The 'A' List

Easter is a time where many of us think eggs, bunnies, and chocolate!  There are many activities with eggs you can find online, but most of them require the participants to be quick and have good balance.  Here is a race that only requires that you can have fun!  This egg race can be done by a range of people; from fully functioning residents to ones with dementia and lower functioning residents as well.

The supplies you need are: 1 hard boiled or plastic egg for each participant, something that can be used as a ramp, and either colorful electrical tape or masking tape.

Your ramp can be built from anything.  It can be as simple as a large cutting board, to a piece of wood, or even a table leaf.  Think of something that will be long enough so that the residents don't have to bend down a lot to place their egg down.  Once you have found something for your ramp, you are ready to place it.  Put it in a place where it is high enough for the residents to reach easily, but also make sure that the angle will allow the egg to keep rolling once it gets to the bottom and onto the floor.  You might also want to put edging on the sides of the ramp "ramp," so that it doesn't fall off when the egg is rolling down. A simple strip of thick foam on the sides will work, or even roll up some towels for the sides to make edges and use tape to keep them in place. 

Give each resident their own egg.  You can even have an extra step, and have them decorate them to make them a little more fancy if they would like to.  If you have a really tight budget, you can just have one egg and have them all use the same one.  In this case though, you might want to stick with a plastic one.  Have each resident, one at a time, take their egg and place it at the top of the ramp and let it go.  After one person has gone, put a piece of tape on the floor where the egg ended up, and give them back the egg.  Then repeat this process until each person has gone.  The winner is the one that goes the furthest!  This will be a fun activitiy that everyone can do!

Many of you are on a budget, and worry about what activities are going to cost.  Well here is one that is free!  It is as easy as a local phone call or letter.

High school or college language teachers LOVE their country of interest, and are more than willing to share their love with others.  They are happy to share their experiences, photos, and knowledge of their country of interest.  

This is a great small group activity.  Call a local language teacher!  Have them come do a presentation for your group that will take them to another land, another place.  You can make this more memorable if you do a little research first.  Ask the residents where they would like to "go to."  What places interest them?  Do any of them have family backgrounds from a certain country?  These questions will help guide you to know who you should be contacting. 

Have fun with this!  If you do have additional funds, make a few items for them to be able to taste food from the country.  Decorate the room to look like the country.  Have some pictures around.  Or get a few books on tape they can listen to that will help them learn more about it.  These are all things you can do to help this presentation seem more like a visit to another land!

March is soon upon us and St. Patrick’s Day is closing in. How much do you and your residents know about Ireland. Here is a quick quiz.

Some areas in Ireland are known to receive this many inches of rain each year, which accounts for the brilliantly green grass that has earned Ireland the nickname the "emerald isle":

1. Sixty inches
2. Seventy inches
3. Eighty inches
4. Ninety inches

"Erin Go Bragh," a phrase heard often on St. Patrick's Day, means:

1. I Love Ireland
2. Ireland Forever
3. Brave and Free
4. Ireland, My Home

Irish tradition says that anyone who kisses the blarney stone, which is located near this town, will be blessed with the Irish "gift of gab":

1. Dublin
2. Wexford
3. Cork
4. Waterford

This Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet and playwright was also a senator of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1928:

1. George Bernard Shaw
2. James Joyce
3. Jonathan Swift
4. William Butler Yeats

This film, shot in Ireland in 1952, was directed by John Ford:

1. Ryan's Daughter
2. The Quiet Man
3. The Dead
4. The Informer

Traditional Irish music has found an international audience with the popularity of such Celtic bands as:

1. The Chieftains
2. The Lads
3. Shannon Rovers
4. Sweet Honey in the Rock

In November 1995, the people of Ireland narrowly passed a referendum legalizing:

1. Same-sex marriages
2. Abortion
3. Divorce
4. Marijuana

With 27,136 square miles of land, the Republic of Ireland is approximately half the size of this U.S. state:

1. Montana
2. California
3. Louisiana
4. Arkansas

Today, this number of Americans trace their ancestry back to Ireland:

1. Ten million
2. Twenty-five million
3. Forty million
4. Sixty-five million

Here is another idea. As many Irish immigrated to the states in the early 1900’s, tracing family history is a wonderful activity. You can start by visiting the Ellis Island website. Or buy the book, “The Family Tree Guide to Finding Your Ellis Island Ancestors” (2005). In this comprehensive guide, you’ll discover how to successfully find your Ellis Island ancestors in the database online and in microfilmed passenger lists. This would be a great activity that could involve family members. Ask residents to share what they remember of their ancestry. Create a family tree based on what you can find out.

