Sunday, November 25, 2012

Typing Class

We had the most successful computer class yet just because I changed the name to "Typing Class". It turns out I have more residents interested in learning to use the keyboard than the internet. I was happy to see them enjoying it so much. Many of them had experience at some point with typewriters or computers but had long since gotten out of practice so it is not so much learning as it is re-learning.

My goal for the class now is to give them as much time in the computer lab as possible. To start I printed out a list of 10 sentences which each use every letter of the alphabet and they do as many as possible. When they are comfortable with those I will transition to using the mouse.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Cornucopias

Without the employees, there would be no retirement community. The relationships between employees and the residents can be many things, but in the one I work at it it feels like we are all family.

I thought the residents might like to make something to show the employees how thankful they are for them. It needed to be something sweet, cute, and labor-intensive to show how much love is present.

It took about two hours but we made cornucopia treats and they turned out just how I had hoped. We bent the edges of sugar ice cream cones and filled them with m&m's, reese's, candy corn, and skittles. Then we sealed them with plastic wrap and tied them off with ribbon. There were plenty to give out and I hope they convey the gratitude the residents feel for the people who take such good care of them.





Monday, November 19, 2012

Thankful Rolls

Today I am grateful for my job.

We did activities inclined towards Thanksgiving including a special Happy Hour that began with a gratitude alphabet of things we are thankful for (at least one for every letter). I transposed that list onto paper and had a resident cut each into strips. Another resident covered the strip in aluminum foil and we then rolled that into a crescent biscuit. The results were "thankful rolls" with words like kindness and grandchildren snuck into each. Residents unfolded them and read them off before eating.

Using the same list we played the word guess game after drinks so residents filled in blanks for words like dessert and phrases like good music.

We also decorated the doors with turkeys. I wanted something unique so we used ribbon for the plumage. The results were beautiful.



Sunday, November 18, 2012

Western Day


I've long since had "Western" on my list of possible theme days. I've just been waiting for the weather to get cool enough to warrant flannel. The idea behind theme days is that I am required to have one activity a month to celebrate birthdays and other accomplishments. Rather than making cupcakes each time, I decided we would have an entire day devoted to it. Days previous we would spend getting ready and on the actual day each activity would adhere to the theme so that by the time the "party" began we would all be in the mood to celebrate. Also it would mean each was unique.

 This day I asked everyone to wear plaid and we began the day with a cowboy chat. I brought in two books with lots of descriptions of real cowboy life for us to discuss. Next we "redecorated the ranch" with horseshoes I brought in. Also, we finished painting the picture props I have been working on for weeks.

After lunch I got the residents who were most dressed up to help with passing out the weekly calendars. While we visiting each room I reminded people about the things that were happening a little later. The first of which was turning afternoon drinks into the "Saloon". Then we made our "Mix for the Trail" which included ranch rice snacks, harvest cheddar sun chips, sweet chili snacks, acorn cookies (of hershey's kisses and peanut butter sandwich cookies), and s'more bites (marshmallows plugged with pretzels, smothered in chocolate and rolled in crushed graham). The food was good, singing happy birthday in Western accents was better, but I think the best was taking pictures.



The four picture props included a wanted posted, a jail, a cowboy, and a cowgirl. They were worth the work because the residents didn't need to dress up, buy clothes, or hire someone to come in for "antique photos".

Since I wanted at least one physical game we also lassoed  a stuffed horse with craft rope which turned out to be pretty entertaining.

Shane

After an interview for an activities position in my building, a woman "shadowed" me for a few hours and it made me realize how often I use tricks that I've learned with experience. For example,  we were playing a new game and I opened the box for the first time after gathering 6 residents to try it out. It wasn't meant for more than four people to play at a time and they were meant to play on the same board. The residents were spread out along a long table. So, after a look at the pieces and people involved, I quickly made up new rules that could include everyone on their own board. Another look around and I adjusted the rules again- once for a resident with severe memory challenges and again for a pair of women who I knew worked best as "partners". Meanwhile the interviewee was trying to understand the "real rules" and the hardest part was conveying to her that "real" didn't matter as much as everyone enjoying the activity while still being challenged cognitively.

Since then I've been noticing how I do things like invite people purely on which aspect of the activity I know they'll most enjoy, "Come get out of your room", "We'll have snacks", "Try something new", "Mary will be there" or change locations to suite a bigger crowd.

Another thing I've improved upon is showing a movie. I've learned to plan on staying in the room (I set aside work I can get caught up on just for the purpose) to keep volume control, make popcorn, and invite early so we don't have to delay the start of the show. Another good idea is to play a movie the residents really enjoy, such as "Shane". Not only did they love seeing the movie again,  it got them geared up for the next day which had a Western Theme.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Native American Heritage Day

Today we had a theme that involved the whole building.

Native American Heritage Day


When considering what to do for this day, I decided against making headdresses because I didn't know enough about Native American symbols. Instead I devised a matching game between symbols and their definitions I think it was much more meaningful, pun intended.

