Vote - Best Intergenerational Activity

[Guest Tinki]

Mom’s Group!

Our facility welcomes in a local Mom’s group. This group consists of 8-10 children from the ages of 2-5 and their moms. We meet once a month. A large space is used as I have the resident’s sit in a large circle and the open area on the floor is where the children sit with myself, the group facilitator. I start my session with a hello song, I play the guitar and sing a simple song that is repetitive, - Hello Sarah, hello Sarah, Hello Sarah, we’re glad you’re here today. All the resident’s and mother’s sing along. The children have quickly learned the song and look forward to hearing their name sung in the song. We start each session this way to prompt them that we are going to begin. They are seated next to me on the floor, I make eye contact and smile and this quickly gets them engaged. We then do a simple craft or science experiment that does not involve glue, paint or scissors. The craft may be putting small pieces of colored tissue paper on a precut shape of sticky paper or making beaded bracelets out of stretchy string. The science experiment may be adding food coloring to water in a baby food jar and then adding oil. We see that they will never completely mix. We then move into a physical activity. We may get out the parachute with the resident’s moving the parachute for the children to run underneath. Our resident’s led the “hooky spooky” for Halloween. A Halloween twist on the Hokey Pokey. In November we put heavy cream in a baby food jar and we ask the resident’s and the moms assistance in shaking it until we have butter. The mom’s then take the butter home and the children enjoy it on a snack or with dinner. We bring the session to a close with more theme oriented songs. Lyrics can be changed to songs such as “The Wheels on the Bus”, “London Bridge”, and “Old MacDonald”, all songs our resident’s sang to their children and can easily adapt to the new words. A resident then reads a short picture story to the children and then we sing a good bye song, similar to our hello song. The resident’s have also selected a coloring book page to be copied and hands this out as the children leave the facility. Each month a different theme is chosen with the craft, song and physical game relating to one another. We have found that having 4-5 short successful activities completely planned out assists all, as some have a short attn span and respond to different forms of stimuli.

Shelley Evans

 

Children’s Play Rehearsal

Take a group of residents to the local elementary school when they are rehearsing for a school show. The kids get an audience they are not embarrassed in front of and the residents get one of the things they enjoy most--being around kids. This works especially well with very low functioning Alzheimer's residents who respond to little stimuli.

Yolanda Douglass

 

Youth Volunteer Program

We have a youth volunteer program that we have done now for over 5 years we have a total of 8 youth volunteers that have been volunteering one day a week during the summer every summer for the pass 5 years , we have 6 that have been here for 2 years and 3 that have been here for 1 year.

 

This is how the program works;

(The volunteers by the way are the children of our staff that work here.)

The Youth are sign up by their parents then they come in for a Orientation Class very similar to the one you would give to new employees. And in this Orientation Class they are told about the Resident Rights, Conduct in a work place, what is expected of them etc. And then are ask to sign a agreement to fellow the rules. They are also told if you can’t come on the day you have signed up you have to call to let us know not your parent.

Then they are given their assignments some will be doing Activity Programs with the Activity Staff, some will be doing 1-1 visits with the residents in their rooms( Girls are better at this than boys) and some will do our library cart. They have name tags that say who they are and believe me they wear them with pride. It is a great program. This helps the children as well the residents and the Activity Department. We had one little volunteer who's not so little anymore she has been here for 5 years not and she couldn't read very well and was having problems in school all year with her reading so her parent signed her up in the summer to come be a volunteer and it took a minute to get the shyest out of her but we did and would read to the residents and they would help her figure out the words she was reading and now 5 years later she makes all A's in reading and she comes every year to volunteer her time in the summer time and the residents cant wait until school is out for the summer. And the residents keep up with these kids during the school year also, what sports are they doing, how did the kids band concerts go, how are the grades etc. I could go on and on, last summer we had 16 youth volunteers and they put in 1437 hours of volunteer time to our residents. Thank you so much for letting me share my successful program with you all.

My name is Angie Dreyer/Activity Director at Cogburn Health & Rehab in Huntsville , Alabama.

 

HOLIDAY TRADITIONS FROM A DIVERSE BACKGROUND

I work in a Jewish run facility with a diverse religious background among my residents. What we do is to make sure we focus on the different religions, traditions, and symbols that the residents have done and used throughout their lives with their families, especially around the holidays.

This year at Christmas time Hanukkah does not fall on Christmas day and that had given us the opportunity to have Jewish families volunteer their time to come and present a program for the residents. The Jewish children and parents will be talking about Christmas (I will be providing material for the parents/children to talk about). I will provide them with information about Christmas for them to read and talk about with the residents. It will also give the children a chance to find out what the residents did in their past with their families and it will give the children a chance to talk about what they do for Hanukkah with theirs.

With all the cultural difference among long term care residents, we need to focus on doing more for the residents to make sure they don’t lose the memory of their past traditions, esp. with their families around the holidays.

Doing the holiday program is not only giving the children with the Jewish background an educational experience on Christmas, it is giving them a chance to talk to the residents about their own holiday and what they do with their families.

The residents always enjoy listening to the children and visiting with them, and during this time of the year it makes it extra special.

Sincerely,

Kelly Covone-Henning,MA,ADC

[BartMan 0]

Hey there Tinki !! How are ya ? Guess what ? I have almost the same volunteer program at my facility , pretty cool huh ? BartMan

[Guest Tinki]

Great Job - Bart Man - It is impartive that we implement intergenerational activities for our residents!!! We just have to find one that fits our facility.

 

 

 

Dont forget to vote! The winner of this contest will recieve a prize - Go to the contest page to find out what!

 

Karen

[BartMan 0]

Well Tinki , it will only let me vote one time and I have done that already , good thing though huh ? Why ? 'Cause I would have won fo sho !! Hahahahahaha , Just Kidding........ Have a wonderful and blessed day from the BartMan !! I have a big day today Tinki , so wish me luck.... I am interviewing all day for an assistant. Four applicants to be exact....... Can't wait !! BMan

[Guest Tinki]

Hello All,

 

Looks like we have a tie -

 

Shelley Evans - Mom’s Group!

 

Angie Dreyer - Youth Volunteer Program

 

I will be contacting the winners so they can collect thier prizes!

 

Karen