August 2018 Weekly-Themed Activity Calendar

August is ...

• American Adventures Month
• American Artist Appreciation Month
• Black Business Month
• Boomers Making a Difference Month
• Bystander Awareness Month
• Children's Eye Health and Safety Month
• Children's Vision and Learning Month
• Get Ready for Kindergarten Month
• Happiness Happens Month
• Motorsports Awareness Month
• National Back-to-School Month
• National Eye Exam Month
• National Immunization Awareness Month
• National Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month
• Read-a-Romance Month
• Shop Online for Groceries Month
• What Will Be Your Legacy Month

Week of July 29 | Week of August 5 | Week of August 12 | Week of August 19 | Week of August 26

Friendship Week

(Week of July 29)

Crafts: Word Rocks

Since Wednesday, August 1st is National Girlfriends Day and Sunday, August 5th is Friendship Day, celebrate friendships this week and help residents create fun gifts that they can give to their friends. Begin the week by assisting residents with making word rocks that feature inspiring and positive words. For the project, use rocks, paint, markers, and decorative pens.

Reminiscing: Remembering Classmates

Reminisce with residents about how much fun they had as kids with their childhood friends as you discuss the popular games that they used to play. Chit chat with residents about the popular toys of their generation.

Physical: Egg Toss Game

Encourage residents to buddy up as you divide them into teams of two to play a fun game of egg toss. Invite residents to the back patio to see who can successfully toss and catch raw eggs as a team.

One-on-One: Friendship Bracelet

Show your resident how to make a friendship bracelet using a plastic container lid and colorful embroidery thread. Encourage your resident to give the finished bracelet to a friend or loved one as a gift.

Lower-Functioning: Tissue Paper Canvas Art

Assist residents with making colorful canvas art that can be given as beautiful wall art to a friend. To make the canvas art, simply tear colorful tissue paper into strips, and have residents apply a mixture of Mod Podge and water onto the canvas. Then add strips of colorful tissue paper to the canvas while residents continue applying the Mod Podge and water mixture to the top of the tissue paper. Once the canvas has the desired look, allow the canvas to dry.

Bedside: Friendship Cards

Help your resident keep in contact with her friends by downloading free friendship cards for you and your resident to address and send off to her friends.

Outing: Trip to Senior Center

Schedule a field trip to your local senior center, and encourage your residents to meet other seniors by participating in one of the senior center's programs or classes.

Sensory Stimulation: Gooey Cookies

Recruit residents to help you bake gooey banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to wrap and give as gifts to your facility's newest residents.

Men's: Friendly Competition

Persuade the men to participate in a friendly game of Stick the Landing, a Minute-to-Win-It game where contestants try to flip half-filled water bottles so that they land upright on a table.

Special Event: Yankee Swap

Get your residents socializing with one another by playing a fun game of Yankee Swap. For the game, instead of having residents bring their own gifts, wrap your bingo prizes and use them as the gifts. (Please note that Wednesday, August 1 is National Girlfriends Day and Sunday, August 5 is Friendship Day.)

Back to Activity Calendar

Campfire Week

(Week of August 5)

Crafts: Story Stones

Celebrate National S'mores Day on Friday, August 10 with a weeklong set of campfire activities that get residents enjoying nature again. Start the week by assisting residents with making their own story stones. Provide residents with pencils, paint, and stones for the project. Encourage residents to sketch the objects first using pencils before filling in the sketch with paint. Use the finished story stones for the upcoming Campfire Stories activity.

Reminiscing: Campfire Stories

Reminisce with residents about their past camping trips as you encourage them to share a few funny campfire stories. If residents cannot think of their own past stories, then use the story stones that were made earlier during the Crafts activity to initiate the storytelling.

Physical: Nature Scavenger Hunt

Provide residents and their visiting grandchildren with a nature scavenger hunt bag to collect items from nature during a fun nature scavenger hunt in the backyard.

One-on-One: Camping Experiment

Invite your resident to conduct an interesting nature experiment using pine cones and water to see if water affects the opening and closing of the pine cones.

Lower-Functioning: Glow-in-the-Dark Bubbles

As the sun sets, invite your residents to have fun blowing glow-in-the-dark bubbles. To make the glow-in-the-dark bubbles, use pliers to remove the ink-filled tubes from highlighters and place them in the bubble solution. Allow several minutes for the ink to leak from the tubes and into the solution.

