February 2019 Weekly-Themed Activity Calendar

February is ...

• AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month
• American Heart Month
• Bake for Family Fun Month
• Creative Romance Month
• Declutter for a Cause Month
• Fabulous Florida Strawberry Month
• Great American Pie Month
• International Boost Self-Esteem Month
• Library Lovers' Month
• National Bird-Feeding Month
• National Black History Month
• National Cherry Month
• National Grapefruit Month
• National Hot Breakfast Month
• National Mend a Broken Heart Month
• National Parent Leadership Month
• National Pet Dental Health Month
• National Senior Independence Month
• National Time Management Month
• National Wedding Month
• Plant the Seeds of Greatness Month
• Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month
• Spay/Neuter Awareness Month
• Spunky Old Broads Month
• Wise Health Care Consumer Month
• Worldwide Renaissance of the Heart Month
• Youth Leadership Month

Week of January 27 | Week of February 3 | Week of February 10 | Week of February 17 |
Week of February 24

Countdown to Groundhog Day Week

(Week of January 27)

Crafts: Cutting Out Animal Shadow Puppets

Spend this week getting your residents ready for Groundhog Day to find out whether there will be six more weeks of winter. Begin the week by inviting residents to make groundhog shadow puppets for the upcoming Shadow Puppet Show with the grandchildren. For the project, assist residents with drawing different animals freehand or tracing animal templates onto cardboard before cutting them out. Then paint the animal shapes with black paint before attaching wooden dowels to create the puppets.

Reminiscing: Learning About Punxsutawney Phil

Reminisce with residents about their past Groundhog Day traditions, and whether any of them ever traveled to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the observance. Afterwards, share a few little known facts about Punxsutawney Phil.

Physical: Taking a Nature Walk

Pass out a nature walk sheet for residents to walk to the different large picture windows in your facility to look out at nature to find at least one thing that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Provide residents with pencils to write down what they find. Award prizes to those who find at least one thing in nature for every letter of the alphabet.

One-on-One: Making Predictions

Teach your resident how to make her own predictions by showing her how to use math to predict what number someone is thinking.

Lower-Functioning: Tracing Shadows

Seat your residents at a table in front of a sunny window as you have them make shadow tracing art by tracing the shadows that are created as the sun shines through the windows. Provide residents with pencils and paper to trace what they see. Then provide residents with paint to fill in the sketches.

Bedside: Watching Groundhog Day...Again!

Borrow the classic 1993 comedy film Groundhog Day from your local library for your resident to watch in her room.

Outing: Going on a Country Scenic Ride

See how many groundhogs and other woodland animals your residents can spot on a scenic ride through the country. Pass out a spotter sheet for residents to mark when they see a similar animal along the ride. (Print the spotter sheet in Landscape layout.)

Sensory Stimulation: Baking Groundhog Cookies

Encourage residents to bake groundhog cookies for your upcoming Shadow Puppet Show. Use aromatic ingredients for the recipe, including ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.

Men's: Making Pop-Up Cards

Assist the men with creating fun pop-up cards to pass along to the visiting children at the upcoming Shadow Puppet Show. Use cardstock, glue sticks, and the printable templates from the website to create the cards.

Special Event: Putting on a Shadow Puppet Show

Invite the grandchildren to watch a fun groundhog shadow puppet show that is put on by some of your residents and volunteers. Beforehand, provide them with script ideas and the shadow puppets that were made earlier during the Crafts activity. During the activity, serve milk and the groundhog cookies that were made earlier during the Sensory Stimulation activity. (Please note that Groundhog Day is Saturday, February 2.)

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Happy Chinese New Year! Week

(Week of February 3)

Crafts: Chinese Fans

Help your residents celebrate the Chinese New Year – the Year of the Pig – with fun activities throughout the week. Begin the week by assisting residents with making Chinese fans using red cardstock, gold paint, glitter, and glue. Hang the finished fans as decoration.

Reminiscing: Chinese Food

Reminisce with residents about their favorite Chinese foods to eat. Pass around photos of popular Chinese food dishes to see if residents can identify them.

Physical: Chinese Table Tennis

Invite residents to play the popular Chinese sport of table tennis in your Activity Room. To create a ping pong table, simply push two square tables together, and provide residents with paddles and ping pong balls.

