LOS ANGELES - s4story -- LEAP (Leaders for Ethics, Animals, and the Planet) today opened applications for Wild Scouts, a free social-emotional learning (SEL) program for Kindergarten to 2nd grade that teaches kindness, empathy, belonging, teamwork and trust through the lives of wild elephants. The pilot runs from January to May 2027 and is open to 50 founding classrooms. Applications close December 1.

Wild Scouts is created in collaboration with the Save Our Species Alliance, SOSA. Blake Moynes is a wildlife conservation advocate and founder of Save Our Species Alliance (SOSA), an initiative that connects people with wildlife conservation through storytelling, community, and immersive, ethical conservation experiences. By collaborating with nonprofits working on the front lines of animal protection and habitat preservation, SOSA helps turn people's love for wildlife and wild places into meaningful action.

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The Wild Scouts pilot has eight lessons flexible enough to be incorporated into teachers' regular curriculum schedules. Each 35- to 40-minute lesson combines a short film shot with wild elephants by Moynes's SOSA, an illustrated slide deck teachers can teach from directly, a hands-on activity, a movement game, and a class promise. Every lesson names the CASEL competency it builds in the five core areas of social-emotional learning in their framework: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. These core skills help children understand their feelings, manage challenges, consider others' perspectives, build healthy relationships, and make thoughtful choices. Wild Scouts draws on this framework and extends opportunities to youth to practice empathy, respect, and responsible action toward animals and the natural world.

Through a unique partnership with Fahlo, each class follows one real wild elephant on the Fahlo tracker for the whole program. Fahlo connects people with wildlife through bracelets and plush animals that unlock interactive tracking experiences on an app, allowing users to follow a real animal's journey. Through partnerships with nonprofit conservation organizations, Fahlo supports wildlife protection while simultaneously inspiring curiosity, connection, and care for animals and their habitats. The map showing the wild elephant is deliberately delayed to protect the animal, which becomes one of the first lessons Wild Scouts students learn about caring for wildlife.

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To learn more about Wild Scouts, teachers, homeschool parents and administrators can apply HERE (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIRItogbR33mVY3lrxoAap1kUIGnIMkVyb1XgZWLFMRu4lIw/viewform?usp=send_form). More press materials are available upon request.