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Margaret 11th Jan 2021 Therapist
Can anyone recommend any icebreakers or group therapy activities for residents of assisted living?

Thank you!
Susan 11th Jan 2021 Activity Director
Hi Margaret
Jokes are always good icebreakers
https://www.goldencarers.com/jokes/
Margaret 14th Jan 2021 Therapist
Thank you Susan!

Aaron 28th Jan 2021
Hi! A good little game i played to warm people up for a group activities , involved balloons! For example, I would get every body to draw a silly face on the balloon and then we would pass them round the circle to music, one the music had stopped, whatever balloon you were left holding you had to replicate the silly face, was enjoyable for residents and a good laugh to get the activity started. You can then also use the balloons in a parachute themed game or perhaps a volleyball style activity! Hope this helps!
Aaron
Susan 28th Jan 2021 Activity Director
Thank you Aaron for this
It sounds like a good idea
Katherine 12th Feb 2021 Activities Assistant
I have a template that I got from another site. It's a getting to know you UNO game, I will try to share the activity. For each color, and number there is a question to ask. (ie.. favorite song, food etc). Whenever I have some one new move on to our unit, I pull out the cards, and go around the group asking questions, and then elaborate on them a bit.
Katherine 12th Feb 2021 Activities Assistant
Also, I lead a trivia challenge afternoon, and when I first started doing this, they were bored, which made for a long hour... What I started doing, is starting the group with fun facts, puns and jokes... it has livened up our group, and as the ladies tell me, it is their favorite time of week. I just google fun facts, limericks, jokes, etc...They also seem to like the lists of things that are illegal to do, and we get a kick out of talking about them, and seeing if we can find why this became "illegal"... Like in Boston, it is illegal to take a lion to the movies... Snoring is prohibited unless all bedroom windows are closed and securely locked.
Susan 12th Feb 2021 Activity Director
Katherine
Boy you have such great ideas
Your residents Must really like what you do
Thank you for sharing this
Margaret 13th Feb 2021 Therapist
Thank you! Great ideas. I will definitely use them.
Margaret 13th Feb 2021 Therapist
Thank you for all of the great ideas!!
Jennifer 17th Feb 2021 Recreational Therapist
We have done a group " Meet and Greet" with introductions of each person. I then ask one off the wall question. Everyone laughs and looks forward to the next persons response. " If I sing in the shower, the song i sing is..."
Susan 17th Feb 2021 Activity Director
Hi Jennifer
Thank you for sharing this
We also did a meet and greet
I would have one of the high functioning ambulatory residents help me
We did another activity similar to wall activity
I had a list of things people would like to do
Then in a bag I would have numbers from one to however many activities are on my list
The resident would pick a number from bag and then we would do whatever the number said
You can modify this easily by changing the activities on the list to meet the needs of the residents in the group
You could also do this as a one to one activity

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