KATHRAIN

I have revamped the bean bag toss game for my higher functioning clients. I took a small table cloth and put different colored construction paper on it. On the construction paper I wrote different things they have to do i.e. clap your hands, stomp your fee etc. They threw 3 bean bags and had to do all three actions. Around the holidays I took and put little gifts that you can find at any dollar store and when they landed the bean bag on the paper with the prize, they got the prize. This game can be adapted to fit any range of clients. My higher functioning clients absolutely loved doing bean bag toss this way. Promoted lots of fun, laughter, and movement for them.

Maggie, I work in memory care at my facility. The way that I do any type of trivia for the later stage is to read the question and then give them just 2 choices. Sometimes they say that they don't have any idea and I just simply ask them to just choose one answer. If someone answers wrong I don't say no that's wrong. I go to the next person and ask them. A lot of the time the next person can answer the question by process of elimination. If after two or three residents have answered if the right answer hasn't been found then I just simply tell them and praise them for trying to answer. After I tell them many of them say oh yeah that's right. We do a lot of trivia from the bible. Most late stage residents can remember things from the bible when they can't remember anything. One day we were doing bible trivia and one of my residents who doesn't talk and when she does everything is jumbled, began to answer the questions with no problem.

Amei, I too work in the Memory Care at my facility. I do a big monthly birthday party celebrating all birthdays in the month with entertainment and cake and ice cream. Residents really enjoy the party. Also during the month, I celebrate the resident on their on individual day. When they arrive at lunch, there is a homemade card and table decorations waiting for them. The residents enjoy making the cards and getting to sign them even if they really don't know that particular resident. If we have 2 or 3 in a month, then card making is one of our scheduled activities. If it is just one birthday, then I usually just make it and have the residents sign it. To see the smile on the residents face when they arrive at lunch is worth it all!!!

We play twice a week. Then we have games called Jingo that are just like bingo that we play also. They come in different categories like Bible Jingo, Birthday Jingo, and the different holidays are favorites in my facility. Also we have music Bingo. These games can be played with all residents at every level of care.