Shirley

We have played this game in our memory care unit for several years. We love it. It is amazing how competitive memory care folks can get.
The end of summer pool noodles can be found for a dollar each. We use the slender noodles as they are easier to hold on to. 10.00$'s invested in 10 noodles and you end up with 20 noodles (each noodle cut in half). It's a 10.00$ investment that will last you for years!

Thanks you for the white board letter game. We love letter games at our community.
Here is an easy letter game that can be played anywhere with a larg group, small group or one person. It can be played while traveling on the community van, sitting on the porch or waiting at the doctors office. The game is "Name that Letter". I choose a letter from the alphabet and ask for names. We have a lot of fun with Q, X and Z. Some days we are able to get through the alphabet and some days we are not. Some time we get sidetracked because a word sparks a story that needs to be told.
Thanks

I would think if every resident had their name at their table setting it would be ok as long as every one is treated the same way. A small cute place card should be ok. Talk with you Executive Director about this and come with a place card sample. In our facility residents have a choice to sit any where they want to for meals but the majority sit at the same place every meal.

Hello, I am a memory Care Coordinator in a small facility we average about 20 Residents. I have a great job. It is a pleasure to work with families and be with our residents daily. I also have a wonderful staff to work with.
We have a reminiscing activity that is ongoing. We call it "My Story".
Each family is given a page of questions to answer such as Where did I grow up? Where did I attend grade school? what school did I graduate from? Do I have brothers and sisters and list their names? We just ask general questions. From the questions we write a story about our resident. We ask the family to bring us pictures young and old we make copies of the pictures and return the original. We also have family members to write stories to go with the pictures or at least write the names of who is in the pictures. We also take lots of pictures of each of our residents. I purchase regular binders, plastic sleeve protectors, card stock and embellishments and we put the "My Story" book together. It is an on going weekly project. Example our facility recently had to evacuate for a major hurricane. I took pictures of our evacuation bus and had news paper clipplings about the hurricane and wrote a little story of how we had to evacuate and where we went and how long we were gone and also took pictures while we were at our evacuation sight. All this went into our story books because it was a historical event. We will continue to add to the books weekly. Our families enjoy looking at each book with their loved one and talking about the past and the present.
Thanks Much

Good Morning Every One,
I am new to this site and I am enjoying reading every thing.
I am a memory care coordinator and I am always looking for ways to engage our residence through words.
I love this idea using the white board and making words out of other words.
We also play a game called Name That Letter. We have all the letters of the alphabet each printed on a card. A resident draws a card and we try to make as many words with that letter as possible. In memory care it takes a little time and encouragement but we come up with some great words. Example Name that letter "A" what is a word that starts with an "A". Most every one can name a word with "A" I also look for the person who's name starts with the letter. This game is fun, engaging and our guest can join in.
Thanks and have a Happy Day

Good Morning Every One, I am new to this site and I am enjoying reading every thing!
We use Pool Noodles cut in half and a Balloon we call it Noodle Ball.
The pool noodles can be purchased at the dollar store or Walmart. At the dollar store they are a dollar at the end of pool season they are also a dollar or less at Walmart. When cut in half each pool noodle serves two people so it does not cost much to put this game together and it will last for years. We have the skinny noodles and cut them in half ( you can use the fat noodles but the skinny noodles are easier to hold on to). Each person gets a noodle and then a balloon is thrown into the circle. The goal is to keep the balloon in the air. We have a lot of fun.
Any one who says this is to childish has never played it. Noodle Ball is engaging, fun, and gets every one moving. Our guest also like to play.

Hello Every One, There are so many great comments here. I am going to comment on one and give an idea that we do in my facility.
I am the memory care coordinator in my facility. Budget is always an issue for a small facility in a small town. There are activities that take little or no money to do. A folding box can be old towels, wash clothes or socks, a sorting game can be a deck of cards, a fiddle box can be some items that you may have at home and no longer need and an old purse make a great activity for some ladies.
In our memory care we have started a "My Story" book for each resident. we have a questionnaire we ask families to complete such as where I attended school, my favorite color, favorite food, When I married etc. We then take this information a write a story. We also ask the family for photos to go along with the story. we use our office printer to copy the photos then give the original photos back to the family. we add the photos to the story book. We ask family and friends to add stories to the book. we also add pictures we take to the book. We now have a wonderful on going story book we can reminisce with our resident and families with. We love our"My Story" book. I use a binder and plastic sleeve protectors as well as colored paper to attach pictures to and write our stores on. I use the sheet protectors so we can add more information to pictures and families can add information to pictures There is nothing fancy about our story book except for the stories inside. Many times I can find binders in the clearance section of Walmart after school starts. Our Walmart is also generous to donate items as well.
Thanks and I look forward to reading about great ideas and suggetions every day.