Looking to spice up tea time with your residents?
Host a Mad Hatter Tea Party! You can make it as wacky or as simple as you'd like. Sandwiches, sweets, decorations, entertainment and more! Why not try a tea tasting? Have a wacky hat contest? It's a Mad Hatter Tea Party- anything is possible!
Grab a ball and toss it with a resident during a one-on-one visit while each of you ask questions about one another.
Each time you throw it to your resident, they have to answer a question you ask. When they throw it back, they have to ask a question you answer.
A good activity for hand-eye coordination while also getting to know one another. All you need is a ball!
Take a large candy bar and wrap it in seven layers of different coloured tissue paper.
Roll two dice and whenever a resident rolls a seven, they get to unwrap one layer of paper.
The resident who unwraps the seventh layer wins the candy bar!
A simple, yet fun game with a sweet surprise at the end!
Supplies needed:
Candy bar
7 different colours of tissue paper
2 die
Looking to keep your memory care residents active and social? Try exercising together using a weighted ball.
Set up your room with chairs in a circle. Start with the weighted ball in your hand and encourage people to pass it around the circle. You could play music as you do this. You can also build on this upper body exercise by asking your residents to hold the ball, raise it up in front of them and then raise it down before they pass it to the next resident.
Supplies:
Chairs
Weighted Ball
A simple, yet effective form of exercise that can also be social.
Just because your residents are older doesn't mean they can't still have kid-like moments! Why not encourage some trick-or-treating within your community?
You can encourage your residents to dress up and go to different areas of your community to trick-or-treat for goodies! Set up stations that residents have to come to and say the famous Halloween words, "Trick-or-Treat." This is a great way to get residents, staff and volunteers involved!
Supplies needed:
Candy or other items
Halloween bags
It will be a spooktacular time!
Get into the Halloween spirit by holding a Halloween Pumpkin Decorating Contest!
Provide a pumpkin and supplies to participating residents to decorate it.
Supplies could include:
Paint
Brushes
Carving knives and tools
Newspapers and garbage bags
Large spoons to carve out pumpkin insides
You could decide to choose a theme ex: spooky pumpkins, celebrity pumpkins and more! You can be as creative as you'd like.
Get staff and residents to act as judges award a first, second and third prize!
Set up a table in a common area in your community to be your "Always Around Activity Corner".
Keep it stocked with word searches, crossword puzzles, magazines, colouring books, pencil crayons and more!
This is a great way to make sure that resident's always have access to activities, even when they are no group programs running.
Make a list of items a resident would typically have in their room.
Print out sheets and give to each resident so they can do their own in room scavenger hunt! Have them write what they found and then submit the sheet to win a prize! This activity can be really helpful if your community is facing any outbreaks, but you still want to keep residents engaged.
Example:
Something red_____________________________________
Something that makes you happy__________________
A gift you received_________________________________
A photo___________________________________________
Something that smells nice________________________
Something yellow__________________________________
A comb or hair brush______________________________
Something alive____________________________________
The oldest thing in your room______________________
The newest thing in your room______________________
Something you can eat ____________________________
Something that is wood____________________________
A button__________________________________________
A business card___________________________________
A Scarf____________________________________________
A Flashlight________________________________________
Greeting Card______________________________________
An Activity Calendar_______________________________
Something you Made______________________________
Chair dancing is a form of aerobic exercise in which people perform dance movements with their arms, legs, and upper body, all while remaining seated! It’s a low-impact exercise that’s great for seniors. There are many chair dancing classes available for free on YouTube that you and your residents can follow along with. You could also lead a class yourself to your residents’ favourite tunes! Here’s a Zumba beginner’s seated class to get you started.
Minute to Win It games ask contestants to complete a challenge in under a minute. There are so many Minute to Win It game ideas out there, so why not pick your favourites and ask your residents to compete in a tournament?
The supplies you’ll need will depend on the games you choose, but most Minute to Win It games use common materials. You’ll also need a 60-second timer, a scoreboard, and preferably some prizes! For smaller groups, your residents can go one at a time while the others cheer them on. Award the resident 5 points if they complete the challenge within the time limit or 0 points if they run out of time. For larger groups, have 3-5 players go head-to-head. Award 5 points to the player who completes the challenge first, 3 points to anyone who completes the challenge within the time limit, and 0 points to those who run out of time. Here are 50 Minute to Win It games to get you started!