One-on-One: Chinese Fortunes

Assist your resident with baking fortune cookies to set out for passersby to sample. Ahead of time, print out several appropriate funny fortunes to slip into the cookies before they cool.

Lower-Functioning: Chinese Pandas

Use halved potatoes to assist residents with creating stamped panda cards to send to loved ones for the new year. Simply fold a piece of cardstock in half and have residents stamp the panda heads on the front. Then once the paint dries, help your residents write well wishes inside the cards before sending them to family members.

Bedside: Chinese Pigs

Since this is the Year of the Pig, stop by your resident's room with colored pencils and adult coloring pages of pigs for her to color and for you to frame as decoration for the holiday.

Outing: Chinese Restaurant

Take your residents on a fun lunch bunch outing to your local Chinese restaurant. Encourage residents to try to eat a portion of their meal with chopsticks.

Sensory Stimulation: Chinese Spring Rolls

Recruit residents to attempt to make their very own Chinese spring rolls. Beforehand, coordinate with Dining Services to provide shredded vegetables for your residents to roll in filo pastry sheets. After baking, serve the finished rolls with a tasty dipping sauce.

Men's: Chinese Games

Teach the men how to play pig dice for a Pig Dice Tournament. To play, pair the men together, and have the winner from each group play one another until there is only one person left – the Pig Dice Tournament Champion.

Special Event: Chinese Take-Out

Host a fun Chinese Take-Out Party in your Activity Room, in which you order a variety of Chinese take-out foods for residents to sample. (Please note that the Chinese New Year is on Tuesday, February 5. This year is the "Year of the Pig.")

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Happy Valentine's Day Week

(Week of February 10)

Crafts: Heart Wreaths

Celebrate this week leading up to Valentine's Day by hosting a variety of fun activities for your residents. Start the week by showing residents how to make heart wreaths using yarn and cardboard hearts. Simply cut out heart shapes from cardboard for residents to wrap with colorful yarn. Hang the finished wreaths as decoration throughout your facility.

Reminiscing: Flower Delivery

Reminisce with residents about the types of flowers that they used to receive on Valentine's Day. Afterwards, pass around photos of flowers, and ask residents to try to identify each flower.

Physical: Perfect Match

Encourage residents to get their exercise as they walk around to find their perfect match during a valentine game. To play, pin names of people from popular duos on the backs of the residents. Then have them walk around asking one another "yes or no" questions to figure out whose name they have on their back. Once they have identified themselves, have them look around to find their match. Award a prize to the first duo to find each other.

One-on-One: Lollipop Flowers

Enlist the help of your resident to make lollipop flowers to pass out as valentine favors to residents. For the craft, use colorful tissue paper, a hole punch, a stapler, lollipops, and floral tape.

Lower-Functioning: Pink Bubbles

Prepare pink bubbles and heart wands for your residents to have fun blowing pink bubbles in the air.

Bedside: Heart Rocks

Supply your resident with colorful paint and rocks to create heart rocks that can be used as decoration for the holiday. (On the website, scroll down to the second craft to view the instructions.)

Outing: Candy Store

Take your residents on a fun trip to your local candy store to sample several of the delicious candies. While there, be sure to pick up chocolate bars for your upcoming Chocolate Tasting activity.

Sensory Stimulation: Conversation Cookies

Assist residents with making tasty conversation cookies to pass out to passersby. For the recipe, use heart cookie cutters, a sugar cookie recipe, and royal icing for decorating.

Men's: Candy Relay

Recruit the men to play a fun valentine relay game. To play, first divide the men into two teams and give the first person on each team a pair of mittens and a bowl of individually wrapped valentine candy. Next, have that person put on their mittens before taking a piece of candy from the bowl and unwrapping it. Once they have unwrapped the candy, they can then pass the mittens and the bowl to the next player on their team. Award a prize to the team who is first to have all of their participants successfully unwrap their piece of valentine candy using mittens.

Special Event: Chocolate Tasting

Host a fun chocolate tasting for residents. Provide each resident with samples of different chocolate bars and a chocolate tasting sheet for residents to rate each bar. (Please note that Valentine's Day is Thursday, February 14.)

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Presidents Week

(Week of February 17)

Crafts: Presidential Log Cabins

Recognize this Presidents Week as a fun time to incorporate a few patriotic activities in mid-February. Start the week by providing residents with small milk cartons, peanut butter, pretzel sticks, pretzel snaps, graham crackers, and thin wheat crackers to make their own log cabins to use as decoration for the week.

