With Election Day fast approaching on Tuesday, November 5th, it’s time to start thinking about what activities you can plan to help your residents enjoy this day where they can perform their civic duty of voting. Here are 10 ideas to try in your facility this November…
1. Host a Patriotic Lunch
Coordinate with Dining Service to serve a tasty patriotic-themed lunch for residents featuring the colors of the flag, like red, white, and blue spaghetti, food-coloring-dyed deviled eggs, and ice cream with patriotic sprinkles. For the event, cover the dining tables with white linens and a patriotic centerpiece.
2. Pass Out Patriotic Gear
Make sure that your residents are all decked out for Election Day by passing out American flags that they can carry with them and patriotic hats that they can wear all day.
3. Schedule Your Own Elections
Use this election season as a time to host your own elections for various resident representatives. For instance, encourage residents to vote on a representative that can speak for them and their concerns before and after your Resident Council meetings. Additionally, if you find that your residents spend a lot of your Resident Council meetings discussing one topic in particular, like the food that is served in your facility, then set up a separate council that is just for food, like a Table Talk meeting, and have residents elect a representative for that council too.
To remind residents to stop by your Activity Room to vote on the representatives, be sure to decorate your room with festive patriotic banners.
4. Plan a Debate
See how well your residents are at debating issues with a fun debating activity. Simply use a newspaper and have two residents square-off and debate the opposite of a topic that appears in the newspaper. Another option is to use a You Be the Judge book to read a real-life scenario, and then have the residents argue opposite sides.
5. Throw an Election Day Bingo Party Gather your facility’s bingo cards
Gather your facility’s bingo cards and replace the B-I-N-G-O at the top of the cards with V-O-T-E-R. Then have the bingo caller make sure to call the bingo numbers using the new letters (e.g., V-9 instead of B-9). Pass out patriotic flag beads for residents to use as the bingo markers on their card. As bingo prizes, use patriotic pencils or other patriotic novelties.
6. Bake Patriotic Cupcakes
Adjust a cupcake batter recipe by adding in swirls of red and blue using food coloring to create patriotic cupcakes that you can bake https://www.ssww.com/item/babycakes-full-size-cupcake-maker-12-cupcakes-19775/ in your Activity Room. Provide residents with red and blue frosting to decorate their cupcakes before sampling them.
7. Make Campaign Buttons
At the beginning of the day, invite residents to help you create and assemble campaign buttons using markers. Encourage residents to wear their buttons for the day.
8. Make Election Signs
Help residents know where they can vote in your facility by having your Craft Club make wooden signs using paint. Invite residents to write in the location and time of the elections on the signs before posting throughout your facility.
9. Say the Pledge of Allegiance
If the weather cooperates, lead residents outdoors for a flag raising, where residents and staff members can join in with saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
10. Take a Patriotic Scenic Ride
Invite residents for a scenic ride to view the government buildings in and around your area. Take residents pass the courthouse, town hall, and even the police station.
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!
