actnet 8 Report Share Posted September 27, 2021 View this email in your browser Entertaining Residents on the Weekend Take a quick tour through the Activity Directors Network Facebook feed and you will find the common topic of entertaining bored residents over the weekend. Peppered into some of the suggestions, hints of frustration poke though about the idea that Activity Directors are somehow expected to entertain the residents 24/7. Of course, this is not possible, but it does suggest an insatiable entertainment need for some of our more active residents. Let’s look at some of the fantastic suggestions made by some of our fellow Activity Directors: Open Closet Create an accessible closet stocked with items for entertainment and add or rotate new items in. Items to include: Boardgames Video Game Player and Games Packs of Playing Cards Word Games Magazines Books Blank Greeting Cards Art Supplies (for painting, drawing, collage work, coloring, crafting) Paint by Number Movies Radio Boredom Packets A couple of the comments mentioned creating packets that the residents could grab and work on whenever they choose. You could make it a contest or have them turn them in for a treat or prize on Mondays as incentive, but if you can make them interesting enough with some sort of hook you may not need to. Items to include in your packet: Interesting Articles Funny Stories Riddles Journal Page Coloring Pages Trivia Look and Find Crossword Word Search Weekly Newsletter Health Brochures Scavenger Hunt Set a scavenger hunt for the residents to do over the weekend. One AD mentioned she hid pictures all over the facility and the residents had to find each one of them. Those that found all of them, received a prize on Monday. We made a FREE Halloween Scavenger Hunt for you to use with your residents this weekend! Click below for a printout of the pictures for hiding and the form to hand out to interested residents. FREE Activity Worksheets Movies Everybody loves a movie, especially on the weekend. This one is always a biggie and with the right movie selection it can be a serious weekend event. Keep your movies fresh and circulate new options constantly. Surprise your residents often by adding to your classic movie selection. This is an easy event to get help pulling off. You only need one volunteer to pop some popcorn and get the movie going. Where to Watch Classic Movies Online: The 7 Best Sites and Services Source: WhatNerd.Com 1. Criterion Channel As the name suggests, the Criterion Channel is a digital streaming version of the Criterion Collection of films. You won’t find every single film in the collection here, but new movies do rotate in and out each month. The selection is large however and doesn’t just include the films themselves but features around various movies and film in general. At $10.99/month or $99/year, this is a major value for film buffs. 2. Watch TCM No, I’m not just suggesting that you watch the Turner Classic Movies channel on your TV provider of choice. Watch TCM is a TV Everywhere app that lets you sign in with your TV provider and then watch movies on demand at no extra cost. The only downside of this service is that modern streaming cable replacements like Sling TV don’t seem to be supported, so this is only for those with cable or satellite TV. 3. Fandor Self-described as a service for movie lovers, the main emphasis of Fandor is on independent and foreign movies. This includes several classic films as well, which make up a sizable portion of the more than 4,000 movies offered via the service. This is one of the more affordable services on this list too, costing just $5.99/month or $49/year. 4. Kanopy If you have a library card, you need to be using Kanopy. This service works with libraries and universities throughout the US to provide streaming movies for members. This includes a wide range of various films, but it includes a large library of classics. 5. Archive.org You may know Archive.org at the home of the Wayback Machine, but as the name says, it’s an archive of various sorts of digital media. This includes a vast selection of public domain films. If you’re a fan of shorts from this time period, the Prelinger Archives are hosted here as well, with various educational and promotional short films to keep you busy for hours on end. 6. Netflix Classics While the selection isn’t what it used to be, you can still find some classic movies on Netflix. Depending on how you access the service, they can be difficult to find. One of the easiest ways is to hop on to your computer and point your browser to the website, then select Classics from the genre selector. Some of the movies you’ll find are newer than what I think of when I think of classics, but you may view this as a plus. 7. Hulu Classics There was a time when Hulu was one of the best streaming services for classic movies, as it hosted much of the Criterion Collection. Now that that’s a separate service, you won’t find many of them on Hulu any longer. That said, there are still a fair number of classic films available on the service. If you subscribe to Starz, either as an add-on or as part of Hulu with Live TV, the number of classics available grows considerably. Don’t Forget About Discs If you’ve got DVD copies of older films, don’t just assume that a streaming version will look better. In some cases, the streaming version won’t look any better than your DVD copy, and it could even look worse. If you have a Blu-ray, it will almost certainly look better than streaming. Hire Entertainers If you are able to hire entertainers or book special volunteers at least one weekend a month your residents will be thrilled! The question is where to find these entertainers. Some are fairly easy to find through forums, Facebook, internet searches, or word of mouth. Other’s however may not present as Entertainers but are. See examples to catch my drift: Book Club- Read a book written by a local author and invite the author in for a reading and book signing. Cake Decorating- Invite a local baker to come in and do a cupcake decorating demonstration. Adaptive Fitness- Ask a local trainer from a gym to come in and show the residents some low impact moves they can do to stay more active. Church Choir- Live music is loved by most. Invite a local singing group or choir to come and put on a performance for your residents. Computer Class- Invite someone from a local technology store or computer repair shop to come in a give a lesson on how to use the computer for a specific purpose (ie edit photos, search The Met’s database for art, find good book suggestions on Goodreads.com, etc.) Oktoberfest- Invite someone from a local brewery to have a tasting and discuss the process for making beer. We just added a new section to the Forum for Facility Entertainers. Add any you have used or have heard of to help each other out. The list will grow from here! Facility Entertainers Forum Activity Directors Network was founded in 1996 on the idea that we could help create elderly care that dramatically improved the lives of those we all serve. We envision facilities that feel like homes and that celebrate our resident’s individuality and allows them to live with dignity, purpose and joy. We believe the exchange of education and wisdom between the most talented teachers and passionate students is the way to make an impact. Each and every single one of you are the revolution that is changing everything. Thanks for being a part of The Network. Copyright © 2021 Activity Directors Network, LLC All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 2810 US HWY 190 W #100-A9 Livingston, Texas 77351 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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