Reminiscing: Presidential Money

Chit chat with residents about whether they remember the presidents on their money as you play a fun money game with them. To play, simply take out different bills and coins, and ask residents to identify the presidents that are on each.

Physical: Presidential Toss

Draw a grid of squares on a large sheet of paper, and have residents pitch pennies onto the paper. In each of the squares, write in a prize that residents will win if they toss their penny so that it lands within the square.

One-on-One: Presidential Peg Dolls

Assist your resident with painting mini presidential peg dolls that can be used as decoration for the holiday. Use peg dolls, paint, a black felt-tip marker, glue, fabric, and pipe cleaners.

Lower-Functioning: Presidential Monument

Invite residents to create their own Mount Rushmore by doing a crayon rubbing of coins. Provide residents with a quarter (George Washington), nickel (Thomas Jefferson), dime (Franklin Roosevelt), and a penny (Abraham Lincoln), and in that order, for residents to rub the imprint onto paper using a crayon.

Bedside: Presidential Cookies

Assemble a few eagle cookies for your resident to sample. Use oval cookies, vanilla icing, shredded coconut, cashews, sliced almonds, and mini chocolate chips for the treats.

Outing: Presidential Trip

Take your residents on a trip to a local historic landmark to learn about more about your city's history.

Sensory Stimulation: Presidential Song

Teach residents the Presidents Song so that residents can remember the order of each of the American presidents.

Men's: Presidential Order

Challenge the men to work together to identify the order of the American presidents. First, seat the men at a large table, and place photos of all the American presidents on the table for the men to work together to put them in order of presidencies. Use a timer to see how long it takes the men to arrange the presidents in the correct order.

Special Event: Presidential Desserts

Host a fun dessert party where Dining Services provides a variety of desserts that are the favorites of some of the presidents. Be sure to label each of the desserts so that residents know which president's dessert they are sampling. (Please note that Presidents Day is Monday, February 18.)

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Movie Night Week

(Week of February 24)

Crafts: Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Celebrate this Oscar season with a fun week focused on movies. Start the week by recruiting residents to use their cool hands to make popcorn bags by using stencils on brown paper lunch bags that can be used throughout the week as residents enjoy popcorn while watching movies.

Reminiscing: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Reminisce with residents about the good old days and the movies that they enjoyed watching. Then pass around several photos from classic movies to see if residents can guess the movie.

Physical: Gone With the Wind (1939)

Make sure residents do not blame their poor throws on the wind as you have them participate in a popcorn toss. To play, assemble popcorn boxes using a template. Then provide residents with real popcorn to see how many kernels they can toss inside of their popcorn box.

One-on-One: The Gold Rush (1925)

Think gold as you encourage your resident to help you make gold Oscar statuette cookies during this Oscar season. Use sugar cookie dough, royal icing, cardboard, yellow and black food coloring, and gold sprinkles for the recipe.

Lower-Functioning: Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Recruit volunteers to help give your residents the Hollywood red carpet treatment as you brush their hair and give them manicures.

Bedside: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

Borrow a tablet to admire the jewelry and Oscar gowns of past Academy Award attendees. Encourage your resident to pick out her favorite gowns from the pictures.

Outing: City Lights (1931)

Invite residents to watch Hollywood stars who have made it onto the big screen by taking residents to your local movie theater to watch a movie.

Sensory Stimulation: Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Entice residents to your Activity Room with the aroma of freshly popped popcorn as you host a fun popcorn bar for residents featuring a variety of different popcorn flavors. Use the popcorn bags that were made earlier during the Crafts activity.

Men's: How the West Was Won (1962)

Schedule a fun western movie night for the men in your Activity Room. Ahead of time, survey the men to learn which westerns they would like to see, and then rent the movies from your local library or stream them online.

Special Event: Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)

Since it's all about the bingo, organize a fun pre-Oscars red carpet bingo game in which residents watch a pre-Oscar fashion red carpet show and then mark their bingo cards when they see the fashion feature that is on their bingo card. Award a fun prize to the person who is the first to mark off all the boxes on their bingo card. (Please note that the Academy Awards Presentation is Sunday, February 24.)

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