Memory Garden April Look Back
April has slowly but surely been ushering in Spring, lifting everyone’s spirits with more glimpses of sunshine and the promise of warmer weather. Our residents here at Memory Garden have enjoyed a month of many fun spring time activities.
We had many crafty moments together this month, starting off with painting and decorating the clay eggs we sculpted last month. They turned out to be a beautiful addition to our Easter décor. The residents also helped make some dazzling faux stained glass vases with colorful tissue paper flowers for the center pieces on the Easter dinner tables. Later in the month we made cute little felt lady bug and butterfly magnets that look great hanging on the resident’s doors.
On Easter Sunday our folks watched an Easter Service on TV. They also participated in an Easter egg hunt and enjoyed some yummy sweet treats. On National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day we had a peanut butter and jelly party, devouring PB&J sandwiches and chocolate milk. We celebrated National Gardening Day by starting the germination process on some pumpkin seeds with hopes for a healthy pumpkin patch this summer. On National Tell a Story Day we read some great stories from our favorite “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books.
We had a blast during the monthly birthday party, celebrating with cupcakes, ice cream, music and games.
We just couldn’t wait for good weather to have a picnic, so with a little imagination we had an indoor picnic. Decorating with flowers, lady bugs and butterflies, our folks enjoyed an outdoorsy atmosphere while chowing down on a smorgasbord of picnic foods, including sandwiches, macaroni salad, deviled eggs, cheese slices, watermelon, brownies and fruit punch. To top off the outdoor vibe we played horse shoes, bocce ball and corn hole.
Every Thursday, Patrick Walsh guides our residents through a session of chair yoga and other exercises. Mary Schmidt joins us every Friday morning for music related activities such as sing alongs and music bingo.
Wednesday mornings are reserved for coffee house, dunking cookies in coffee and enjoying good company and toe tapping music.
Our bakers got together and baked butterscotch chip cookies. The scrumptious smell of them cooking brought everybody to the kitchen for fresh baked cookies and coffee. Later in the month we baked chocolate chip cookies with a little education on the history of the chocolate chip cookie.
The residents had a good laugh watching episodes of “America’s Funniest Home Videos”- dogs and babies edition. We played a riveting game of Spring Jeopardy. Players have to be the first to answer a spring related question to receive the points that question was worth.
Kazoo Name That Tune was a big hit with everyone. After humming a few notes of a song on the kazoo, our residents have to either name that tune or sing the next line of the song. In most cases they sing the whole song.
Coloring and painting with water colors while listening to soothing music is a nice relaxing activity our folks really like. We played a fun game of “Pass the Egg”, where the players have to successfully transfer an egg from their spoon to the next player’s spoon without touching the egg.
Using the big white board, we played Pictionary (Try to guess what’s being drawn), Rhyme-Time (How many words can you find that rhyme with the word written on the board?), Word-in-Word game (How many words can you find within the given word?) and Name 10 (How many words can you think of that fall under the given category?).
Other favorite games we played were bingo, basketball, balloon volleyball (Try to keep the balloons in the air by hitting them back and forth to each other.), Giant Kerplunk, penny toss, Putt-putt and bowling.
The 7-Up card game is always a big hit (Players are dealt 7 cards face up. A card is drawn from a second deck. If a player has a card matching it, they turn it over. The first player to turn over all their cards wins!). We also had fun playing Fact or Fiction (Pick a statement card and read it. Everyone has to guess whether that statement about you is fact or fiction.), ring toss, beanbag twister (Spin the spinner to determine the color of the dots to toss the bean bag onto. Toss the bean bags for the most points in that color.), “What’s Next?” (After being given the first part of a phrase, song or nursery rhyme, try to remember what comes next.),bowling, Nerf target shooting and “What’s in the Bag?” (Guess what’s in the bag by touching it without looking at it.)
New this month we’ve started a library cart so our residents can have more access to books. They can check out books just like in a public library.
It’s been a fun packed month. Looking forward to the coming months, hoping we can get outside to garden and picnic. Until then be safe everybody and stay healthy! If you have any questions or comments for upcoming activities, please contact Margaret Wright, Memory Garden Activities Coordinator at (716)488-9434 ext 2226, or email at MWright@tanglewoodmanor.com.
