{"id":12713,"date":"2018-04-17T09:28:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T13:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/?p=12713"},"modified":"2026-05-11T15:23:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T19:23:45","slug":"activities-older-americans-month-engage-every-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/activities-older-americans-month-engage-every-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Activities for Older Americans Month – Engage at Every Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"older<\/p>\n

Have fun in May as you help your senior residents celebrate Older Americans Month. Throughout the month, schedule fun activities that coordinate with the 2018 theme \u201cEngage at Every Age\u201d, and provide opportunities for your residents to learn, share, volunteer, and celebrate.<\/p>\n

Learn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Teach your residents something new during the month of May by planning educational activities. For instance, invite speakers into your facility to give talks during a Senior Lecture Series, or use adventure DVDs<\/a>\u00a0to take your residents on armchair travel adventures, right in your Activity Room.<\/p>\n

As a weekly activity, pick a different skill or technique to teach your residents. For example teach the residents in your Baking Club about your technique for making lattice-crust pies, or teach your Pottery Club members the pinching technique for shaping clay pottery.<\/p>\n

For a one-time activity for the month of May, host a Sign Language Class where you use sign language cards<\/a>\u00a0to teach your residents simple signs, or pass out journals<\/a>\u00a0before to teach residents how to write their own autobiographies.<\/p>\n

If your residents are handy, consider using kits, like an airplane kit<\/a>, to allow your residents to assemble small toy airplanes.<\/p>\n

Share<\/strong><\/p>\n

Encourage residents to share their knowledge through different types of fun activities. For instance, organize a Mentoring Session for your residents to meet with a local Boys\u2019 and Girls\u2019 Club so that they can share their knowledge and give tips and support to the kids.<\/p>\n

Additionally, schedule several activities for your residents where they can share their experiences with other residents in your facility. For example, host story circles throughout the month, with each story circle having a different theme for residents to discuss, like Military Service, the 1950’s Housewife, or Wedding Day.<\/p>\n

If your residents need more help in prompting a discussion, then use a game like Table Topics<\/a>, where you can ask questions about the past, present, and future.<\/p>\n

Volunteer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Help your residents give back by planning volunteer opportunities for your residents during May. Start with simple activities, like organizing a Volunteer Match where you pair residents with your facility\u2019s bedridden residents so that your resident-volunteers can read to them.<\/p>\n

In addition, use several kits to get your residents involved with doing work for others, like using postcards<\/a>\u00a0to start a Pen Pal Club with a wing of a local children\u2019s hospital, or having residents decorate pencil cases<\/a>\u00a0to donate to a local elementary school class.<\/p>\n

Another option for your residents is to create clubs in your facility in which your residents help out around your facility, like contributing stories and articles to your facility\u2019s newsletter or helping to water the flowers and plants in your facility.<\/p>\n

Celebrate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Invite your residents to express themselves as you encourage them to celebrate their lives throughout May. Provide art activities that tap into your residents\u2019 creativity, like having residents use colored pencils to fill in famous works of art coloring pages<\/a>\u00a0by artist Norman Rockwell.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, consider adding in a few dance activities for residents, like hosting a fun Dance Party featuring music from yesteryear<\/a>\u00a0or even organizing a Chair Dance Session where you teach residents a few chair dancing moves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, encourage residents to engage again with fun contests and competitions, like a Word Search Contest to see which resident can complete their word search puzzle<\/a>\u00a0the fastest, a Jigsaw Puzzle Contest to see which team can complete their jigsaw puzzle<\/a>\u00a0the fastest, or a Crossword Puzzle Competition to see whether the men or the women are the best at solving crossword puzzles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About Not Just Bingo:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"notjustbingo<\/p>\n

Not Just Bingo<\/a>\u00a0is an online resource of fun, senior activity ideas for activity professionals of nursing homes and 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 \u201cbeyond bingo.\u201d Not Just Bingo feels\u00a0privileged to help activity directors better the living experiences of their residents while demonstrating that a senior\u2019s quality of life can actually\u00a0improve<\/i>\u00a0when they move to a nursing facility!<\/p>\n

Want even more ideas each month? Visit\u00a0www.notjustbingo.com<\/a>\u00a0for how-to activity ideas, monthly newsletters, and daily holiday ideas. You can also sign up for the\u00a0Notjustbingo Membership<\/a>\u00a0to receive specialized activity ideas to keep your residents and staff engaged, active, and having fun!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have fun in May as you help your senior residents celebrate Older Americans Month. Throughout the month, schedule fun activities that coordinate with the 2018 theme \u201cEngage at Every Age\u201d, and provide opportunities for your residents to learn, share, volunteer, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[457,224],"tags":[590,495,1165,1358,463,398,1257,875,326,428,874,1190,314,471],"yoast_head":"\nActivities for Older Americans Month - Engage at Every Age - S&S Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/activities-older-americans-month-engage-every-age\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Activities for Older Americans Month - Engage at Every Age - S&S Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have fun in May as you help your senior residents celebrate Older Americans Month. 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