Diane

Hi Dee, I've just started doing "Carnivals" in the spring and fall. I found several games in an educational catalogue which gave me the idea. I've done two now and they were big hits. I have 6 game stations set up with small prizes at each station. We have a popcorn machine so make that to give to everyone. Cotton Candy is a prize at one of the games. I also serve lemonade. I also play carnival/circus music that I found on YouTube. My main focus is having fun playing the various games like ring toss, mini golf, throwing a roll of toilet paper into a toilet ( a pail with a toilet seat attached), throwing coins into glasses and cups and winning the one you get the coin (poker chip) into, etc. Lots of laughs and reminiscing about having fun when they were younger.
Good luck with yours!

These funny short stories are perfect for my monthly newsletter! Thank you so much for posting more! I just love being a member here, you have more material than I can ever imagine using. It's wonderful to have this resource.

I found some at this website. I hope they are what you are looking for.
http://njpasq.wixsite.com/senior-craftsite/games-pokeno

I am curious Chronos, what is your secret men's lunch all about?

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying your summer. I need some help. I am an activity coordinator in a 50 bed seniors lodge. I have had quite a bit of success in the past two years finding a good line up of activities that attract a fair amount of residents. I am having problems getting people out for brain games though. Does anyone have suggestions on what I can call it instead? I feel they need more trivia and other thinking type games. What I do is 45 minutes to an hour doing a variety of things like Hidden Objects, Finish the sayings, Fun Riddles, Words that start with a certain letter etc. I have just gone over to the coloring table and done some of these unscheduled just to get some thinking it, but I feel that coloring itself is very therapeutic and don't really like interrupting that. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks!

Hi Morgan, my residents enjoy playing Canasta and asked me to add it to my calendar once a month to start to see how it goes. They play on their own in the evening. They had me type up the rules so they had one set of rules to follow for everyone to reduce arguments. Like Euchre, there are many different variations. They just had their second "Canasta Night" on Friday and there were 12 players. The first one a month ago, they had 18 players. Only 4 can play at a table so two were left out, but they didn't seem to mind. They have invited friends and family to join if they know they won't have enough and that works out very well. I encourage my residents to get out of their rooms as much as they can and they have access to a cupboard full of games of all sorts. Good luck!

What a great idea! Thank you! I've printed it out and will play it at our Mother's Day Tea this Friday.

I have a letter from myself, highlighting the past month and what's coming up, a page with that month's birthdays, a picture page of the month's events, a joke page (sometimes it's one long joke and sometimes a few smaller ones), always a word search puzzle, if there is a holiday sometimes I do a page of trivia about the holiday, sometimes I put a spot the difference puzzle from this site, if there are new phone scams or that kind of thing targeting seniors I'll put that in, and the last page is a calendar of events and activities for that month.
Good Luck!

Hi Morgan. I am the only activity coordinator in a 50 bed seniors lodge. If I'm sick or on holidays I try to get volunteers (usually a residents family member) to lead the activity. If they don't know the activity that you have scheduled, maybe they can do something different that day that they are comfortable with. I have a wonderful group of volunteers that are always willing to help.

Welcome Joanne, from Alberta, Canada! I agree with Kim, you are going to find a huge amount of useful information here.