Over this past season, I’ve learnt a lot about people with Alzheimer’s and Dementia and their condition. In the last few weeks, we focused on planning activities that we can implement into our service the following term. We partnered up as one grade 11 and one grade 10 to mix up the groups and together, we had to plan an activity for one session. Personally, I didn’t find this task the easiest as I was determined to design a unique activity that would be interesting and new for the residents. In addition, the activity had to be simple and engaging and encourage some form of cognitive stimulation.
My partner and I came up with a sticker tree craft which involves painting and sticking. Students and residents are able to collaborate and to make a tree art on A4 paper which allows the residents to practise their coordination skills and also develop their creative thinking. As this game is simple, it can be easily modified to each resident’s abilities and it can allow conversations to still flow between residents and students whilst they enjoyed the activity. We also prepared a Plan B, in case the residents didn’t feel comfortable or enjoy the tree art. We decided on colouring in art however in our next visit to Apex Harmony Lodge, we learned that the residents already do a lot of colouring art as activities in the lodge so we planned on redesigning our plan B activity after being able to work with the residents first in order to gain a better understanding of their personality and their abilities. Our session falls on the 9th of December which allows us a few weeks to plan the activities and arrange the required materials too.
We will be visiting the Lodge in the following term, after the break, and we will start working with residents on the 11th of November.