Celebrate National Assisted Living Week September 8th -14th and this year’s theme “Inspiring Generations” at your facility by planning a week full of activities that are inspired by your residents’ interests and past experiences. Have fun picking entertaining themes for each day of the week that allow you to provide fun games, crafts, and activities.
Sunday – Grandparents Day
Recognize National Grandparents Day on Sunday, September 8th by planning activities that involve the family, including the grandchildren.
Game – Family Feud
Invite the family members to your facility to play fun games with residents. Divide the families into teams and have the teams compete against one another while playing classic games, like Family Feud.
Craft – Coloring Greeting Cards
Assist residents with coloring greeting cards that they can send to their grandchildren. Encourage residents to use the kit’s markers to fill in the pre-printed images on the cards.
Activity – Writing Letters to the Grandkids
Use the greeting cards that were colored during the craft and encourage residents to write special notes in them to send to their grandchildren.
Monday – Career Day
Pay tribute to your residents’ former occupations by scheduling activities that recognize their interesting past jobs.
Game – Career Pictionary
Grab a box of markers and divide residents into teams to play a game of Career Pictionary. Beforehand, write down a variety of occupations on small sheets of paper, including the former occupations of your residents. Then have teams take turns drawing the occupation to see if their team can correctly guess it in 30 seconds.
Craft – Career Shadow Boxes
Provide residents with shadow boxes to fill with photos or mementos from their working days. Once the boxes are complete, go around the room and encourage residents to share a few stories from their past jobs as they show-off their shadow boxes.
Activity – Baking Cookies for Police and Fire
Honor the workers at your local police and fire stations by inviting residents to bake a few batches of cookies to deliver to them as appreciation for their hard work.
Tuesday – Entertainment Day
Schedule a day where your residents are entertained throughout the day. Recruit entertainers, staff members, and your Dining Staff for fun activities.
Game – Blindfold Tasting
Recruit your facility’s Dining Staff to provide a variety of cakes for a cake tasting, in which blindfolded residents sample to see if they can identify the flavor.
Craft – Sensory Tubes
Help residents create their own “entertainment in a bottle” as you show them how to assemble sensory tubes featuring the kit’s shells, sequins, beads, and glitter.
Activity – Backyard Concert
Host a fun backyard concert featuring your residents’ favorite mobile entertainer. Pass out tasty snacks and fruity drinks for residents to enjoy while listening to the entertainment.
Wednesday – Patriot Day
Remember 9-11 by hosting activities that recognize America while allowing residents to showcase their patriotism.
Game – Cornhole Toss
Set up a patriotic cornhole tossing game in the backyard for residents to play. Divide residents into teams – first floor vs. second floor; men vs. women – to see which team can score the most points.
Craft – Patriotic Kites
Pass out patriotic kites for residents to design with the kit’s markers. Encourage residents to design a kite that is worthy of being flown on Patriot Day
Activity – Flying Kites
Invite volunteers to help residents fly the kites that were made. For the activity, seat residents in chairs in the backyard, and have the volunteers get the kites up in the air so that residents can fly them from their seats.
Thursday – Nature Day
Celebrate nature with your residents with fun activities that allow residents to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature.
Game – Find It in Nature
Invite residents to play the game Find It in Nature, in which you pass out paint swatches and have residents go outdoors to try to find elements that match the paint colors in their paint swatch. Use a variety of greens, blues, and browns so that residents can easily find color matches during the activity.
Craft – Painting Flower Pots
Provide residents with acrylic paint to decorate flower pots that they can fill with flowers or plants for their rooms.
Activity – Butterfly Garden
Encourage residents to help you set up an indoor butterfly garden that your residents can tend to in your facility when they are unable to enjoy nature outdoors.
Friday – Music Day
Tap into your residents’ love of music by inviting them to participate in activities throughout the day that involve soothing melodies.
Game – Name That Old T.V. Jingle
See how well your residents remember the classic television jingles of the past with a fun game in which they try to identify the jingle. Divide residents into teams to encourage a friendly competition.
Craft – Wooden Maracas
Pass out permanent markers for residents to decorate wooden maracas. Once the maracas are complete, save them for use for your future musical activities.
Activity – Musical Bingo
Merge your residents’ favorite activities – music and bingo – together in a fun game of music bingo. For the activity, simply play the CD that is included in the kit so that residents can identify the song title and find it on their bingo card.
Saturday – Volunteer Day
Schedule activities throughout the day that give residents the opportunity to help others in your community.
Game – Find the Volunteer
Invite your facility’s volunteers to participate in a fun game with residents, in which they submit a baby photo to be placed on the wall with those of other volunteers and staff members. Then give residents time to see if they can correctly identify the volunteers and staff members by their baby photo.
Craft – Assembling Teddy Bears
Assist residents with stuffing teddy bears to donate to a local children’s hospital.
Activity – Making Kits for Homeless
Ask family members for donations of new socks, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and bottled water for you and your residents to create kits to donate to a local homeless shelter. Simply fill plastic containers.
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!
