2016

Open HouseOur Vision:

“We believe that every child has gifts and

talents. We accept the challenge to find and

nurture those gifts and talents in every child.

We believe that each staff member has unique

gifts and talents. We accept the challenge to

find and nurture those gifts and talents in each

staff member.”

DID YOU KNOW that children who participatein high-quality early childhood programs tendto have higher scores on math and readingtests, less need for special education andother remedial coursework, lower dropoutrates and are better prepared to enterelementary school?

Preparation

is Key

Some activities includeOctober: Halloween bags for homeless kids

November: Thanksgiving Gift Cards for families in our own

school who could use help

December: New Shoe drive for homeless kids

February: Valentines for Kids in Hospitals

April: Project New Sock-Packs of socks for foster kids

June: Fill A Backpack Project, school supplies for migrant

kids

CREATING CARING CITIZENS

Our goal is to teach kids to have empathy toward

others.

School is modeled after Kids 4 Kids

www.kids4kids.org

Policies at Kids For Kids Academyo School Uniforms must be worn Monday – Thursday. The

uniform consists of a school Polo Shirt and your choice of other clothing. Open toe shoes are not permitted. School T-Shirts are permitted to be worn on Fridays. Students who come to school out of uniform will be given one and billed.

o Parents may pay weekly or monthlyo Weekly tuition is due the Friday before attending. A $25 late fee will

be applied to all accounts not paid by 6 pm Monday.

o Monthly payments are due on the first business day of the month and are considered late on the 3rd business day of the month.

o There will be a $25 fee for bounced checks.

o WE CANNOT HOLD CHECKS

o EFT is the preferred method of payment. All parents using EFT will be entered in a year end drawing and one lucky family will get a $100 tuition Credit! To enroll in EFT give us one check and we can enter the routing number into our system from then on, your account will be drafted every Monday.

Hours of Care

Half Day: 7:30 am -12:30 pm

Full Day: 7:30 am – 5:30 pm

Extended Day 7:00 am – 6:30 pm

(or any hours in between, $10 extra per week)

Please know the schedule you have signed up for. A fee of $5 per 15 minutes after your contracted end time will be automatically billed to your account by our timeclock system.

NON-Instructional Days

Keep in mind when Dade County Schools is

closed and we are open, we have camp

available for siblings in elementary school

for a charge of $36 per day.

Let the office know the day before if you

need a space for a sibling.

Kids For Kids Academy

Family Involvement Activities

• Monthly Parents Night Out: Babysitting

offered by our staff one Saturday a month

from 6:00 pm – 11:00 pm. $25 for the first

child, $15 for each additional child. (9/17)

• Family Story time: Join us once a month

at 7:00 to read stories and enjoy cookies

and milk. Come in your Jammies, take

home a free book. Check your calendar

for dates. (9/15)

Punching In

We use the timeclock to monitor the number

of meal to be served each day. Parents who

forget to punch in make it difficult to get an

accurate meal count. LifeCubby time is not

in sync with timeclock. Teachers sign in the

students into LifeCubby during Circle time.

If you have a sibling in the afterschool

program, be sure if they appear on the

screen that you choose the option for NOT

SIGNING IN for that child.

Florida Health Department and DCF Guidelines:

1. For the safety of all children, your child cannot attend school if their

immunization records or physicals are expired or not up to date. It is the

parent responsibility to know when these forms expire. As a courtesy we will

let you know before the forms expire. You child will not be permitted to attend

once the forms are expired so when you get the warning, please make your

doctors appointments immediately.

2. Outside food without a Dr. note is not permitted. The only exception is

special milk which requires a note from your doctor.

3. In order for your child to eat at our school, food forms must be resubmitted

every October. If you have not already filled on out, please do so ASAP

DCF REQUIREMENTS:Up to date physical and immunization records must be on file

at all times.

Parents must get new ones before they expire.

We will alert you prior to expiration. Please do not wait until

the last minute to call the doctor. If forms are expired,

students cannot attend.

Sippie cups must have waterproof labels on the top and

bottom. We can provide for $5

Pacifiers are not permitted after children have been in

attendance for 3 weeks.

KEEPING OUR STUDENTS HEALTHY• We remain vigilant on our commitment to keeping our

students and staff healthy.

• In addition to a rigorous cleaning campaign, nightly and

deep cleans on the weekend, it is imperative that sick

children not be sent to school.

• If your child comes to school and is sick, they will be sent to

the office where they will wait until you or someone whom

you have authorized comes to pick them up.

• Children sent home with a fever must be FEVER FREE for

24 hours before returning to school.

• Please do not give a sick child Tylenol or Motrin to reduce

the fever and send them to school. It is not fair to expose

our staff and other children in the room to a sick child.

• For more information on our Sick Policy, please refer to the

Parent Handbook in the back of our school calendar.

PARENT COMMUNICATION

• LIFE CUBBY: Teacher will put photos, video, and information about your

child. Photos and video clips can be downloaded to your computers or

shared via Facebook. If you have not gotten anything in your cubby, send

an email to bethdavis@kidsforkidsacademy.com or sign up with Delly or

Amanda and we will forward your request to the teacher to request a new

invitation be sent. Once you get an invite, you will be directed to log in.

• WEEKLY LETTERS: You will get a letter from the director each week on

Friday or Saturday.

• Read the weekly letter from your child’s class. Please be sure to read

the teacher letter as this is where they announce such things as student

of the week or other important class information

• You will find the weekly letters to be shorter than normal. Daily lesson

plans for all classes (Except Kindergarten and First Grade) are posted

daily in Life Cubby

• www.kidsforkidsacademy.com

Commitment to Raising

Healthy Children

Our Commitment To Reducing Childhood Obesity

In accordance with national health guidelines to prevent childhood

obesity, our school has taken a stand on raising awareness as well as

healthy children.

