General Information:
On the front lobby door, we regularly put up posters of our school closure dates, menu’s, dress up and themes in for summer-time, party days and sign ups, as well as occasionally some community information. Please regularly check the doors. We also send out an email every Friday with new information.
Once you turn in your enrollment packet, you will receive an email from Procare, which is an app that we use for many things! Procare has a messaging feature so you can send messages directly to staff members. Messages go to all staff members, which is wonderful because then someone will see the message! However, if there is ever any sensitive information that you would like to share with us, we recommend sending an email to Katie or Ali (katie@safarilearning.com and ali@safarilearning.com), calling into the office directly, or catching one of us at drop off or pick up.
Procare includes all of our tuition information. We bill out tuition on the 1st of each month, the bill is due on the 5th. If you chose to purchase meals (breakfast and lunches at $3.50 each) we will keep a running tally and bill at the end of the month.
Our front lobby has our lost and found. We ask that if you’re missing a jacket, hat, bow, socks, etc, to check the lost and found first. If you label your child’s belongings with their name, things will not end up in lost and found, but will stay on their individual hook. We do donate every few months, as we get quite a collection over the winter months.
We are a locked down facility. All exterior doors are controlled by teacher key fobs to be able to enter. Exits do push open for fire hazards, but exterior doors sound off alarms so little hands do not push them open! We also have cameras in the common spaces and classrooms throughout the school! This is accessible from an app separate from Procare. Login information will be sent for the cameras on your child’s first day of school. We change password information every few months, especially during large enrollment periods.
All of our programs try to play outside as much as possible, even if there is a bit of rain or snow, so please always send your child in weather appropriate clothes. Infants do not have scheduled outside time, but when the weather is nice, they try to get outside in between the other groups.
Please look for further details in our admissions agreement (provided in the enrollment packet) and Parent Handbook (given once enrollment fee is paid), which includes more specific information, including our illness, COVID-19, and behavior policies.
Below is information more specific to age groups, so some information may not apply to your student.
Infant Information
Our infant program has just 1 classroom. We follow California State Licensing requirements for teacher to student ratio of 1 teacher per 4 students.
Any artwork and class projects will be brought out to the lobby at the end of your infant’s day.
Classroom Schedule
You will be provided with an infant sleeping and eating plan. On these forms you will share any routines and schedules your infant follows. We like to mimic your home schedule the best that we can, so that your infant has the easiest time transitioning as possible. Infants grow and develop quickly, so please inform us when there are any changes in your infants abilities and/or schedules.
Academics
We start early exposure to academics in the infant room! Especially for our older infants, we want to engage them as much as possible, so we start some light and fun academic activities with them! We also love to incorporate music into the classroom whenever we can. We love to do fun art projects as well as fine motor activities with the infants that are able to sit upright.
Lunch & Snack Time
You will provide all food for your infant. We have a mini fridge in the classroom that we can store breast milk (frozen or thawed) or a half gallon of regular milk. We have storage space for formula, as well as space to store snack foods. (Puffs, yogurt melts, cereal bars, pouches, etc) For infants that are eating solid foods, you may bring a lunchbox to keep all food fresh. We do not have the ability to heat up any food brought from home, all foods must be able to be pulled out directly from their lunches to enjoy and cannot be refrigerated nor heated up by us. When sending packed food, please make sure high choking hazardous foods (grapes, carrots, hot dogs, etc.) are cut up in small pieces for your infant to safely eat at school. We also ask that food brought in are only brought in plastic containers, glass can easily fall and break, so we do not allow glass jars or containers to come from home.
If your child has an allergy, there is a form that will need to be filled out and brought back to the school. Your child’s name and what their allergy is will be added to a list we have posted in our lunch room, classrooms, as well as the kitchen. However, there is very little risk for contamination, as infants are only served what you pack.
We have all our own bowls, spoons, forks, bibs, placemats, etc so you do not need to provide utensils for us to feed in the infant room.
We do ask that you provide any bottles that your child may need throughout the day to keep at the facility. We recommend at least 1 bottle per feeding they have each day. We wash and sanitize the bottles each day
Nap Time (For full days only)
Your child will get their own crib and mattress for nap time. The crib they use that day will be labeled with their name. The crib sheet will be stripped and washed daily, and the mattress will be sanitized daily.
We follow all safe sleep practices, so we only place the infant in the crib on their back. The infant can only have themselves, a wearable sleep sack (NOT a swaddle), and a pacifier without a clip. Infants cannot sleep in the crib with blankets or lovies. An infant that falls asleep outside of the crib will be transferred within 15 minutes. We physically walk into the nap room every 15 minutes to visually check on the sleeping infants.
We would also like to get some tips on how your child goes to sleep at home so we can use them here. For example: do you rock your child to sleep or do they put themselves to sleep? If they use a pacifier, we would like to keep one in their cubby for them. You will also put this information into your infant sleeping plan, but we ask that you communicate any changes with us as often as you can.
