Tree Weaving

Weaving is believing.

If you can tape strips of paper to two sides of a sheet, you can weave.

And once you weave, if you can tape down the overlap, you can cut into another shape of your choice.

We choose to make green trees for the season.

The patients were quite impressed with themselves.

Dotted Leaves

The patients used dot markers in a variety of ways to design leaves.

Fold it and Fly it Day

The patients took fold it and fly it day very seriously. We folded our paper airplanes, then lined up for a competition. Some patients improved the standard design. The best part, to me, was that we used paper that was going to be thrown out by another department.

Sagittarius

When the sign of the Sagittarius began, we celebrated with a target toss. We talked about the traits of those born during this zodiac month. Patients chatted about archery. In the afternoon, we had an arrow social with decorated straws.

Thanksgiving 2019

 I am thankful I got to work Thanksgiving at the hospital.

 Patients made turkey and leaf decorations.

 We played a turkey toss game with a roast-looking paper bag and balled paper.

 We wrote out what we're thankful for on leaves.

And of course there was a delicious lunch. Dietary also made us pies for a pie social with family in the afternoon during visiting hours.

Dream Catcher Day

We learned the fascinating oral history behind dreamcatchers, then made some from doilies and with our own special meanings.

Dictionary Day

For Dictionary Day we discussed the meaning of our hospital's name, played a word guess game, and made adorable bookmarks.

Halloween 2019

 The "When The Frost is on the Punkin" poem was written by a Hoosier so we read it for patients. We also had candy corn guessing, candy corn parfaits (made of whipped topping, pineapple, and mandarin oranges), pumpkin circle paintings, and white out tape mummies.

Indigenous Peoples Day

Columbus Day made me a little nervous. There is a trend to celebrate Indigenous Peoples instead, or in addition to and I wasn't sure who would be offended by what. We did talk about both and at the end of the day created crests for our families with meaningful colors and words.

You're the Number 2!

 In October our gift for the staff was useful and cute. We made pencil toppers from pipe cleaners. I ordered pre-sharpened pencils since we all know how useless an un-sharpened pencil can be.

Falling for Wreaths

 Paper Plates with holes cut into the center became festive wreaths of the first day of Autumn. We learned about equinoxes and solstices and got glue all over our fingers.

Friday the 13th

Full moons are rumored to be tougher times for dementia patients. Added to that, a Friday the 13th, and I'm surprised any showed up to work on this day in September.

The patients and I chatted about things we're afraid of, why people have superstitions, did chair exercises 13 times, gave B13 away for free in BINGO, and decoupaged black cats onto newspaper strip backgrounds to end the day.

Gray Maneuvers

Staff wore gray on Respect the Aged day, a holiday in Japan. We began with relaxing chair yoga, then did one of my new favorite things and added sticky notes to a laminated sign with our list of phrase finishers. The phrase was "Elders Deserve Respect Because..." and they said things like "they worked hard all of their life," "everyone deserves respect", "they gave respect", and "they raised us".

I will re-use this poster for new answers next month. In the meantime, it and others stay on a board in the common room.

In the afternoon I added gray to decoupage and we painted "respect your elders" onto canvases. Then we finished the day with heated towel massages so I could show the patients my respect and admiration.

51 Card Pick Up

Have a deck that is incomplete? Instead of throwing away the cards, use them as brushes. Our patients did to varying effects.

Passport to Fun

On vacation memories day, we made paper passports with color photos of patients. They filled out their names, favorite modes of transportation, who they like to travel with, and one thing they never forget to pack. As always, we had some hilarious adult-only answers. I also stamped the places they recalled visiting in the past in their books. This activity led to some great discussions between patients, staff, and visitors long after I left for the day.

Carat Day

On Carat Day we chatted about jewelry we've given, received, found, and lost. Patients and staff shared proposal stories. We learned about the 4 C's of diamond buying (hint: carat refers to weight, not size).

For Bingo their prizes were matching games of birthday gem stone cards.

After that, patients made thank you tags for jewel candy rings for staff. And of course, we listened to Neil Diamond.

Black Moon

In a black moon, we learn about the second new moon in a month.

The patients also painted negative space moon art.

We looked up the phase of the moon on the night of their births, and what it said about them.

Candy Grams

We take time to thank the staff, often with a gift such as chocolate bars for Hershey's Day or hugs candies for Give a Hug day. The patients enjoy giving even more than they enjoy receiving.

Big Ben from Scratch

to celebrate the anniversary of Big Ben, our patients tried their hand with step by step drawing

Firefly Jars

I love activities like these firefly jars that make us reminisce about childhood nights.

O Canada Day

Even near Independence Day, we didn't forget our Northern friends. We chatted about different provinces in Canada, taste tested maple syrups, and used maple leaves to silhouette patient designs. 

Mermaid or Manatee?

While watching cameras of zoo manatees, our patients discussed the legends of mermaids which might have sprung from manatee sightings.

In the afternoon we decorated bottles and wrote letters to the ones we loved the most.

Shore Did

I think our patients did a great job painting sea shores with a mix of blues and sandy browns. Afterwards they chose real shells to glue to their scenes.

Fly a Kite

Kite bookmarks are not difficult to make. We used the corners of envelopes cut into diamond shapes. Patients decorated with tails of their choice (it would have been cuter with little bows). We discussed what makes kites so appealing to children.

Arbor Day

 On a locked unit, we cannot go outside to plant a tree. However we did have many good chats about why Arbor Day is good for children, adults, and the planet. I read a-corny jokes about trees and we made tree art. I stenciled hearts on the canvases and let the patients paint the designs of their choice. Then we glued trees to the top. I love the way they turned out.

Rainy Day Triangles

 Pre-cut triangles made for some cute rainy day designs. I can't wait to use this technique for other art projects.

Tax Day

Our patients enjoyed tax day because it led to many great discussions. What should tax money go to? How much should we take? What are some weird tax laws and how do we think they arose? We read about the history and ended with funny tax jokes.

Afterwards, we could take out an frustration on our green taxes balloon.