Watching the Grass Grow

Growing grass was a favorite at the Dementia unit I previously worked on, so I decided to try it again. The patients got the dirt ready, planted the seeds, and water our tiny garden daily. Now the grass is several inches high. I make a joke about needing a miniature lawn mower. The patients love touching the sprouts and marveling at the way it grows quickly. I ask them, "when is the last time you felt real grass?"

Cherry Blossom Tree Day

 Although I am no longer in Maryland, I still wanted to celebrate the Cherry Blossoms. I showed youTube videos of the event. We did soda bottle stamp painting. Finally, we tried to make as many words as possible out of the letters from Cherry Blossom Tree Day.

World Water Day

On World Water Day we chatted about the lack of water in some areas of the world. We played underwater BINGO (instead of numbers the cards had pictures of beautiful things found below the sea). This version created one of the most engaged groups I have had so far. Some were using the cards like a normal BINGO card, some just enjoyed searching the card for the picture I had described, and others just perused their card and reminisced about the lovely items. We also did a water taste test. I poured two types of infused water into cups and let them sample both to tell the difference.

Pi Day

I love when the theme of the day gives us a way to introduce ourselves and share something with the group. On pi day, we took a poll of everyone (staff included)'s favorite type of pie. Later we played a shopping prices game to guess the cost of pre-made pies and ingredients for hand-made baked goods.