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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Potato Stamping

One Easter craft we completed was potato stamping. Patients carved designs into potatoes cut through the middle to create an egg shape. They dipped them in paint and came up with some great art for the holiday.

Fast Food Day

If you're in rush, I understand if you can't read this whole post.

For fast food day we talked about changes in fast food over the years, our favorites quick places to eat, did a fast food prices game, and matched the blank logo to store. Finally we painted our favorite designs onto styrofoam. So many fast food places have red in their symbols, we noticed.

Princess Grace's Birthday

Would you want to be a royal? Our patients contemplated this on Princess Grace's birthday. We talked about her life, watched a Grace Kelly movie during lunch, and made the day gleam by painting backgrounds for decoupaged crowns. Staff were asked to wear something royal or shiny. Advice from an activity director: never throw away those plastic crowns you accumulate.

Hello Halloween

We can't forget to discuss Halloween. Now that time has passed it shouldn't be too spooky.

The kitchen ordered too many pumpkins so had plenty to decorate by painting the outsides.

 Split feelings arose from candy corn. We used the pieces for BINGO and half the patients ate it before they could get 5-in-a-row. The others scarcely wanted to touch it. We did a candy corn guess, talked about the history of the sweet, and painting the iconic triangle on styrofoam.

On the day of the holiday, we learned the moves to the Monster Mash. Don't worry, I practiced at home before hand. We also did a second exercise of a web toss (cotton balls to tape on a cardboard back) to balance our sugar consumption.

Our dietary staff made fresh pumpkin rolls and devised a non-alcoholic bloody mary with carrots, cucumbers, and bacon garnishes.

World Travel

If the world had flag, what would it be? Our patients took turns putting stickers on a large map of the world so we could see all the places we've been as a group. We watched videos of favorite places, had world trivia, and finished the day with making "flags" for the world.

Johnny Appleseed

Was Johnny Appleseed real or a legend? If you ever wondered that, you missed out on our Johnny Appleseed day. However the patients enjoyed learning the truth,painting apple trees in 3 steps, and partaking in our apple bar. We included baked apple slices for those on a mechanical soft diet.