Bean Auction

We did our first Bean Auction yesterday and it was one of the most fun activities we've ever had! The residents had an absolute blast and asked me to please add this to the monthly calendar. Thank you for a great idea!

Sounds great Janice

We used shelled peanuts, and the residents had a great time!! I wasn't even finished and they were asking when we were doing it again. I am planning another closer to Christmas so that they may get some gifts for family or friends they are excited. I have asked the staff if they would donate and small gifts.

The foam peanuts are a great option unless your residents think they are food and try to eat them

We use styrofoam peanuts, like the kind used in packing. I put 50 in a popcorn bag (10/$1) and they love using the peanuts. No allergy to be concerned with; no mess; We also made bidding paddles out of bright colored dessert plates with the oversize craft stick glued on the back. they LOVE IT. Play monthly and that's not enough.

This is a neat program idea! What kind of items do you use for auction? What would you use for items with residents that have dementia?
We are thinking about doing this but using tickets instead of beans

At the facility where I used to work, we did something similar, first with actual pennies, then with "virtual" pennies. That way, nobody would hold up the show counting out their pennies, and we saved oodles of time not having to recount/bag them! We had a list of names, and each person received 50 virtual pennies. A member of our management team would be the "banker" for us. It worked like a charm, and we got through more of our auction items doing it that way. This is a great activity! I'm working at a new facility now, and would love to bring it here - just need to find some folks who are willing to donate some goodies for the event!

One other thing we did - we took small styro-foam plates and wrote numbers on them with an over-sized black marker. We then stapled the plates to paint sticks, and voila! We had auction paddles! When residents checked in to the auction, they'd receive a paddle (we got our attendance this way) then had a few minutes to review the auction items to see what was of interest to them. It was great fun!