So how are you getting your newest residents out of their rooms and into your activities? One way is to invite them to come to your Activity Room to work on their “welcoming gift” — an arts and crafts project that residents can paint or decorate to place in their new room. Here are five fun art projects to consider using as the “welcoming gift” that your residents can work on.
Bless This Home Plaque
Supply your newest residents with a plaque that reads “Bless this House” that they can decorate with paint markers. Once the plaque has been colored, use the jute from the kit to hang in your resident’s room.
Velvet Tote Bag
Pass out velvet tote bags to your new residents that they can decorate before using. Invite residents to use the fabric markers that are included in the kit to add lots of color to their bags.
Shadow Box
Invite your new residents to find trinkets, photos, or other small objects that are meaningful to them to fill shadow boxes that can be hung in their room or right outside their door. Help residents complete their shadow boxes using colorful paper, stickers, and stencils.
Door Hanger
Encourage residents to decorate picket fence door hangers that they can place on their room doors. Assist residents with attaching the foam pieces in the kit to the picket fence before writing a welcoming message on the banner.
Welcome Sign
Set out wooden welcoming signs for residents to decorate before hanging in their rooms. Use paint to fill in the engraved message, and help residents attach fun items, like pressed flowers, leaves, or even colorful fabric.
Find more ideas from Notjustbingo on the S&S blog here.
About Not Just Bingo:
Not Just Bingo is an online resource of fun, senior activity ideas for activity professionals of assisted living facilities. They have been providing fun activity ideas online since 2009, and continue to assist activity professionals across the country by creating meaningful and engaging activity ideas for their residents that go “beyond bingo.” Not Just Bingo feels privileged to help activity directors better the living experiences of their residents while demonstrating that a senior’s quality of life can actually improve when they move to a senior facility!
Want even more ideas each month? Visit www.notjustbingo.com for how-to activity ideas, monthly newsletters, and daily holiday ideas. You can also sign up for the Notjustbingo Membership to receive specialized activity ideas to keep your residents and staff engaged, active, and having fun!
