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Help your residents celebrate National Assisted Living Week from Sunday, September 12 to Saturday, September 18, 2021. With this year\u2019s theme \u2013 Compassion, Community, and Caring \u2013 create fun activities in your facility throughout the week that allow your residents and staff members to show compassion, build community, and care for others.<\/p>\n
Provide a variety of fun craft activities throughout the week, and invite residents and staff members to join in to make fun items that can be given to residents, staff members, and family members.<\/p>\n
For Residents<\/strong><\/p>\n Encourage residents to decorate items that they can keep in their rooms, like flowerpots<\/a> to plant, ceramic trinket boxes<\/a>, and sun catchers<\/a> that residents can hang in front of their apartment windows.<\/p>\n For Staff Members<\/strong><\/p>\n During your craft activities, recruit residents to help you create fun gifts that can be given to staff members and the administrators in your facility. For instance, use rock painting kits<\/a>\u00a0in which residents paint and decorate rocks so that staff members can use them as paperweights on their desks. In addition, show residents how to easily decorate bookmarks<\/a>\u00a0that can be donated to staff members. Finally, have residents design ceramic mugs<\/a> that can be given as gifts to your facility\u2019s administrators to show their appreciation for the long hours and dedication.<\/p>\n For Family Members<\/strong><\/p>\n Encourage residents to make fun gifts that can be given to their family members. For instance, supply residents with sensory coloring kits<\/a>\u00a0to color pictures to give to loved ones. Additionally, greeting cards<\/a>\u00a0can be decorated and filled in with loving notes of support and thankfulness. Finally, provide residents with heart frames<\/a>\u00a0to decorate. Then take pictures of your residents that they can include in the heart frame before giving them as gifts to family members.<\/p>\n Use National Assisted Living Week to help build community within your facility, in which you invite everyone to participate. For instance, consider hosting Spirit Days throughout the week, where you focus on a central theme each day:<\/p>\n Monday: Sports Day<\/strong><\/p>\n Introduce residents to different sport activities throughout the day, like an inflatable bowling game<\/a>, an inflatable dice game<\/a>\u00a0to see who can roll the highest number, and an inflatable ring toss game<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tuesday: Beach Day<\/strong><\/p>\n Fill pails<\/a> with sand so that residents can create sandcastles on the back patio tables, like they were at the beach. In addition, use beach balls<\/a>\u00a0to play a fun game of beach ball volleyball in the backyard using your backyard volleyball net.<\/p>\n Wednesday: Crazy Hat Day<\/strong><\/p>\n Invite residents to decorate their own hats<\/a>\u00a0that they can wear for the day. In fact, for your really creative residents, supply them with tissue paper<\/a>\u00a0and tape to make fun Easter bonnet-style hats. The colorful hats can also be made with variegated colored tissue paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thursday: Western Day<\/strong><\/p>\n Pass out cowboy hats<\/a> for residents to decorate and bandanas<\/a>\u00a0for residents to wear. Then later in the day, teach residents how to dance the Two Step while listening to country music<\/a>.<\/p>\n Friday: Make a Difference Day<\/strong><\/p>\n Assist residents with creating care packages that can be donated to the troops overseas by packing goodies into storage bins<\/a>\u00a0to donate. In addition, assist residents with decorating stuffed animals<\/a>\u00a0that can be donated to the kids at a local homeless shelter.<\/p>\n Another option besides having a week of Spirit Days, is to plan a few big events for everyone in your facility. For instance, organize a special Thank You Luncheon to pay tribute to the residents and staff members of your facility. During the meal, pass out special spirit award ribbons<\/a>\u00a0to give to your most engaged staff members and residents.<\/p>\n Another idea is to host a fun backyard baseball game, in which the staff members play while the residents watch. Simply provide the staff with foam bats and balls<\/a>\u00a0to play the baseball game in the backyard \u2013 1st<\/sup> Floor Staff vs. 2nd<\/sup> Floor Staff. Be sure to pass out popcorn<\/a>\u00a0and Cracker Jack for residents to enjoy while watching the big game.<\/p>\n Finally, schedule several activities that demonstrate how much everyone cares for one another. For example, plan a few outdoor evening concerts for your residents in which their favorite entertainers stop by to perform for them. Additionally, help residents bond with one another by participating in fun sing along activities where they sing their favorite classic songs<\/a>\u00a0together.<\/p>\n In addition, plan one final car parade of the season, in which family members decorate their cars as they drive through your facility\u2019s parking lot. Supply residents with pom-poms<\/a>\u00a0and noisemakers<\/a>\u00a0to cheer on the family members that ride through.<\/p>\n Find more ideas from Notjustbingo\u00a0on the S&S blog here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n About Not Just Bingo:<\/strong><\/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<\/em>\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":"Building Community<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Caring for Others<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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