Bedside: S'mores Pops

Treat your resident to a tasty dessert of s'mores pops. Assemble the simple treat by placing a large marshmallow on the end of a lollipop stick and then dipping the marshmallow into melted chocolate before rolling it in graham cracker crumbs.

Outing: Star-Gazing Scenic Ride

Take residents on a fun evening scenic ride to gaze at the stars. On the bus, pass out constellation cards to help residents easily spot the major constellations in the sky.

Sensory Stimulation: Chocolate Acorns

Encourage residents to get their hands chocolaty as they assemble chocolate acorns using vanilla wafers or small chocolate chip cookies, melted chocolate, and chocolate chips or butterscotch morsels.

Men's: Campsite Diorama

Help the men assemble a fun campsite diorama that can be used as decoration for the upcoming Backyard S'mores Party. For the project, supply the men with craft sticks, patterned paper, hot glue, small stones and twigs, red pipe cleaners, blue patterned paper, and green craft foam.

Special Event: Backyard S'mores Party

Host a fun s'mores party in your backyard, and use your backyard grill to make tasty campfire cones for residents to enjoy. (Please note that Friday, August 10 is National S'mores Day.)

Back to Activity Calendar

Summer School Week

(Week of August 12)

Crafts: Art Class

Use this week as a fun educational week to teach residents new skills and activities during a weeklong summer school session. Start the week with a fun art class where you show residents how to make pressed flower art using pressed flowers, cardstock, and Mod Podge. Ahead of time, recruit several volunteers to pick real flowers from your garden and press them using an iron or the microwave. (On the proflowers.com website, scroll down the page to view the instructions on different ways to press flowers.) After the pressed flower art has dried, hang the artwork on the walls in your Activity Room for the season.

Reminiscing: Home Economics Class

Reminisce with residents about the home economics classes (or woodshop classes) that they had to take in school. Afterwards, pass around pages from a 1940s home-economic manual for residents to compare with what they were taught in school.

Physical: Dance Class

Lead residents in a fun chair dance as you have them do arm and leg movements to their favorite music, like with the Cha Cha.

One-on-One: Ceramics Class

Use air-dry clay to show your resident how to make clay ring dishes and decorate them with gold paint.

Lower-Functioning: Band Class

Recruit volunteers to assist you with making paper cup instruments for residents to play while listening to music. Divide residents into groups and have different groups play their instruments at different points during the song.

Bedside: Cosmetology Class

Persuade your resident to allow you to do her hair and make-up using her hair pins and lipstick. Be sure to take a picture of your made-up resident, and use it as an updated photo for your facility's Administrative files.

Outing: Painting Class

Take residents to the local park for a fun "en plein air" (outdoor) painting class where residents paint their surroundings on canvas. At the park, seat residents at benches and provide them with mini canvases and palettes of paint so that they can paint what they see.

Sensory Stimulation: Horticulture Class

Teach residents how to be creative by assembling garden nature art using items found in nature. For the project, provide residents with black construction paper and natural elements, like flowers, leaves, grass, berries, twigs, and bark, for residents to create unique objects on paper.

Men's: Auto Repair Class

Borrow a tablet to show a tutorial to the men on how to make craft stick trucks using craft sticks and hot glue. Play and stop the tutorial so that the men are assembling their truck along with the video. (To learn how to add the wheels using bottle caps, wooden skewers, and straws, watch this video on how to make a shopping cart. Fast forward to the 8:30 minute mark of the video to watch how to add the tires.)

Special Event: Summer School Graduation

At the end of the week, host a fun graduation party for residents as you celebrate their willingness to learn something new this week. Reward the new graduates with tasty cupcake graduation caps.

Back to Activity Calendar

State Fair Week

(Week of August 19)

Crafts: Bumper Cars

Have fun with residents during this state fair season by planning a week full of state fair games and activities for your residents. Get residents remembering the fun that they used to have at their state fairs, including riding in the bumper cars, as you assist residents with creating their own bumper cars using colorful Crayola modeling clay.

Reminiscing: Cotton Candy

Reminisce with residents about their past trips to the state fair as you share an interesting fun fact about each of the state fairs in the United States. Ask residents to list the state fairs that they have been to as you pass around cotton candy Oreo truffles for residents to sample.

