September Stamps

Typically it's best to keep crafts simple and bring an example.

 For September door decorations I had something in mind.

My example would have been a pile of leaves with a rake next to it.

Instead I brought in every type of material I could think of.

I'm so glad I let them inspire themselves!

We had finger paints, brushes, stamps, glue, scissors, diffusing paper and dry leaves.

What the residents did best represents their personalities.

I hope it reminds them of times past with family all month.

Guilty of a Good Birthday

I don't consider myself good at thinking on my feet and when an activity material is misplaced or a location becomes unavailable I usually despair. However, when I couldn't find the news DVD I got inspired to change things for the benefit of a resident who was having her birthday the next day. She rarely comes to social events but I was already planning on inviting her since I was making special coffee (leftover from Italy day) and I knew she really enjoys a good cuppa. She did come, and I surprised her by announcing that instead of the news we'd be doing her favorite game: Judge for Yourself.

Simply, each card has a court case on one side which I read to everyone and then asked opinions. On the other side is the actual verdict. Although this resident is known for speaking to herself (often in riddles) during this game she had no trouble listening and following along and always had an opinion with a supporting idea. I think she is most interested because her grandson is a judge and she is very proud of him.

The resident was really happy with the morning. Later her family took her out for a birthday meal and I was happy for once that things went awry.

Pirate Day

Once again we had a theme day, and because international "Talk Like a Pirate Day" is coming up next month I decided we would do something less feminine than last time's Royalty Day.

note the crossed bones on yonder tights

As usual, I altered the normally scheduled events to suit the theme. Therefore we had "Gardening for Landlubbers" and a "Buccaneer Chat" before lunch. For the chat I brought a list of Pirate Lingo for us to discuss after we had exhausted our speculations on the desperateness one must have before turning to such a dangerous lifestyle. Most of the terms involved death or punishment. Some we didn't know were "hornswoggle" (to cheat), "me proud beauty" (pretty woman), "old salt" (experienced sailor), "powder monkey" ( boy in charge of bringing gunpowder to the gunner), and the location of the poop deck (part of the ship fathest to the back, usually above the Cap'n's quarters). A relaxation CD of sailing music became our background for these topics.

After lunch was a "Walk the Plank Calendar Distribution", and "Grog" hydration during which I mixed every flavor of drink we have as if all our barrels were running low and I had to combine them to make it easier to gather and pour.

The afternoon was reserved for a pirate party during which we celebrated August birthdays and achievements. What I really like about theme days is the chance to just have fun and spice things up. If nothing else the residents can admire themselves for surviving another day with a crazy person like me.

Our Booty: "Scurvy Protection" fruit snacks, Life Savers, "Shark Bait" gold fish crackers, and Gold Nuggets

We had some great snacks to get things started. I also got a CD of official pirate movie music to set the mood. Then we set to work making pirate hats out of large sheets of construction paper. I got so good at making them for new comers that I could fold one before getting to the 98 bottles of beer on the wall verse. On our hats we wrote the pirate name we chose for ourselves which happened to include:

• Gold Tooth ______
• Silver Tongue _______
• Dirty Jeans _______
• Ihop Peg-Leg _______
• Barnacle Breath ________
• Red Legs _________
• One-Eyed __________
• ___________ Bones
• ___________ Bucko
• Scarface _Ashley_
• Captain Kidd
• Black ________
• Gangplank _________

Thus costumed we had 13 pirate trivia questions which I asked people to raise their "hook" to answer. When a resident got a correct answer he/she had to root around in the sand like cloud dough for their prize: a chocolate gold coin.

buried treasure

  I won't paste all the trivia questions, but I can say the most interesting thing I learned from the answers was that our romanticized view of pirate lives is partially in due to a poem entitled "The Corsair" (written by Lord Byron).

Finally we made pirate ship cannons out of cut plastic drinking cups and tied off/ cut balloons so that when the tied off balloon part is pulled back, the cannon missile shoots out of the cup. These worked a little too well with mini marshmallows and perhaps I would have been wise to substitute cotton balls.

The day exhausted me but before everyone left to get ready for dinner I used my pirate skull fortune teller to answer questions about their future. Most wanted to know if the meal would be hot, tasty, or followed by a good dessert. 

