Welcome to the Safari Kid Blog!

Visual Arts

Our students will be encouraged to express themselves creativity through hands-on experiences in which all senses will be engaged. The art that students create will often be an extension of the learning in other core disciplines, which will help them to process and internalize the learning in a meaningful way.

Critical Thinking

At Safari Kid we want our students to be able to rationalize with each other over a complex topic or idea and break it down into smaller parts that they can understand. Then they can analyze it in a way that helps them to solve the problem. This sort of mulling over a topic or problem is the key to having success in future academic and career adventures. It is the way society is able to progress and come up with solutions to everyday problems. Our critical thinking courses are designed with these goals in mind.

Public Speaking

Students who can express their ideas clearly and confidently are guaranteed to be more successful throughout their academic careers. By beginning to learn the communication skills associated with speaking well in public, our Safari Kid first graders will be well-prepared for their future. Having enough self-confidence to speak up in a group setting is a door-opener to endless opportunities.

Theater

Safari Kid understands that the benefits of drama in the elementary curriculum have been researched and cited in various studies. First graders will be building their self-confidence. It is often easier to be bold while playing a character. And this can in turn ignite a confidence within. Taking risks and performing in front of others, even if it is just reading lines aloud, offers a trust building experience for students, which in turn also builds their self-esteem. Students in our drama course are required to communicate with one another, collaborate on ideas, and be creative. These are skills that will transfer over to all areas of our students’ academic lives. They will enjoy their time transforming into characters, while they unknowingly are also practicing important reading skills such as fluency and reading comprehension. Our drama course also teaches empathy. For how better to empathize, than to actually jump into the shoes of someone else?

Engineering

Our Safari Kid first graders will continue discovering the excitement of planning and building through our innovative engineering curriculum. Hands-on activities will challenge our students to think spatially and logically, empowering them to become problem solvers. Perhaps even more importantly, through the trials of engineering, values such as perseverance and determination will be naturally reinforced.

Computer Readiness

In Safari Kid’s Computer Readiness classes students will learn the basics of computers which will help them to access computers with more confidence. They will also learn to think logically. In today’s world of ever-growing technology, these are important skills to show command over.

Junior Leader

Research has found that leadership is not necessarily an innate quality. It can be taught; and there is no better time to teach leadership qualities, than when kids are at the start of their academic careers. By teaching our students the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of great leaders we are giving them the tools to become leaders themselves. Students in Safari Kid’s 1st Grade Junior Leader class will be engaged in activities that will invite them to build their character and encourage them to flex their leadership muscles. By learning about great leaders from the past we can show them the power for good that having good leadership skills can foster. Through it all, they will begin to see that they too are able to lead with confidence and make a positive change in the world.

Spanish

At Safari Kid we know that learning fluency in a new language is much easier to achieve when you are exposed to it from a young age. However, this is not the only reason why Spanish is included in the Grade 1 curriculum. There are also cognitive advantages such as increased creativity and problem-solving skills, not to mention the vocabulary and reading benefits. Students who are bilingual in Spanish generally have an easier time with vocabulary due to a connection found with Latin word roots. The connections that can be made to others of LatinX descent can also be rewarding. These are the present benefits but being bilingual will also translate into having greater opportunities for colleges and careers in the future.

Our students will continue to learn the basics of Spanish including phonics and letters, numbers, colors, shapes and more. They will also learn to speak conversational Spanish, so that when they are finished, they should be able to speak simple sentences, but with confidence.

Social Science

Safari Kid’s Grade 1 Social Science Curriculum will provide insight into the history of our world and shed light on the connection between the past and the present. Students will learn how to read maps and use them to help explore the continents of our world. They will learn about ancient civilizations and the countries that once were. They will learn about various religions and exotic festivals associated with them. And students will follow the lives of various explorers of America. By charting a clear map of our past, our students can forge boldly into the future to assist in creating their own rich history.

Science

In Safari Kid’s 1st Grade Science Curriculum children will continue to answer their natural questions about the world through observation and experimentation. Students will study the physical sciences, earth sciences, life sciences, and scientific principles of investigation and experimentation. The content will be presented in an engaging and memorable format in which students realize that science is often just about staying alert to what happens or what can happen as a result of some other action and making a note of it. Some of the topics that will be covered are Space Exploration, Plant and Animal Survival, Light Refraction and Sound Travel, Simple Machines, Human Systems.

Math

Safari Kid’s mathematics curriculum continues to provide a solid understanding of math concepts using engaging methods, hands-on manipulatives, and real-life examples that cleverly illustrate how math is useful in day-to-day life. Each math skill introduced will build upon the previous one taught as we introduce students to new concepts at a pace that ensures mastery. Our goal is to foster a positive attitude for learning math and set the students up for success for years to come. A command over the basics will provide the proper stepping-stones for the next level of mathematical principles.