For example, a horse is a symbol for a journey. We speculated as to why a bear track would be a symbol of a good omen, where you put a symbol of a shaman's eye to denote medicine, and how arrowheads (for alertness) and still used -> today.

It was interesting to think about symbols as much more than decoration.

Pass the Thankerchief

We visited our friends at the daycare and on that day they were studying pilgrims. To start our activity I brought paper to make pilgrim hats. The kids got to choose from our big box of ribbon to make their hat unique. They also helped the residents choose ribbon for their own hats so they would fit right in to our pilgrim party.

Next we did an activity called "Pass the Thankerchief" where the kids sat in a circle and passed a handkerchief while I read a poem. The one who was holding it when I finished had to tell something they were grateful for:

Thankerchief, Thankerchief, around you go,
where are you going to stop, well no one knows.
But when you do, I will say, 
what I'm thankful for, on this very day!

When the kids each had a turn we asked the residents what they were thankful for and most said being able to come visit some adorable children. Moments like that make the planning and implementing worth it.

Giant Group Crossword Puzzles

A great activity that always goes over well is a group crossword puzzle. In order for it to include a group the puzzle is huge (2 feet by 3 feet I would guess). When you order the puzzles you get a large roll of blank ones and a book with clues. I tape them to a white board in sight of everyone who'd like to contribute. Everyone is welcome to answer, and if we get to a point where the puzzle is unsolvable I begin using "heavy clues". For example "Ham" was the answer and the clue was a radio operator. If they had not been able to guess it I might have said "another name for pig meat". As we go along and fill things in I like to circle the ones that are new to everyone. At the end I pick the most interesting circled word and challenge everyone to use it in a sentence that day. Then I offer the completed puzzle to anyone who'd like it as a souvenir. No one has taken me up on that, yet.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Spouse of Veterans Tea

At work some of the other activities people have been busy planning a special breakfast for the Veterans that happened yesterday.

 Since I wasn't working on Veteran's day I instead put my effort into a tea today for Spouses of Veterans. Originally it was for "Wives of Veterans" but a broadminded activities person pointed out that women served during the war too.
 We had tea, snacks, decorations, a raffle, music, and a quote board.
 Close to 50 residents joined us and were able to share stories about the Veterans in their lives.





Thursday, November 8, 2012

Sometimes You Feel Like a Fagales, Sometimes You Don't

Our latest taste testing was of a variety of nuts. I brought in almonds, cashews, peanuts, sunflower seeds, walnuts, and pecans. I'm not sure if all of those belong to the taxonomic Order of "Fagales" but I wanted to use an unusual word to describe the activity. It caught the attention of a bunch handful of residents.

Everyone was given a piece of paper, pen, spoon, and napkin. I cut up the nuts into small pieces and doled out one at a time onto the spoon so they could eat it without seeing or feeling it. I encouraged the residents to name as many nuts as they could before we began testing so it would be easier to guess.

The person who guessed the most correctly got 2.5 right. Many people guessed coconut and pistachio much to my surprise. Afterwards we discussed favorite nuts and chestnuts got the most votes.

Monday, November 5, 2012

You Can't Judge a Book by It's Cover

Another great meeting of Book Club at work. So far we have read "One Thousand White Women", "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", "Bel Canto" and our next one up is "Night". We also discussed "The Help".

The residents constantly amaze me. There is a woman with the best sense of humor, and Parkinson's; a men who can remember every meal he ever had on an outing, but can hardly move because of a stroke; a woman who has the figure of a teenager, but can't remember any games with new rules. They deal with loss, pain, and limitations, yet they go out of their ways to be nice to new people. They don't complain and they are determined to make the best of each day.

Some friends have told me they suspect older people don't have any fresh ideas. They think older people just rely on canned phrases and repeated stories. Certainly this may be true for some but many more times I've been surprised by the resident's wittiness or assertions which could only have been newly generated for the situation at hand.

I look forward to book club because I genuinely want to know what they think of the things we read. They shock me with their insight and I think they would shock the people who believe young ideas can't come from 90-somethings. For most of the residents- looks are very deceiving.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Witch Pitch

Today I came to work dressed as "Activities Girl". Along with my playing card cape I had a bag with all the things needed to avoid ennui and that a resident has asked me for in the past and been shocked if I didn't have:  games, pens, markers, tape, glue, dry eraser, paper clips, tissues, scissors, a master key, a Magic 8 ball, a notepad, straws, napkins, camera, snacks, a ruler, string, coffee creamers, sugar, 3 types of artificial sweetener, tickets, and prizes. Even if I had been a real superhero it would have weighed me down.


Fighting Boredom and Supply Crises

 Over the past week we've been preparing for Halloween by picking out jokes, making enough copies for every resident, cutting them into slips, and putting bags on each door. Today the residents added one of their jokes to each door while I taped on a Halloween pencil.



Also we played a game I named Witch Pitch that involved throwing candy and balloons into fake cauldrons I found in a decoration closet. The pencils, balloons, and bags came from the same closet. The day was made all the more sweeter because the power was up and running.