Did you know? Pirates used eye patches so that one eye was adjusted to the light and worked well on top of the ship and the other eye was adjusted to the darkness when they needed to quickly perform a task or gather materials below.

Balloon Volleyball

Let me take a minute to extol balloon volleyball. Many of the residents laugh nervously lest a relative observe them and make fun of them for something so silly but the attendance is always high and I find it works really well in my Friday morning schedule. People can't help getting into it.

I arrange the chairs in a circle and give everyone a pool noodle (usually I make sure the color matches something in their outfit). Then I toss a balloon (usually I let the first person who shows up decorate it with some sort of face) into the center and we pass it around. The goal is to have fun, but usually it turns into a goal of not letting the balloon hit the ground or escape behind a wheelchair. For some reason residents try to act casual about their interest in this but I have seen the looks in their eyes when it is a long time between whacks and a frail or deaf or almost blind person is hogging all the "turns". You can't help but watch the balloon, note its progress, and vow your next pass will be the perfect blend of aim, power, and away-from-the-floor-ness.

When the balloon becomes a magnet for the door or the corner behind the piano I really start to get some exercise. It's also good exercise for the sitting residents in as much as they have to control their movements and lean in ways they don't often need to. Passes can be accomplished with flicks of wrist so it can be done sometimes even by people with arm injuries.

On Fridays I end this with a "Let's see how long we can keep it in the air," and then I offer drinks to everyone. They usually stay and then we move right along into our music social where we listen to a CD from the 40's or 50's and try to guess the artist and song title. It's a great flowing morning. 

Volunteer Hours Board

Something in me couldn't let go of the cute miniature colored clothespins we used in July for clothesline door decorations. So I wrote door numbers on them and turned them into markers for the volunteer hours board. We have many opportunities for volunteering throughout the week, including:

1. setting up for Bingo
2. visiting the dementia unit
3. clipping coupons for military families
4. making jewelry to be sold for charity
5. stapling and passing out calendars 

The board is a small foam one with a piece of scrapbook paper on its face. There is a stand to keep it upright and let everyone see. The paper has ten rows so that each resident has the opportunity to rack up to 10 hours of community giving a month. For the few residents who help out when no activity person is there, I gave them the option of keeping track for themselves. For everyone else, I will move the clips as they participate then just keep track on my excel spreadsheet at the end of the month, rather than trying to keep track of it daily. Not only will this be easier for me (if I can remember), but it's also a better way of acknowledging all the help they give us on a more regular basis than the yearly volunteer luncheon.

Touring Italy with Ashelina

Once a month the activities team works with the kitchen to make a day revolve around a certain type of food or custom that can be related to eating. Last month's was Greek day. This month we celebrated Italy and while the kitchen was busy whipping up classic Italian food, I temporarily turned myself into Ashelina, a denizen of the boot.

To begin I brewed Italian roast coffee (medium with a hint of dark chocolate) to entice passersby. I let the earliest residents choose among the three Italian cafe music CD's I had gotten from the library to play first. On the schedule I had included a note to wear red, white, and green for the day. I also mentioned it the previous day and was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who picked out their outfits accordingly. It added to the festivities. On a white board headed by the title "Cafe Italy with Ashelina" were the following coffee descriptions:

• caffè (espresso)—a small cup of very strong coffee, i.e., espresso
• caffè Americano—American-style coffee, but stronger; weaker than espresso and served in a large cup
• caffè corretto—coffee "corrected" with a shot of grappa, cognac, or other spirit
• caffè doppio—double espresso
• caffè freddo—iced coffee
• caffè Hag—decaffeinated coffee
• caffè latte—hot milk mixed with coffee and served in a glass for breakfast
• caffè macchiato—espresso "stained" with a drop of steamed milk: small version of a cappuccino
• caffè marocchino—espresso with a dash of hot milk and cacao powder
• caffè stretto—espresso with less water; rocket fuel!
• cappuccino—espresso infused with steamed milk and drunk in the morning, but never after lunch or dinner
• granita di caffè con panna—frozen, iced beverage (similar to a slush, but ice shavings make it authentic) and topped with whipped cream 

Most residents wanted to try their coffee as a caffe latte. I served them as they wished but asked that they used the special straws we made the previous day to drink. The straws were pizzazzed with paper mustaches we had attached during an activity called "I Mustache You a Question". Had I had enough character space, I would have called it "I Mustache You a Question, What is Your Favorite Italian Sportscar?" because we also cut out pictures I had drawn from the pictures of the back of famous vehicles. These we taped to the backs of seats and wheelchairs to make it seem, in our patriotic colors, that we had all hopped in to our national cars to drive to our favorite coffee spot to chat with our flambouantly mustached neighbors. 

