Outdoor skating is a great way to get residents outside and moving during the winter weather, and lends itself to being social-distancing friendly.
Skating is a very effective cardiovascular workout that works all the leg muscled and balance. If you are looking for ways to stay active, maybe outdoor skating is the exercise for your residents. To transport residents by bus to a booked outdoor skating venue, social distancing precautions must be made.
To make the bus social-distance friendly, one seat should be left empty behind and in front of every resident. In addition, residents should be seated in a staggered fashion on each side of the bus. Here is a downloadable resource discussing best-practices for making your bus ride social-distance friendly.
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This activity is usually more suited to individuals with higher physical and cognitive capabilities. That said, leather crafts might be just what some residents are looking for if they're looking for a to dedicate their time and feel gratified after completing a project. Residents might prefer a craft like this to make wallets, coin purses and other items, for personal use or as gifts.
Here are a few resources for leather craft ideas:
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Crafts are always a great activity idea for residents. Not only do they promote hand strength and dexterity, but they create durable items fit for gifts or everyday use!
Rug hooking is a great activity that is fairly simple to do. Residents can work on small individual projects, but you might also consider a group project where residents work together to finish a larger rug. A larger rug project can be made Covid-friendly by disinfecting the rug and rug hooking tools in between their use between residents. Residents don't have to be experts in rug hooking to start either. There are beautiful rug hooking patterns and sets available online for purchase to make the activity a fun learning experience.
Here is an article detailing how to start in rug hooking.
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Many forms of pet therapy exist. The forms most easily adapted for residents are ownership therapy, a more involved option in which a resident actually owns a pet to take care of, and visitation therapy, the most common form of pet therapy wherein a pet is brought in for a visit with a resident.
Researchers know that pets make people less likely to feel lonely, visit the doctor less often, take less medication, recover from illness faster, and cope better with stress. These are all benefits that would improve every resident's life! As for visitation pet therapy, even spending just 15 minutes with an animal initiates hormonal changes in the brain, dropping stress levels and increasing serotonin (a “feel-good” hormone) levels.
On a deeper level, there are emotional, physical, and mental benefits to pet therapy. Increased self-esteem and confidence is an example of an emotional benefit, while lowered blood pressure & Increased socialization are example of physical and mental advantages of pet therapy, respectively.
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Sometimes, diligently practicing a stretching and resistance training routine is a better fit for residents than other forms of exercise.
The benefits of stretching and resistance training for residence is its low impact on joints. Stretching works muscles in the opposite direction as strength training, elongating the muscle and making it more flexible and ready for action in day to day life. This makes residence less prone to injury and more reactive and limber. Resistance training can take the place of strength training by building the muscle's power without the stress on joints and ligaments coming from impact forms of strength training.
In addition, all these exercises can be performed in one's room in piece.
Remember, always consult with your resident's doctor before starting a new exercise regimen to preserve their health! They might have underlying conditions which could worsen if they started certain types of exercises!
Strength training is for anyone who wants to feel healthier, more energetic and younger! And you don't need a gym or any equipment to start exercising and reap these benefits either. In fact, bodyweight exercises are recommended when starting out an exercise routine to practice good for and build strength.
Here are 12 ideas for exercises for residents to do in their room this year:
Specific instructions along with the original idea can be found here.
Remember, always consult with your resident's doctor before starting a new exercise regimen to preserve their health! They might have underlying conditions which could worsen if they started certain types of exercises!
Most residents have close friends within their community, and Covid has limited the opportunities they've had to interact. Birthdays are a perfect opportunity to create an event for residents to interact with their friends and give something back!
Transform a resident's birthday into an activity for their friends by having a team of two residents, friends of the birthday person and of each other preferably, custom-decorate the birthday resident's room for a special surprise! The team will have the autonomy to plan what decorations should be used and will help each other arrange them in their friend's room for a surprise when they enter. Staff would facilitate procuring the decor as needed. Afterwards, the residents can all share some time to catch up!
This event requires that the residents involved be properly equipped with protective equipment and respect social distancing guidelines when together. Doing it properly however facilitates residents meeting up with their friends in a controlled and celebratory manner, and reduces the risks of social isolation!
A scavenger hunt is a classic activity! It is simple and fun for anyone, and you can use anything as an object to be found! The fun is in the chase. In the spirit of the holiday season and Ney Year during which this post was written, try hiding holiday decorations for residents to find and then put them away as a fun spin on things.
To create a successful scavenger hunt in which all participants will feel rewarded, try making a string of clues for each participant to follow around the community until they find the item they're hunting for! Even modifying the difficulty in finding the clues is a way to adapt this activity to different residents to assure everyone enjoys participating! This way, you can have one participant in the scavenger hunt at a time, chasing their own clues. Once the resident has finished their adventure, the environment can be cleaned and staged with new clues for a new resident!
Having multiple solo hunts organized sequentially like this enables the activity to become a sort of group activity when needed. It can also be easily used as a one on one activity! Have fun with this idea! :)
Art that can be stuck on windows is fun to make and help decorate your residents' rooms! Snowflake clings are a unique decoration for the winter season that will be enjoyable to make and will bring lasting fun to your community.
All you need to make snowflake clings is some type of glue, either school glue, glitter glue, or puffy paint, and wax paper and a snowflake template. If you don’t have any templates on hand, just use a pencil to draw snowflake designs on wax paper for residents to trace with the school glue. Then, allow the snowflakes to dry overnight or until the glue becomes transparent. Then gently peel the snowflakes from the paper and moisten one side of the snowflakes before applying to your windows.
You can view some awesome ideas for snowflake clings on Pinterest.
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Hockey is a traditional sport in winter, but this activity can be done for any sport showing and at anytime during the year! Don't worry about getting tickets or transportation! Sports games are already being broadcasted on television. Simply find out when your city's professional team is playing their next game and tune in. You can serve nachos and cheese, popcorn and drinks for residents to snack on during the game.
To make it Covid-safe, make sure you get a pre-prepared list of the residents who will be attending the event to minimize impromptu resident movement. Also make sure that their is appropriate distancing between residents in the room where the game will be watched. Use masks and be safe!
An alternative way to deliver this activity is to toon in all residents who want to watch the game in their rooms and provide tailgate snacks on a decorates "food cart"!
