Dandelion Wishes Playschool

Come check out or trash tree and garbage fairies made from garbage collected by our kiddos!

MPL and Clark Fork School partner again to bring you the Trashformations: Fourth Annual Early Education Upcycled Art Show! Art from early education classrooms across the Missoula area and beyond will be featured on the 4th floor of Missoula Public Library for this First Friday event. Come and support community and collaboration among early education programs while instilling the knowledge and passion of upcycling in your family. Please come dressed in your best upcycled or thrifted outfits and accessories to get a ticket to enter drawings for fabulous raffle baskets! We’ll draw for winners at 6:45 PM, you do not need to be present to win. Light appetizers and refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Library.

Did you know that Dandelion Wishes participates in the CACFP program?

4.5 MILLION children eat healthy meals and snacks daily due to the support of the Child and Adult Care Food Program. CACFP can help children develop positive eating habits that lead to a lifetime of good eating habits and good health.

This week is CACFP, a week dedicated to promoting and advocating for the Child and Adult Care Food Program!

Here at DW we love to healthy and diverse foods with our kids! Setting them up for a lifetime of nutrition! Today we were inspired to create something colorful and fun out of a favorite snack, these kids love their veggies and hummus!!

Babies babies babies! We currently have 3 under 7 months at DW, and oh my have we been having fun!

Hooray for our “bigs” stepping up to practice caretaking. Such responsible helper’s learning lifelong skills. These little guys are so loved.

From -40 to +40, we thrive outside! Last weeks cold snap had us feeling a little stir crazy. When the temperature was safe, we bundled up and headed out. This week we’re soaking up all the sunshine.

Grateful for fresh air, good friends, and all the gear to keep us warm! ❄️

Fine motor skill practice!

This center has been such a hit for all ages these past couple of weeks. Find the treasure, and use your tongs to transfer it into your jar!

Our younger friends practice using their pincer grip to grab each piece.

Our older friends have been using tongs (some even use two sets, one for each hand). 😆

Either way, all friends are practicing hand-eye coordination, patience, and strengthening those little muscles while having fun!
Read below about the importance of building fine motor skills!👇

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/building_fine_motor_skills_and_why_it_matters

Another opportunity to support our little school and get delicious dinner at the same time! Our fundraising efforts help support family scholarships, paid leave for staff and sustainable childcare tuition for all families! Dandelion Wishes Playschool Dandelion Wishes Outdoor School

January
The days are short, The sun a spark Hung thin between
The dark and dark. Fat snowy footsteps Track the floor,
And parkas pile up Near the door. The river is
A frozen place Held still beneath The trees' black lace. The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.

THE SHORTEST DAY
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing, behind us — listen!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks, And dearly love their friends, and hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now, This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Happy Solstice! We are so grateful to celebrate the turning of the earth with these wonderful families!

Today we worked together with our Outdoor School friends to make this beautiful snow person! Meet “Rainbow Of The Diamond”.

Strong muscles, collaboration, communication, and accepting other’s ideas are just a few of the skills we used during this task! Happy Winter from DW!❄️⛄️

Finalllllly! We’ve been enduring the cold with this crew of littles for the past month! Today was the first day Mother Nature decided to give us a little snow to enjoy. We bundled up, and celebrated by immersing ourselves fully! Looking forward to more winter adventures with this crew. ❄️

It feels good to do good! Thanks to all DW families and kids for your donations to the !

These friends were hard at work getting our box ready for food donations! What’s more motivating than a beautifully hand painted donation box?

We’re working with our Outdoor School friends to fill these boxes!! Help us help others! Because as we always say “It feels good to do good!”

Loose parts in the play yard! We love our scrap wood pile. Today our friends built an airplane with room for all! Here’s to open ended materials, to space to play and to the imaginations of our friends! The sky’s the limit!

What a beautiful fall day spent exploring Turner Farms We feel so grateful for the Turner family and their kindness in opening up their working farm to the community! These kids loved the animals, the tractors and the tunnel!! I loved the opportunity for them to experience a farm, to watch new animals up close, to see where pumpkins (and other fruits and vegetables) grow and to better understand a part of our community!

Get some tasty food from Romeo’s, Monday October 23rd, and help support our school!

Fine motor and focus! Tweezers, mortar and pestal, jars, and a variety of sunflowers from our garden. These friends are building hand strength, learning parts of the plant, dissecting a familiar flower to find out what’s on the inside, counting seeds and petals and experimenting with crushing different parts of the plant. This is science!

Feeling fall!

Exploring colors, shapes and representation. These sunflowers at different stages were a property good subject.

Just a bunch of happy babies painting with cars!

Last week we celebrated these wonderful children! They have been with us at Dandelion Wishes for the majority of their little lives. We’ve snuggled and held, fed, encouraged, cheered, guided, taught, and learned from them but most of all we’ve loved them, alot! This week they will be off to big school to make new friends and to learn and grow. They are ready to show this world what they’ve got and to share their fire and love and curiosity with others! I know that the love we’ve poured into these kids seeps out of every little piece of their being and I can’t wait for others to get to experience it! So go and make marks, and always know that DW loves you!

Summer, never end!

Pretty good views from the office this am!

In correspondence with our Get Air FUN-draiser happening today our lovely families have coordinated a spectacular silent auction! There are so many great items up for grabs! We originally planned on 3 baskets but were overwhelmed with generosity from our talented and skilled families and community! So now we have 10! Click the link to bid on baskets (let us know if you’re having trouble). Scroll to the bottom to find the bidding table, add your name/number, cross your fingers that you’re the highest bidder! Bidding ends Sunday at 5pm. Winners will be announced and contacted Sunday evening for pickup coordination. If you aren’t interested in a basket but would like to support Dandelion Wishes you can Venmo -C-DandelionWishes!

Thank you all for your support, we couldn’t make this little program what it is without the wonderful families & community that we have!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15B8wwJxYSmQRqZ5Fwkia9GBdrbD_kMsy7nyYRV3yvKQ/edit

Yay for summer days!!!