Physical: Baseball Toss Game

Invite residents to play the classic state fair game of baseball toss, in which residents use a baseball to knock down milk bottles.

One-on-One: Quilts

Assist your resident with making a no-sew quilt board using Styrofoam, a craft knife, and pieces of fabric. For the project, first use a pencil and ruler to create straight lines that form a design on the Styrofoam sheet before darkening the lines with a marker. Next, use a craft knife to cut along the lines on the Styrofoam, making sure not to cut through the Styrofoam sheet. Then cover the shape with fabric, making sure to use a butter knife to tuck the fabric's ends into the Styrofoam sheet. Continue until all the shapes that were drawn on the Styrofoam are covered in fabric. Add fabric and thumbtacks to the sides of the Styrofoam, and add foam board to the back of the Styrofoam for extra stability. Finally, hang the finished no-sew quilt board on the wall.

Lower-Functioning: Ferris Wheel

Recruit residents to paint craft sticks in fun colors that you can later assemble into a colorful Ferris wheel using hot glue and a paper clip. Use the finished Ferris wheel as decoration for the week.

Bedside: Funnel Cakes

Bring the state fair to your resident by surprising him with a baked funnel cake.

Outing: Trip to State Fair

Take residents on a trip to your state fair or local carnival to people-watch and enjoy the sights and sounds.

Sensory Stimulation: Caramel Apples

Encourage residents to make mini caramel apples using Granny Smith apples, a melon baller, lollipop sticks, melted caramel, heavy cream, and crushed nuts. Set the finished caramel apples out for passersby to sample.

Men's: Clowns

Provide the men with wooden peg dolls, pencils, and paint to create clown peg dolls. First have the men use pencils to draw the clowns on the wooden pegs before filling in the sketches with paint.

Special Event: Unique Food

Coordinate with Dining Services to host a fun State Fair Tasting in your Activity Room featuring state fair food. During the tasting, hold elections for this year's State Fair King and Queen, where you award a special prize to the man and woman who were the most active in your activities during this State Fair Week.

Back to Activity Calendar

Gone to the Beach Week

(Week of August 26)

Crafts: Collect Starfish

Take your residents "to the beach" this week as you provide activities that get your residents recalling the fun summers that they had at the beach. Start the week off with a fun craft where residents can make their own ocean art using cornstarch, baking soda, and water. Microwave the mixture until it comes together, and then follow the site's instructions on how to make different objects from the ocean.

Reminiscing: Sunbathe Indoors

In light of today's concerns with the sun rays, chit chat with residents about whether they used to sunbathe at the beach. Ask residents what they used to protect their skin from the sun. During the discussion, pass out easy-to-make flip flop cookies (using Nutter Butter cookies, Twizzler candy, white icing, and flower sprinkles).

Physical: Walk the Boardwalk

Lead your residents on a walk around your facility to take in the sights and sounds of the flying birds as if you were on the boardwalk at a beach.

One-on-One: Make Prints in the Sand

Invite your resident to make a sand handprint keepsake to give to a grandchild. For the project, use sand, water, a shadow box, Plaster of Paris, seashells, and freezer bags.

Lower-Functioning: Stretch Salt-Water Taffy

Recruit residents to help you stretch taffy as you make quick and easy microwavable taffy, just like the salt-water taffy at the beach.

Bedside: Listen to Shell Wind Chimes

Encourage your resident to assist you with assembling shell wind chimes that can be placed outside the window of your resident's room. To make the chimes, simply use string to hang seashells from a large stick.

Outing: Take a Trip to the Beach (or Local Pond)

Take residents on a fun drive past a local beach or pond, and pass out beach bingo cards for residents to mark off the items as they see them while riding on your bus. (If you would rather make it into a competitive game, use a bingo card generator so that each resident will have a different card.)

Sensory Stimulation: Build a Sandman

Supply residents with sand dough for them to build a sandman on your back patio tables. Award a prize for the best sandman.

Men's: Assemble Beach Chairs

Persuade the men to make craft stick beach chairs using craft sticks and hot glue. Paint the finished beach chairs in bright, summer colors.

Special Event: Play Beach Volleyball

Host a fun beach volleyball game among your residents in your Activity Room. For the game, set up your volleyball net, but instead of using balloons, use a large beach ball for residents to hit back and forth over the net.

Back to Activity Calendar