terrykdunn

What a great idea! I like this because it can be done quite inexpensively. I have a great contact for a person who can do face-painting and balloon creations. Maybe I'll throw in my karaoke machine too. Thanks, Terry

Miguel, could you also send me a copy of both (Participation record and room visitt schedulet) to terrykdunn@yahoo.com Thanks, Terry

Why do you want this job? (Someone once told us they wanted the job because it would look good on their resume!) What have you done or experienced in the past that could/will help you be a good __________. At your last job, when you had a disagreement with a co-worker, how did you resolve the issue? (This question allows you to see if they believe in the chain of command) I'd take them to an activity, I'd model how I interact with the residents and then I'd wait/watch to see if they engage any residents in conversation. (I've had people totally ignore the residents and I could see clear uneasiness being around seniors.) What would prevent you from being a reliable employee? (This lets you find out about unreliable cars, illness' they have, babysitting problems, or on the other hand, they might tell you about a backup sitter and that they've had pefect attendance at other jobs.) Hope this helps, Terry

I'm just now finishing a 16 week Basic Activity Directors course on-line. It's not been too bad, just be sure you know how to navigate the computer. My AD took a class at the local Community College to become an AD. I could certainly be misinformed, but I've been told it's better NOT to have a CNA license because you'll be asked to do things (cut nails, feed residents, take residents to the bathroom) you won't have time to do, because AD works keeps you plenty busy.

Hi all, I'd like to have some ideas on what else we could call our "Group Activities" on the monthly calendar. We do this activity every Thursday and we have at least 20-25 residents participate. We usually do exercises with a parachute, we play beach ball vollyball, we have several ball toss games, basketball games, several beanbag games using the hula-hoop, really it's exercise and fun. We play upbeat music and play games where everyone introduces themselves. Any and all ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Terry

Hi there. I know you needed ideas for your August event, but I thought I'd add my information anyway. We had a GREAT Senior Olympics activity. We also used most of the residents as cheerleaders (and when we do this again, we'll provide pom-poms too!) We had electric wheelchair races. Pictures taken of all racers. For our Discus Throw, we used a plastic blow-up ball that kinda looks like the planet Saturn (it's easier to hold onto) we had several residents throw this ball and then we measured how far they threw it. We wrote the measurements on white boards (be sure to hold them up) and kept track of longest throw. The winner had their picture taken. We had teams compete against each other for our Shotput Throw. You get a hula-hoop, place it in the middle of the teams, give each team 2 bean bags each, or a total of 4 per team, have them throw bean bags into the hula-hoop. Team that gets the most inside hula-hoop wins and gets to play the next team. Again winners get picture taken. How did we choose the residents to compete? In our group activites we practiced these events and picked those residents that either really enjoyed playing or were very good. For our finale, we had our Administrator and two employees from housekeeping compete in a pie eating contest.(We used chocolate creme pies!) The entire staff and all of our participants enjoyed the show. Our Admin was fabulous...he came prepared, he wore a poncho, goggles, and a hairnet....needless to say, he won!

I was hoping that someone was able to get a copy of his participation & room visit log forms. My email is terrykdunn@yahoo.com. thanks

Hi all, What a great idea! Yesterday, as I was taking a resident to her room, on her bed was a Certificate of Achievement from therapy, and she was so proud. It made me think about getting certificates, or designing some, to congratulate them on their accomplishments in activities. For instance, we had a Spelling Bee yesterday, we had some wonderful spellers. Why not put a card in their rooms that has "Spelling Bee Champion" or "Supper Speller".

About the calendars that go into the resident 's rooms...we buy colored paper, using very light colors only, to make the calendars more attractive and easy to read.