Ferrari F360

Guidebooks I had brought from the library helped further discussions about past trips to Italy and dream vacations there. Then we visited the "art gallery" where an educational DVD about Renaissance Art was playing and additional books about painters like Da Vinci put everyone in the mood for Italian lunch. 
 

Taste the Rainbow

As a last minute taste testing event, I wanted to experiment with the idea of color affecting perception of flavor. This idea came to me when I offered popcicles without knowing what type they were, but simply described them as "white probably vanilla, red probably cherry, yellow either banana or pineapple".






 I made four types of flavored water: salty, sweetened with artificial sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. For each type, I made four cups (one each of green, blue, yellow, and red). When I gave each of my four participants cups, they got one of all of the colors and each with a different flavor. I asked them to taste the water by color ("Everyone drink the green and tell me what you taste") but this means that each round every participant had a different flavor to drink.






The results pretty much showed us that color had no affect on their ability to taste sweet, salty, sour, and vanilla. At no point did someone guess their beverage was a fruit related to the color. This could have been done many other ways, however, and I'd like to try variations.

Harmonica-ony

As a treat, we had a resident's friend come in to play the harmonica for us. Interspersed with his songs, he gave us a history of how he came to play the harmonica and told us that harmonicas come in different keys. Only people who know how to "bend" the notes can avoid changing instruments for songs with different keys. Since I play no instrument and do not sing publicly I much admired his ability to come in and perform for a room full of strangers. They residents enjoyed it and I made sure to send a thank you card.

We had a Whale of a time

S'more Days like this

Nothing particularly good happened today. Yet it was highly satisfying. I didn't get any impressive amounts of residents to come out of their rooms. Yet every person I did an activity with gave me a joyful experience.

• I gardened with two farmers while chatting about keeping algae out of the pond of the new property I bought
• I made s'mores pies for the workers with a man who's been having health issues. He didn't help much but we talked about his family and his favorite desserts and because I had no recipe I told him he was my good luck charm
• I chanced upon a resident who really needed to take a walk while looking for a volunteer to help me pass out calendars
• over my vacation I read "The girl with the dragon tattoo" for the book club that met today. the club is populated with residents who have many interesting things to say
• Since book club ended early I spent some time getting a tour of a resident's room who loved my reaction to her new pants rack
• a man I've been trying to lure out of his room for weeks finally came with me and kicked my butt during his first attempt at Wii bowling

Upon further reflection, some particularly good things did occur. I had time to get caught up on my e-mail. One of the farmers got me in contact with a man who is willing to play live music this month for free. The pants rack woman had a great suggestion for a lunch outing.

Perhaps the best part of today was remembering how wonderful the residents can be when you give them your time and attention.

The second best part were the pies.

Cloud Dough

My first day back included an exciting activity ultimately meant for the people in the dementia unit of our building. We made "cloud dough" for them and will take it with us on our visit Sunday.

Recipe for cloud dough:
8 C flour
1 C baby oil (more if desired)

initials in the cloud dough

I used a large aluminum baking dish as a tray for 16 cups of the stuff.  I found two female residents who were brave enough to stick their hands in and mix it up so that it became soft but moldable. Meanwhile two male residents watched suspiciously, as if they could get dirty just watching or believing me when I told them how much fun I was having. Luckily it does not harden. After we play with it Sunday, I plan on keeping it for two events later in the month.

Cloud dough is highly addictive, consider yourself warned. The two residents and I found it difficult to stop playing with. While we pretended it wasn't ready, I talked to one of them in particular:
"You've probably worked with a lot of flour in your life."
"Sure have."
"You had over 30 foster children, you've probably used a lot of baby oil too."
"Sure have."
"Before today, did you ever hear of someone mixing the two?"
"No, never heard of anyone stupid enough to do that," meanwhile she was making biscuit sized balls and gleefully crushing them.
"Well, you are 94 years old. It's difficult for me to think of things you haven't done before."

Besides a nice sensory activity, it is a good hand exercise. Plus it smells fresh.