Celebrate National Skilled Nursing Care Week (May 12-18) with your residents as you recognize this year’s theme for 2024: Radiant Memories – A Tribute to the Golden Age of Radio. Fill the week with fun activities that allow you to reconnect your residents to the music that they love. You can do so by providing activities that touch upon the different genres of music that your residents enjoy, including jukebox music, piano music, and a few oldies but goodies.
Jukebox Music
Provide enjoyable activities that get your residents rocking to the music of the 1950s and 1960s. For instance, host a Musical Bingo game featuring music of the jukebox era, like songs from Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Ray Charles. For the activity, simply play the song using the accompanying CD so that residents can try to find the song title on their bingo card.
For those residents who would rather sing than play, pop a 1950s’ Sing Along DVD into your facility’s DVD player so that residents can read and sing along to the lyrics that appear on the screen. Play fun songs like “That’s Amore,” “All Shook Up,” and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?”
Piano Music
Get your residents recalling the classic tunes that they remember their parents singing as you play a CD of piano songs that include hits like “Bye Bye Blackbird,” “My Wild Irish Rose,” and “Bicycle Built for Two.”
Oldies But Goodies Music
Have fun as you encourage residents to sing Karaoke songs of yesteryear on your facility’s Karaoke machine, like “My Girl” by The Temptations, “My Boyfriend’s Back” by The Angels, and “Dancing in the Streets” by Martha and the Vandellas.
In addition, during your one-on-one visits, engage residents visually by sharing music conversation cards to spark discussions about their memories of music. Furthermore, consider getting your residents hands involved too by providing musical hand therapy, in which you follow the accompanying booklet to access acupressure points on your resident’s hand as the two of you hum to familiar songs.
Folk Music
Get your residents up and moving to American folk music as you play a Music and Motions DVD that allows residents to move to the music as they sing along. Simply follow the instructor’s lead as you guide residents to perform the seated stretching exercises.
Patriotic Music
When it comes to sing-alongs, don’t forget about the popular patriotic music. Play a patriotic CD and invite residents to sing “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” “Home on the Range,” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”
Country Music
Tap into your residents’ love of country music by hosting a fun What’s the Next Line? game, in which you play a few lines of a well-known country music song to see whether they can recall the next line. Play fun songs like “On the Road Again,” “Hey Good Looking,” and “Tennessee Waltz.”
Broadway Music
Invite residents to play a fun game of Name the Broadway Musical as you play popular Broadway songs for residents to try to identify before guessing the musical. For the activity, divide residents into teams to see how many songs and musicals the teams can name.
Television Music
Help residents recall the popular television jingles of the past as you play a fun game of Name That Old T.V. Jingle. To play, simply play the television jingles from the CD to see if residents can identify the product that is being advertised.
In addition, use a television theme song CD to see if residents can guess the classic television show from the theme song being played.
Caribbean Music
Encourage residents to recall their past visits to the Caribbean as you play fun limbo music so that residents and staff members can try their hand at dancing the limbo. Be sure to keep the pole high for residents, but lower it for the staff members!
Spiritual Music
Recreate your residents’ memories in church as you play spiritual music for residents to sing along. Pass out hymn lyrics, and encourage residents to sing along to “Amazing Grace,” “Wade in the Water,” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
Band Music
Finally, consider starting your own band as you pass out musical instruments for residents to play. Simply play fun music in the background and encourage residents to play their instruments along to the music.
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!
