This week residents across Hill House have celebrated Chinese New Year, with fantastic activities, from themed bingo, therapeutic colouring to another incredible interactive red envelope cart. As well as our staple clubs and crafts and flower arranging.
Monday morning and to kick start our Chinese New Year Celebrations we gathered in the day lounge for a fun game of themed Bingo.
Bingo is an excellent way to keep the brain active in older age. People who play bingo need to remember their numbers or pictures, think about patterns required for winning, and identify various sounds and images. This mental stimulation helps to boost and maintain cognitive abilities leading to enjoyment and a high quality of life.
Others spent their morning taking on brain training games.
That afternoon, our exercise to music class took place in the garden view lounge. Keeping fit and flexible helps us stay mobile and independent.
We took on a Chop Stick Challenge, testing out our chop stick skills against the clock to see who could pick up the most marsh mellows in the allocated time, with some intense concentration but most of all a lot of laughter and joy. It was lovely seeing staff and residents compete against each other.
Tuesday started with a game of Scattergories, writing down items in categories that start with the chosen letter, the goal to not matching anyone else’s answers. We had so much fun shouting out answers and listing them on the board.
Fun and games continued during the morning with the giant parachute to waft and wave the balls around, trying not to let them drop off.
Parachute is a great upper body work out develops physical skills; hand-eye coordination, balance, and mobility to rhythm and music. Muscles are strengthened as the core and arms are put to work in a gentle but effective way.
This was followed by Omi interactive target games and a game of Chinese Mahjong.
In the afternoon we played our new board game Chinese Checkers. The object of the Chinese checkers is to move all your pegs to the opposite point of the star. The first player to do this wins.
Others took part in activities of daily life by tending to the house plants.
That evening, we used scarfs and our Alexa to dance and sing-a-long to some of our favourite songs.
Wednesday morning, we made stunning Chinese paper lanterns as part of our weekly art and crafts club.
Playing board games with family is a great way to spend the morning.
We loved playing a group game of Chinese picture pairs in our garden view lounges.
We were delighted to welcome Norma in for cuddles and fuss on Wednesday afternoon.
Our garden view lounges engaged in Chinese checkers board games in small groups.
Adapting our traditional floor games into themed games brings joy and a unique twist to our regular activities, we love to see how creative our activities get with this and Chinese lanterns were a fun twist.
Floristry club gathered in the day lounge to arrange stunning floral bouquets to be displayed across the home.
Engaging the senses, provides cognitive and sensory stimulations, improves motor skills, and instils a sense of independence and accomplishment.
Across the home we all had a go at a Chinese themed lucky dip, choosing a traditional red envelope to reveal either a Chinese fortune, gold coin or winning ticket to win a prize from the GOLDEN prize plate.
We have enjoyed listening and learning about the traditions of the Chinese New Year. Symbolising good wishes and luck for the new year ahead!
We had a lovely morning playing Mahjong both as a tabletop game and on the iPad.
Others opted for one-to-one activities from jigsaw puzzles to bananagram.
That afternoon as part of National Cheese Tasting Day, we tried a variety of cheeses from around the world and learnt a little more about them. We chose our favourites and spent time reminiscing about the wide variety of cheeses and how we would cook with them.
Saturday mornings art and crafts session saw us bring to life the amazing Chinese Dragons using a mixture of mediums from paint to chalks.
We carry on our Chinese New Year celebrations with a stunning themed lunch.
Our garden view lounge took on the chop stick challenge, trying to beat the clock by correctly using chop sticks to move the marsh mellows.
Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a karaoke party in the day lounge, with New year’s eve boppers, we sung and danced along to music from 1970’s.
Others spent time playing giant floor games and engaging in themed activities.
