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Madalena 26th Jan 2018 Activity Coordinator

hi everyone

I am starting coffee morning in my facility for the residents of the different wings to gather and socialize any suggestions to keep the conversations flowing . Does any of you organizes this type of event in your facility ?Any suggestions?

Laura 28th Jan 2018 Executive Director

That's a awesome idea... i do the same every Friday morning and we do a crossword. .nothing serious and the residents love it.. good luck with it hun

Nikole 30th Jan 2018 Activities Director

I have a morning coffee and news session. We drink coffee/hot tea and chat about the news. I suggest having donuts to offer as well. I offer donuts on Friday's. It seems like if there is a type of snack offered I have a better turn out. Some days are slower then others. That is when we do crossword puzzles or word searches. My residents also love Sudoku. Hope this helps you a bit.

Ema 1st Feb 2018 Activities Coordinator

The home I work in is somewhat limited and a good third are on bed rest, the ones we do have up and about like to have a coffee afternoon Tuesday and Thursday. In that time we tend to lean towards a sing along. Since doing this we have got the residents to converse with each other. They whip out the sweets offer them around and they remember how the music made them feel back in the day. From Frank Sinatra, Vera Lynn even the beatles.

Solange 1st Feb 2018 Diversional Therapist

Hi Ema, that’s what it is all about: making them feel comfortable, content, at home, and ‘normal’. Well done! Thank you for sharing.

Nikole 2nd Feb 2018 Activities Director

We do coffee and news every weekday. I have the newspaper to look over and we talk about the headlines. We also do crossword puzzles and just chat. I offer donuts on Friday (which brings a larger crowd). It is a great way to start their day off with conversation and coffee with others.

Nori 16th Feb 2018

These are fantastic ideas!
Depending on your crowd, you could also show them photographs of current events or nature. Some news websites have sections called "The Week in Photos" or "Award-winning Pet Photos" or things like that, and I've used these with success. First we guess where/when the photo was taken, then we read the caption and look up the location, then we comment on the photo, then we reminisce about similar experiences in our own lives. For example, I used a photo of a mountain climber recently. We looked up the South American Mountain where the photo was taken, we talked about what the climber was feeling and experiencing, and then we talked about our own hiking/cliimbing experiences (if any). We usually get through about 10-15 pictures in about 30 minutes.

Val 15th Mar 2019 Activity Aide

Does anyone have a particular site that they get the news from. Most news is negative or very political that I would not want to use with our participants. It does look like USA today newspapers online looks pretty good. Any other ideas would be great.

Susan 15th Mar 2019 Activity Director

Hi Val
You are right most of the news is negative or political or both
You can use this day in history for each month for example for April use this link
https://www.goldencarers.com/this-day-in-history-for-seniors-april/5414/
Each month has one

Val 16th Mar 2019 Activity Aide

Thanks for all your suggestions.

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