Written By: Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC

For more great ideas like these visit Anthony’s Song and check out his products for activity directors. 

Mail is one of the highlights of most people's days.  It is a time where there is a chance you will hear from someone that you don't usually hear from, a special message from a loved one.  People love mail, especially cards!

There are so many people who are in need of cheering up, and creating cards is a way residents can feel they are helping others.  They can give residents a sense of accomplishment, and having a common goal!  Giving always rewards the heart; it warms you up!

Make cards to send to sick children or veterans.   Here is one website that you can use to find children who are in need of a card.  Make a Child Smile This is a wonderful organization that lists children who might need some cheering up, and gives their address where you can send mail.  If you don't want to send cards individually, find a local children's hospital, or hospital wing, and deliver them there in bulk.  Just send them with a note saying who they were made the cards, and who they are for.  So the note would read: "These are from Good Samaritan Nursing Home, for any child would could use a cheerful card."

 Here is another link that will help you get started.  This is a great website about how to make cards.  It has several templates and ideas for supplies to have on hand.  How to Make Greeting Cards

This is a fun craft activity, that is also good psychologically.  It is always a good feeling to help others, and of course, your residents are no different.  Instead of them being helped all of the time, let them use their time to help others in need.  It will be uplifting for them, and for the children or veterans they make the cards for!

As we go through our days, we often are overwhelmed with the number of things we are responsible for; from taking the kids to their activities, to work, to making dinner, to making sure that bill gets in the mail.  For nursing home residents all of this responsibility falls on others.  Imagine a day where you have no responsibility.  The first day may be great, but then as days pass you realize that it is in fact these responsibilities that make our life worthwhile.  If we have no responsibility, we have no purpose. No purpose often equals depression, which will compound any illness that residents are facing.  In time, they will stop doing things that they once enjoyed.  Not doing anything leads to a  memory loss, as the brain is not used.  This slippery slope often happens in a facility, but there are things we can do to prevent it.

Responsibility is one of the keys to warding off depressive episodes, which can help quality of life.  So what do you do about it?  Give them tasks.  Give them responsibility.

Make a chart and divide activities among residents.  Pocket charts often work the best.  This way you can put their name and a picture of their task in it.  Below is a picture of a chart that would work for this activity.  Next, make a list of things that residents can do around the facility.  Here are some examples of easy activities; deliver mail to residents, water plants,  fold any laundry, wipe off front desk, sharpen pencils, be a greeter for mealtimes (welcoming people),  change the calendar to the correct day, weather reporter (have a weather chart for them to change), paper passer (anything that would need to be delivered to residents), activity directors helper (have them assist you with anything they can during the day), stapler (let them staple anything that needs it), game helper (helping with any activity for the day) etc.  I'm sure you get the idea now.  Even a small task can be fun and give a person some responsibly along the way.  Imagine waking up with nothing to do all day, versus waking up and knowing that you are the greeter at mealtime today.  This gives you purpose!

After you have your responsibilities thought through, take pictures of someone doing that task.  You can also write a description of the job out, but having a picture in the pocket is more helpful.  This way that can go to the chart during the day and see what they have for the day.  Place the pictures in the left area, and their name in the right, as shown in this chart.  This makes it easy for them to find what they are to do for the day. Then, each day rotate the pictures so that each person's name stays in the same place, but the responsibilty changes.  This makes it easier to locate their jobs each day. You can either rotate it so that each resident has a job each day, or you can also rotate them so that residents get a break and don't have something every day.  Whatever you feel your residents will enjoy most.

The key to this activity is to know that just because the responsibly is there doesn't mean that the task will be completed. This is not something you need to force residents to do, but more something that they can do if they would like to.  Most will need a little help getting started, and a friendly reminder once in a while, but it is nice for them to know that the chart is there if they feel like doing something. 

Giving residents more responsibly will oftentimes lift their depression over not having the freedoms they had at home.  If you know a resident would hate a certain activity, don't put their name there.  Try to limit it things that you think they will both feel responsibly about, but then accomplishment of a task when they are done.  And that is really what life is about.  The little accomplishments!