We do not enforce a particular sleeping schedule for any of our infants, but as they get closer to moving to the toddler program at 18 months of age, we encourage them to switch to a 1 nap schedule so that they can start practicing the schedule our toddlers follow!
Child’s Personal Diaper Bin / Clothes Etc.
- What you will need:
- 2 fitted crib sheets
- Sleep sack
- Pacifiers
- 3-4 bottles
- Change of clothes
- Diaper cream
- Diaper bin
- Diapers
- Wipes
- Blanket (if needed for snuggles)
- Milk (breast milk, formula, or whole cows milk)
Toddler Information
Our toddler program has 3 toddler classrooms. We follow California State Licensing requirements for teacher to student ratio of 1 teacher per 6 students. We separate our groups of toddlers based on age first, and ability level (both academically, social/emotionally and potty training readiness) once we get to know your student as an individual better. Below is a sample schedule for our one of our toddler groups, but your students specific schedule might be a tad different! As your toddler gets older we will work on potty training, as all students must be potty trained before moving to our preschool program.
All artwork and class projects will be put into the art bins that are kept in the toddler area. Your child will bring their artwork out each week!
Classroom Schedule (to be adjusted as necessary)
8:00-8:45 am: Check diapers/Outside play time
8:45-9:30 am: Circle Time/Zoo-Phonics/Dancing/ Diaper changes
9:30-10:00 am: Snack
10:00-10:45 am: Outside play time
10:45-11:30 am: Art/Science/Diaper changes
11:30-12:00 pm: Lunch
12:00-12:30 pm: Diaper changes/settle for nap time
12:30-2:30 pm: Nap time
2:30-3:00 pm: Diaper changes
3:00-3:30 pm: Snack
3:30-4:30 pm: Outside playtime
4:30-5:00 pm: Diaper changes
Circle Time/Academics
We start our day with circle time once we come in from outside play. We read a book that ties in with our Zoo-Phonics friend of the week. After reading our story, we review our Zoo-Phonics sounds and Signals with our Large Animal Alphabet Cards and introduce our Zoo-Phonics friend of the week. We do the pledge of allegiance, look at our calendar and go over the month, date, and year. We talk about the weather outside and what season we are in. The children trace the Zoo-Phonics friend of the week, teaching them the shape of the letter. We also go over our primary colors and find objects that match. Then we have a dance party before we go to snack.
Lunch & Snack Time
During snack time, we sit the children down at the table teaching them how to stay in their seats and eat their food on their own. We start with our “Thank You’s” and each child will have a sippy cup with water. If your child has an allergy, there is a form that will need to be filled out and brought back to the school. Your child’s name and what their allergy is will be added to a list we have posted in our lunch room, classrooms, as well as the kitchen.
You have an option of ordering “hot” lunch from us (for an additional fee of $3.50) or bringing a lunch for your child. We do not have the ability to heat up any food brought from home, all foods must be able to be pulled out directly from their lunches to enjoy and cannot be refrigerated nor heated up by us. When sending packed food, please make sure high choking hazardous foods (grapes, carrots, hot dogs, etc.) are cut up in small pieces for your toddler to safely eat at school. We also ask that foods brought in are only brought in plastic containers, glass can easily fall and break, so we do not allow glass containers to come from home.
If your child drinks milk with their lunch we would like for it to be in a sippy cup rather than a bottle. We are trying to transition our toddlers from using a bottle to using a sippy cup as they get older!
Nap Time (For full days only)
Your child will get their own mat for nap time and it will be kept in a bag with their name on it. The mat will be stripped of their sheet and sanitized at the end of their school week, and bedding washed.
You may provide a blanket for your child to sleep with. Along with washing your child’s sheet weekly, we also can wash any blanket provided if you would like us to. If you’d prefer to take your items home to wash, please let us know and we will have it prepared to be sent home with them on their last day of their school week. We ask that you return it the following week. Some toddlers may feel comfort in having the security of their own blanket.
We would also like to get some tips on how your child goes to sleep at home so we can use them here. For example: do you rock your child to sleep or do they put themselves to sleep? If they use a pacifier, we would like to keep one in their cubby for them.
The toddler’s nap time is from 12:30-2:30. We understand this might be a long time for some kids to stay asleep, but due to licensing, the kids have a mandatory nap time of 1 hour. Our toddlers typically need a good middle of the day nap, so it is not normally an issue. If the child does wake up early, we give them books to read and try to keep them entertained and as quiet as possible. We don’t want them to wake their sleeping friends.
Child’s Personal Diaper Bin / Clothes Etc.
What you will need:
- Wipes
- Diapers
- Diaper cream
- Extra clothes (Pants, shirts, socks, and shoes for any accidents)
- We switch the clothes out as the seasons change or if we notice the clothes are getting too small.
- If we have to change a child’s clothing due to being soiled, we will put them into a plastic bag and message you that there will be a “Blue Bag” to take home.
