Skip to main content

Fun Extras

It is the first day of the year and I am thinking about work on my day off. Shows you how much I love my job as activities director.... or some would say, how I "need to get out more!".... anyway, I am always looking for new inspiration for an activity and I found, again, a few websites that show us unique days  or themes for the month.

I like Holiday Insights.com a lot because when you click on the link, it gives you information about the special day. I think if you have the background information, it helps you promote the idea of the program to your residents. Some of these ideas inspired me as I reviewed them this time, because I've been trying to find a way to get resident's names and quick facts of interest out to the community, either through the monthly newsletter or our in-house TV channel. I believe that when they see their name, or that of their friends, that they will read or watch with greater interest. Another cute site that I like to get ideas for unique days to celebrate is brownielocks.com

And here is one that is food related: http://www.tfdutch.com/foodh.htm

The ideas that I got from the sites include:

  • 2/17 - Random Acts of Kindness Day - Promote the day in advance, as for submissions from residents re: who did what kindness for them/what they did for others. Promote results on TV and/or newsletter.
  • 6/4- Hug a Cat Day (June is Adopt a Cat Month) - Take pictures of residents holding their cats in advance and share them with the community..... Lobby wall display or TV channel (monthly newsletter costs per photo, so that is not a good option for me.)
  • 8/13 - Left Hander's Day...... Ask the month before and list their names in the monthly newsletter as a "space filler" along side the information about the development of Left Hander's Day
  • 9/8 - Grandparents Day - This might be a big list... so be careful what you ask for on this one.
  • 9/21 - World Gratitude Day - Promote the day in advance, as for submissions from residents what they are thankful for, and promote the results on TV and/or newsletter.
  • 10/7 - World Smile Day - Take random pictures of residents with great smiles - but just of their smiles, post them in the Lobby. Assign each photo a number and have a contest to see who can determine the most correct identifications of each smile. A prize can be an item with a yellow smiley face on it.... those are easy gift items to find
  • 11/16 - Button Day - Ask residents to wear items with lots of buttons.....the most buttons is the winner, or maybe they have a large button that they never get to wear, encourage them to add it to their outfit. (ie. "Birthday Boy," or "Kiss Me, I'm Irish.")  It could be very funny. Or, make craft items with buttons and have them for sale by your craft group as a fund raiser for the craft group or your favorite charity. See my Pinterest page for some more pictures of crafts with buttons.

So there you have it, a few bits of inspiration. I hope they make you think of ways that you can add something fresh and simple to your calendar. Set your plan in motion now. These are fun add-ons to a calendar and newsletter that tends to be predictable at times.  If you don't follow through this year, there is always next year, and no one will know if you did them or not since they are fun extras! 

If you have any ideas that are along these lines, "fun, extras," please take a minute to post them in the comment section below so that we can all benefit from one another.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 4, 2013 at 9:52 AM

    Hi there!
    I love your ideas. I was just wondering if you have any fun/different ideas for young seniors? We have a number of residents who are in their early 50's and we are always trying to find new ideas to interest this growing age group.
    Any suggestions would be great!!
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Recharging RetireesJanuary 4, 2013 at 6:56 PM

    Hi. All the themes, mixers, and ideas found on the A-Z page are good for younger seniors. I think about my own parents who fall into that younger crowd and believe that educational programs and job related activities would be of interest. My only thought is that you should get to know the people who are in your community and that will give you the information that you need for a successful program. If others reading this blog have thought, please share them below!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Styles of Scavenger Hunts

Boy is it hot outside! If you are like me you may still be looking for indoor activities that are fun for your residents to do. This activity that I will share with you can be done for different levels of care in your retirement community. I encourage you to share it with the other activity professionals that work in those other areas within your own community. The activity is the Scavenge Hunt. This can be done in three different ways and I will describe them below: 1)       The Stay Seated Scavenger Hunt v   Ask audience to bring in items they think will be asked for. Encourage them to fill their purses, pockets, bags, etc. and bring it to the event v   Make a list of items that they could bring with them v   Include items that would be funny, that might have a story to go with them, or that people would be surprised someone would actually have. (Green Stamps anyone?) v   See the list I used v   Cut the list into pieces and place them into a basket v   Ask
2 comments
Read more

Super Bowl Party for Seniors

It is almost here! The 46th Super Bowl game will be held on Sunday, February 5 in Indinapolis. Each year, residents in my retirement community want to have a viewing party for the big game. I believe that it is a fun program to make an activity out of, but not something that I must do every year. Mostly, I don't have this each year because there are not to many ways to change it up, so I don't want to have it become boring. (This is where your ideas would be great to hear!!) This year, we are going to have a party and I'd like to share with you the plans for the evening. Residents are now signing up for the program which is set to start at 6:00 p.m.  This time is perfect in my community because we still serve dinner at noon on Sundays and the residents usually like to attend for the food, if for no other reason. (I do charge them a fee for the food.) We will have the game showing on our big screen tv in the auditorium and tables and chairs set up for the residents to eat
2 comments
Read more

4 Pictures 1 Word Game for the Big Screen

Many of you who have played 4 Pictures 1 Word , know that this brain game is available as an app for your computer, tablet or phone for free. That is great, bu it does not allow a team to play and is not audience friendly if you wanted to present it at your retirement community (or other social gathering).  After some time and effort, I made a 4 Pictures and 1 Word game  slide show that you can use in your community. I did use the app for suggestions and the Internet for the pictures. I am glad to share this with you so that you will not have to spend the hours that I did in creating this game. If you get the urge to make one also, please come back to this blog page and share it.  I played this last week with a group of about 25 independent living residents.We did not get through all of the slides due to time constraints..... but I was glad I did not run out of slides in my hour that I had their attention. I will be playing this with them again... and would love to have other
Post a Comment
Read more