Spelling

Research has shown a positive correlation between spelling growth and gains in reading comprehension, vocabulary growth, and writing. For this reason, the Safari Kid Grade 1 Curriculum includes an explicit plan for exemplary spelling development. Every week the children will master ten words through proven methods and have a spelling test on Friday.

Language Arts

The Safari Kid Language Arts curriculum lays the foundation for comprehending all other disciplines as it acts as a bridge between simple decoding to reading for knowledge. It continues to work on such reading strategies as phonemic and phonetic awareness, blending and segmenting, and the recall of spelling patterns, but also builds comprehension through activities such as read and illustrate, sequencing, and vocabulary building. All of this skill building helps our first-grade students transition from learning to read to reading to learn.

Visual Arts

Our students will be encouraged to express themselves creativity through hands-on experiences in which all senses will be engaged. The art that students create will often be an extension of the learning in other core disciplines, which will help them to process and internalize the learning in a meaningful way.

Engineering

Safari Kid Kindergarteners will discover the process of construction through our innovative engineering curriculum. Students will learn to investigate a problem, imagine a solution, and then design, create, and improve it. Our students will begin to see themselves as problem solvers and inherently learn such values as perseverance and determination.

Public Speaking

Students who can express their ideas clearly and confidently are guaranteed to be more successful throughout their academic careers. By beginning to learn the communication skills associated with speaking well in public, our Safari Kid Kindergarteners will be well-prepared for their future. Having enough self-confidence to speak up in a group setting is a door-opener to endless opportunities.

Spanish

Safari Kid understands that it is much easier for children to learn fluency in a new language if they start from a young age. It also provides cognitive advantages such as increased creativity and problem-solving skills. Children who are bilingual in Spanish generally have an easier time with vocabulary due to a greater understanding of Latin word roots, thus boosting their reading ability.

The benefits of learning Spanish range from increased reading skills and test scores now, to having greater opportunities for colleges and careers in the future. With an introduction to Spanish, our Kindergarteners are already brightening their future.

Handwriting

Safari Kid’s Kindergarten curriculum is research-based, and therefore we have studied the positive correlation between perfecting handwriting and overall reading development. When students practice their writing of letters, they are also practicing the way words are formed, the way letters create certain sounds when put together, and the way words are put together to form sentences. So, in addition to having legible writing, they are also reinforcing important reading and writing skills.

Drama

Safari Kid’s Drama curriculum provides another medium for practicing important Kindergarten reading skills and to have a blast doing it! In addition to the fun of role playing and acting, Safari Kid understands how to seize the opportunity for increasing fluency in reading and increased vocabulary development. The art of acting gives reading purpose and drives natural motivation from wanting to deliver a polished performance.

Computer Science

In Safari Kid’s Computer Readiness classes students will learn the basics of computers which will help them to access computers with more confidence. They will also learn to think logically. In today’s world of ever-growing technology, these are important skills to show command over.

Leadership

There is no better time to teach leadership qualities, than when kids are just beginning their academic careers. When we teach children the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of great leaders we are giving them the tools to become leaders themselves. We will show them the power for good that having good leadership skills can foster. Through goal setting, responsibility roles, and reflection they will begin to see that they too are able to lead with confidence and make a positive change in the world.

Social Science

With a clear understanding of the past, our students will better understand the present and take heed into the future. Safari Kid’s Social Science curriculum covers both world history and American history. It presents history as a series of stories about the actions of individuals and groups of people that can be analyzed and evaluated. Students will also learn about geography and utilize maps and globes in a way that will benefit future studies of the world.

Spelling

Research has shown a positive correlation between spelling growth and gains in reading comprehension, vocabulary growth, and writing. For this reason, the Safari Kid curriculum includes an explicit plan for exemplary spelling development.

Science

Safari Kid’s Kindergarten Science Curriculum encourages our student’s natural curiosity about the world around them and develops that into actual scientific observations and discoveries. Our kindergarteners will be introduced to the physical sciences, earth sciences, life sciences, and the scientific principles of investigation and experimentation through engaging stories and science books, hands-on experiments, and purposeful projects.

Language Arts

Students will delve into the craft of writing by analyzing the written word. Stories will be broken down to their simplest parts and studied so that the craft of writing also becomes simplified. Grammar rules will be introduced in a natural progression. Skills such as summarizing and comparing will be mastered in preparation for higher order skills such as inference and the synthesis of information.

Math

Safari Kid’s mathematics curriculum uses engaging methods such as hands-on manipulatives, and real-life examples that cleverly illustrate how math is useful in day-to-day life. By using a teaching sequence that builds upon itself, we introduce students to new concepts at a pace that ensures mastery and fosters a positive attitude toward learning math. Their command of the basics will provide the proper stepping-stones for the next level of mathematical principles.

Reading

At Safari Kid, we know that reading is the key to all other learning, so we make it our Kindergarten mission to master this skill. We begin with conquering phonetics and fluency and progress to higher order reading skills such as vocabulary retention and comprehension. Students will be eager to read our high interest fiction and non-fiction reading materials which are designed to educate as well as delight the reader.