- We will send a restock message to you when your child is down to 5 diapers, asking you to please send more diapers.
- If your child is either in pull ups or you were planning to start them in pull ups, we have found the velcro side ones are easier to use. Using them will eliminate having to completely remove shoes, pants or tights when changing a little one.
- We ask that children wear comfortable clothes to school that can be played in and nothing that should not be painted in (or other arts and crafts, experiments, etc.) that could possibly get dirty while enjoying the fun of the day such as students do.
- Students need to wear closed toed shoes; crocs, Velcro sneakers, etc. We prefer students to not wear rainboots to school as they can be slippery on our surfaces and cumbersome to run in.
Preschool Information:
Our preschool program has 6 preschool classrooms. We follow California State Licensing requirements for teacher to student ratio of 1 teacher per 12 students. We separate our groups of preschoolers based on age first, and ability level (both academically and social/emotionally) once we get to know your student as an individual better. Our groups are on rotating schedules, so we never have more than 2 groups in one space (at the bathrooms, in the café for snacks and lunches, or outside). Below is a sample schedule for one of our groups, but your students specific schedule might be different! We require all preschool students to be fully potty trained before attending. Please let us know if your child is not yet potty trained and be sure to speak with administration for special approval, noting that there is an additional charge for non-potty trained children.
All artwork and class projects will be put into the art bins that are in the front lobby. Your child will have their own file that you can grab from each week!
Sample Schedule:
8:30 – 9:45 Class
9:45 – 9:50 Clean up
9:50 – 10:00 Potty
10:00 – 10:25 Outside
10:25 – 10:30 Clean up
10:30 – 11:00 Snack
11:00 – 11:45 Class
11:45 – 11:50 Clean up
11:50 – 12:00 Potty
12:00 – 12:25 Outside
12:25 – 12:30 Clean up
12:30 – 12:50 Lunch
12:50 – 12:55 Clean up
12:55 – 1:00 Last minute Potty’s/Straight to Zeke’s Room for Nap
1:00 – 2:30 Nap
Circle Time/Academics
We start our day with circle time once we come in from outside play. We read a book that ties in with our Zoo-Phonics friend of the week. After reading our story, we review our Zoo-Phonics sounds and Signals with our Large Animal Alphabet Cards and introduce our Zoo-Phonics friend of the week. We do the pledge of allegiance, look at our calendar and go over the month, date, and year. We talk about the weather outside and what season we are in. The children trace the Zoo-Phonics friend of the week, teaching them the shape of the letter. We also go over our primary colors and find objects that match. Then we have a dance party before we go to snack.
Lunch & Snack Time
During snack time, we sit the children down at the table teaching them how to stay in their seats and eat their food on their own. We start with our “Thank You’s” and each child will have a cup with water. Snacks are included in tuition. If your child has an allergy, there is a form that will need to be filled out and brought back to the school. Your child’s name and what their allergy is will be added to a list we have posted in our lunchroom, classrooms, as well as the kitchen.
You have an option of ordering “hot” lunch from us (for an additional fee of $3.50) or bringing a lunch for your child. We do not have the ability to heat up any food brought from home, so all foods must be able to be pulled out directly from their lunches to enjoy and cannot be refrigerated nor heated up by us. We also ask that foods brought in are only brought in plastic containers, glass can easily fall and break, so we do not allow glass containers to come from home.
While lunchboxes are welcome, we ask that backpacks are left at home. Our preschool doesn’t have a lot of storage space so we just do not have the ability to store backpacks.
Nap Time (For full days only)
Your child will get their own mat for nap time and it will be kept in a bag with their name on it. The mat will be stripped of their sheet and sanitized at the end of their school week as well as bedding washed. You may provide a blanket for your child to sleep with as long as they are compact in size due to limited storage abilities.
Nap time is from 1:00 – 2:30. We understand this might be a long time for some kids to rest, but due to licensing, the kids have a mandatory nap time of 1 hour. Students of preschool age typically need a good middle of the day nap, so it is not normally an issue. If the child does wake up early (or doesn’t even fall asleep) prior to 2:30, we give them books to read and try to keep them entertained and as quiet as possible. We don’t want them to wake their sleeping friends.
Child’s Personal Storage Bin / Bathroom Routine / Dress Code
What you will need:
- A shoe box size bin of extra clothes (Pants, shirts, socks, and shoes for any accidents)
- We switch the clothes out as the seasons change or if we notice the clothes are getting too small.
- If we have to change a child’s clothing due to being soiled, we will put them into a plastic bag and message you that there will be a “Blue Bag” to take home.
- We will send a restock message to you when your child is out of an item.
- We ask that children wear comfortable clothes to school that can be played in and nothing that should not be painted in (or other arts and crafts, experiments, etc.) that could possibly get dirty while enjoying the fun of the day such as students do.
- Students need to wear closed toed shoes; crocs, Velcro sneakers, etc. We prefer students to not wear rainboots to school as they can be slippery on our surfaces and cumbersome to run in.