​From the beginning, Catholic Textbook Project has championed the insight that story is the most powerful way to teach history and that Christ is the central figure through whom that story is intelligible. Extending that approach into the earliest grades was natural and necessary.
With decades of experience serving Catholic schools, we have the vision and the team needed to thoughtfully unite time-honored educational wisdom with today’s scientific understanding of how young children learn best. This is the faithful, coherent foundation Catholic classrooms have been waiting for. Sign up to be notified when more information about this curriculum becomes available!
This has been our motivation from day one: to make sure that all children in Catholic schools are able to really encounter our Catholic cultural inheritance, the culture born and formed throughout the arc of history... Now, with our lower elementary materials, children will be able to joyfully grow in knowledge of this inheritance as they encounter the stories of the great people who helped shape history.
Michael Van Hecke, M.Ed.
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT
Our team will share updates as they become available. Fill out the form to let us know you want to hear more about this exciting release.
