Loving Pets

 On Pet Lovers day, we chatted about pets U.S. presidents have had over the years. We made a list of all the interesting animals patients have kept in their homes. We watched cat videos, did a cartoon animal guess, and finished with clay rolling onto paw prints. The clay is a great activity for the hands and using a shape on paper helps the patients not feel too intimidated by the art.

Bag Pipe Day

 For Bagpipe day we listened to Celtic music and made gifts for the staff. They were bags that could be used to hold masks. The thank you notes from patients were attached with pipe cleaners.

Laundry Workers

 An activity that was loads of fun (after learning about the history of laundry) was cutting out items of clothing the patients liked and gluing them onto pages with boxes and hangers. To celebrate laundry workers, we also did laundry tosses into baskets and ended the day with warm laundry (clean blanket) rest and massages.

Drum Circle

Drum circle is a possibility thanks to plastic drumsticks from Amazon, gray bins, and cleanings in between uses. 

I use a lot of old rock hits and other well known songs like "Beat It", "All She Wants to Do Is Dance", "One Love", "We Will Rock You", and "Respect". I often suggest a pattern for the patients to imitate (fast, slow, switching hands, hitting the sides of the drums, making a pattern on the top of the drum, etc) but also encourage them to do whatever sounds good. Some can only use one hand, some clap or tap their feet. Some dance or sing. 

We also chat about the songs as they come up on shuffle. 

My last song is always "Jump In the Line" because they are warmed up and we can end on a high note. The song gives directions so we shake our sticks, hit them together, dance, and sing as a group until the final verse.


 

Feasts for Saints Peter and Paul

We had a feast of activities for Saints Peter and Paul. I did a special devotions and we changed our race game to fish. Bible trivia and gifts for the staff ended a lovely day.

Memorial Day

Always my favorite Holiday to work with the patients! Each of the patients and staff got a poppy sticker and we discussed what the day meant to us. We thanked veterans and shared people in our lives who served. We played patriotic songs and tried to guess the titles and singers. I shared information about the history of the songs and most of the patients enjoyed reminiscing. At 3PM we paused our word games for a moment of silence. Then we ended the day with warm towel massages as a final thank you to their generation.

Mod Podge

We used mod podge, construction paper, and bits from the Indianapolis Star newspaper to celebrate mod podge day. Since Covid was very prevalent in the news there was a theme for the art.

We also did a balloon dodge exercise and mod podge phrases game.

May Flowers

Simple origami is an activity I enjoy for the patients. We made tulips for Spring Break Day.

Step by step drawing is also a good brain/creativity for dementia patients. We made Lady Slippers for Minnesota's Day.

Covid Changes

Some changes in my building are that we have to take our temperatures and answer a questionaire when we enter the building.

During patient contact, we must wear masks and be even more diligent about cleansing our hands between people. We also try to sit the patients 6 feet apart and intervene before they touch each other.

Wearing the mask in a loud room full of an audience with hearing problems on top of their dementia has been a difficulty but we are going to get through this.

Monograms for Rebels

 A simple art project turned out well. Squiggles on a canvas, a traced letter for a first name, and color in each area created by the squiggles. As usual, the patients made this artwork their own and I love how they turned out.

Homemade Tartans for Tartan Day

 Patients took strips of colored paper, in their colors of choice, to overlap on a page until they had a homemade tartan they were please with. Afterwards, we laminated the designs and it gave them something intricate and peaceful to admire.

Do you know that many U.S. states have their own tartans?

Celtic Knots

 I may not have worked on St. Patrick's day, but I still wanted to make a lucky charm with the patients. We used mold-able clay and a simple pattern that worked well with 2 colors.

Once Upon a Time

 "I only liked fairy tales when I was a kid" was what I heard the most from patients when we had our once upon a time day on one of the Wilhelm Grimm's birthday.

That may be true, but they still were able to enjoy making night skies with dark paints and stars using a toothbrush to fleck bright paint. I love how they look.

Sweet Somethings

 Last month we did not forget to celebrate Valentines Day. As always it can be a sad day, so we focused on things we love about ourselves and our lives.

 We also did a dot art project to make heart trees.

In addition to cardio love songs to work out to, we chatted about famous couples and made nursing joke treats for the staff working that day.

Lucky Lindy

 On Lucky Lindy's birthday we learned about him, the patients made paper airplanes and named them before racing them (Turbo Stubborn, the Assurance, and Old Yeller were a few examples). In the process we learned that the CEO had done a paper airplane presentation in college and could still create a trick airplane.

We also watched plane videos and I modified my car race game to be a plane game with little plane characters. There were so many patients who wanted to play, one of them had to be the TV remote.

Feed the Birds Day

On Feed the Birds Day we chatted about what food is good to feed birds, watched lovely bird videos, played bird BINGO and made freestanding bird art with feathers.

Hoosier Charades

I created my own charade ideas and tailored them to my Hoosier patients. They did quite well and I saved the cards for another fun day.

Marshmallow Day

 Feeling fluffy still after all the holiday eating? Maybe you're just prepared for marshmallow day. We had a contest to guess the number of marshmallows in my bag, watched videos of marshmallow making (spoiler: lots of sugar!), and painting silver lined clouds using marshmallows on sticks. Of course the patients got a marshmallow as a prize and I asked this joke:

How do the hershey's bar, marshmallow, and cookie talk to one another?

S'mores code

CompliMints

On compliment day, we talked about how to give a good compliment, voted on whether it's more fun to give or receive them, and made gifts for the staff with tic tacs. The posters with compliments to tear off were also a big hit.

MLK Jr. Day

I had a dream of our patients successfully making origami birds of peace. That dream came true on MLK Jr. Day.

Bean There, Done That

 A bean farmer's daughter created bean day in January when there "aren't many holidays". We celebrated with bean bag tosses, BEANgo, and these pretty bean mosaics.

Bacon my Art

After reading a newspaper article about food trends of the last decade, bacon was on my mind. Do you know there are sleep videos of frying bacon on youtube? We watched that while talking about the comfort food. We also did sizzling bacon art which made me hungry, personally.

Perc Up

To celebrate the anniversary of percolated coffee, we chatted about our favorite brewed drinks and did a coffee taste test. Can you tell the difference between maxwell house and starbucks?

Ain't No Mountain

We did our morning walk to the tune of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and similar music. Then in the afternoon we produced mountain paintings using painters tape. Who doesn't love mountains?

Put a Different Spin on It

 We used a lazy susan to make spin art on put a spin on it day. We talked about homespun gifts and played BINGO a different way than we normally do.