Recently in our Activity Coordinators’ Facebook Group, we ran an ‘ideas share’, getting everyone to share one of their favourite simple activities ideas, and in turn, benefit from everyone else’s ideas too.
The list we ended up with had over 50 fantastic activities from armchair boules to laminating local photographs and plenty of guessing games. Over the course of the coming weeks we are going to share this extensive and varied list with you, providing a little inspiration for your planning sessions.
THIS WEEK: WORDS WITH FRIENDS
Poetry Recital: The poems of Pam Ayres are deliciously simple and always very funny – a perfect way to get everyone chuckling and reminiscing. You could pick a different poet each week – ask residents for their favourites.
A-Z Quizball: Choose a topic – eg girls’ names, flowers, things at the greengrocers – and work your way through the alphabet asking for suggestions of something starting with each letter. Use a soft velour ball to throw to a resident, and then get them to throw it back to you.
Music Quiz: Load a selection of tunes onto a disc or USB, and let the residents guess the song or even part of the song for five points. If they can sing two or more verses then they get double the points…! (Maureen O Connell)
Finish the Proverbs: Have a pot (jam jar, beaker etc) in the middle of a table filled with strips of laminated paper. On one side of the strip is part of a well-known saying, eg ‘Daft as a…’, and on the other side is the answer, ‘brush’. People take it in turns to pick up a strip and guess the answer. It’s a great option for dining rooms for filling in the time whilst people wait for their meal, and the benefit is that residents can play it with each other.