• Kids For Kids Academy has stopped serving juice as part of our snacks. We

serve fruit and water along with the afternoon snack. Although much more

expensive for the school, the benefits of keeping our students healthy remains

our number one priority.

• The school has gone further to prevent childhood obesity by providing high

quality fitness activities past running around on the playground. Such activities

include weekly soccer classes for children 2 ½ and up. These activities are at

no cost to our families as part of our commitment to raise physically healthy

children.

BIRTHDAY POLICY Sugar Free popsicles may be brought in for birthday celebrations.

The birthday child will wear a special birthday crown and the class will sing happy birthday. Another option is parents may prepare a “Friendship Fruit Salad” with a spoon of Cool Whip on the top where a candle can be placed.

The birthday child can visit the Birthday Treasure Box in the director’s office.

Goody bags can be put in MAILBOXES once approved by the director. No candy in bags. Other options include goldfish, fruit snacks, and trinkets. EVERY CHILD must get a bag or none at all.

NO BALLOONS (these pose a choking hazard) or decorations.

Hero Gym: Celebrate your child’s birthday with fun exercise and games at the Hero Gym. This is one way to have every child in the class invited to the party and there is no mess in your house. The Cost is $150 for the hour long event.

INVITATIONS: If EVERY child in the class is invited, you may put invitations in the mailboxes. If not, you may not. Our goal is that no child gets their feelings hurt if they are not invited.

Monthly Group In School

Birthday Option

Share the expense with other students

born in the same month and celebrate

at the end of the school day with the

whole class.

Healthy

Options

For Birthday Celebrations

At School

Find 400 more on our

website under healthy

initiative

CLASS DIRECTORIESMany parents have inquired about having information to plan birthdays and play

dates. Class directories with the following information will be available at the front

desk to those who request them.

• Child Name

• Parent Names

• Cell number

• Email addresses

• Birthdays

If you DO NOT wish your child to be included

in the class directory let someone know at the

front desk.

Ways to help our schoolSeptember: Yankee Candle/ Tupperware

fundraiser (to enhance our playground)

Thank you prize for fundraisers

The family who generates the most funds for

our school through Yankee Candle or

Tupperware fundraiser or a combination of

the 2 will receive a $100 tuition credit

Don’t wish to sell? Consider purchasing just

one item, sharing the link on Facebook, or

making a donation to our Playground

Enhancement Fund

December: Book Fairs to build our school library in December…Books make great gifts!

Box Tops, clip and save, win a free week tuition

Campbell’s Labels

Clip from all General Mills

Products

Take a photo of the card and keep it in your phone so you can show it at

the locations listed. If you don’t have a rewards number at Stapes, Best

Buy, Office Max or Kmart, use ours! Also at Office Depot and Max,

double the donation by giving the school ID and we get 5% back.

& Max

FREE TUITION

You are our best

advertisement.

Give cards to friends,

be sure you put your

name on the back of

the card.

If they enroll, you get

a $125 tuition credit

School Insurance GuidelinesAs part of your registration fees, your child is

covered on our student accident policy.

Children not registered at the school cannot be

on the premises for school functions.

Annual Events

Halloween Happening: October 27, Students rotate from room to room

participating in several activities. Send in a bag of candy (no peanuts) so your

child can decorate and fill a bag for a homeless child. They will also

participate in a Halloween Parade. Send in a bag of non-candy treats; rings,

stickers, mini play dough, pretzels, individually wrapped cookies, fruit snacks,

bubbles, etc. Students will also watch a Halloween video, cook and do crafts.

Parents invited, bring your cameras and come in costume…No toys or

weapons.

Thanksgiving Feast: November 18, Sign up to bring something and join us

for a feast

Book Fair: December

Career Day: March 14, Sign up to share your career with our students

Muffins with Mom May 5th: Moms, aunts, grandmas or special women are

invited to share a muffin and juice as we celebrate Mother’s Day 7:30 am-9:00

am

Doughnuts with Dad June 16: Dads, uncles, grandpas or other special men

are invited to have doughnuts and juice from 7:30 am- 9:00 am.

This is not insurance, it is a family discount plan for dental, vision, chiropractic, prescriptions and

more. It is a benefit we offer our staff and can also offer it to the families and friends from our

school. You can enroll everyone who lives in your house for as little as $24.95 a month. Click on

the link to learn more. We will share this with our families at open house next week as well.

https://bethdavis.savewithdiscounthealthcare.com/

Please rememberPlease do not send snacks or lunch with

your child unless they have a noted allergy

or religious dietary restrictions. Allow us to

offer our healthy nutritious meals to your

child.

Please do not send in candy or sugar

snacks, or toys. We do not permit them in

the school.

Things to Remember:

Parents are always welcome to come in and

volunteer. We can always use your help.

Please read our

Parent Handbook Carefully to further

understand our policies.

CLASS SCHEDULESGo to our school website and click on

classes to view your child’s class

schedule.

Times are approximate and may

change to allow for teachable moments

Phone Calls: Please remember that

although the phone is available to reach

your child’s teacher, daily calls take the

teacher away from the class. If you must

call, please wait to call until after the first

20 minutes of nap time.

Family Lending LibraryParents and children including siblings are invited to

take home a free book or magazine each night and

return it when they are finished reading it.

Families are invited to donate books and magazines

for the lending library. When you finish reading your

magazines, recycle them at our school.

Check us out for photos of our students and other

news.

Facebook.com/kidsforkidsacademy

Classroom Visitation:

Visit the rooms, see what is new, talk to the

teachers

Open House is not the time for

parent /teacher conferences. We are happy

to set up an appointment for private

conferences with the teachers.