This Insidious Dementia
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Come along as I tell you about some memory care seasonal activities, in my Etsy store, for dementia care.
When I was teaching the younger grades, fall was a fun time to be teaching in my opinion. There were fun things to do centered around pumpkins and apples.
I got to thinking one day that I could create a unit for people with dementia in memory care facilities that would center around the fall season. I would incorporate some of the same activities for the residents as I did with my young students.
Then once I got started with fall, I went on to do the same ideas for Winter so I’ll talk about both of them in this post.
Why Seasonal Themes Matter in Memory Care
So, why fall and winter?
Well, fall and winter are familiar to the residents. Fall and winter bring familiar sights such as the different colored leaves and familiar smells. Residents may recall some warm memories of traditions or activities they did during those seasons.
Talking with the residents about raking leaves, carving pumpkins or baking holiday cookies can transport the residents back to meaningful moments.
Prompts about falling leaves or cozy sweaters can trigger comforting memories and emotions.
What’s Inside the Fall and Winter Creative Kits
Both the fall and the winter kit contain similar activities. These include:
Word bank consisting of individual seasonal word cards
Sentence starters related to the season
Reminiscing prompts to trigger memories from childhood
Finish the story prompts
Seasonal music list and activities paired to music
Blank calendars for planning & scheduling
Drawing prompts inspired by fall colors and textures and winter scenes, traditions and comfort themes
Poetry activities to trigger senses and memories
Book list
And more
These are digital downloads meaning that you get the pdfs. There is nothing shipped to you. You will have to print them out.
How to Use these Activities
Here’s the way I envision using these activities.
I would start with playing some fall background music. Set up some tunes on a playlist and let it run while you have the residents do other activities.
Why music? Familiar music may trigger long term memories, may get them talking and reminiscing and that’s what you want. Capture those moments and see if you can get the residents to draw or write something – finish one of the sentences, one of the poetry starters or prompts.
You could try holding up a word card (see card below) or several and see what they come up with. Can they put the words into a sentence? Can they talk about it?
Play some music and have them close their eyes for a bit then see if they can draw a seasonal related picture.
If you can add seasonal scents to add to the atmosphere, that may help trigger memories.
Read/skim a seasonal book and see what happens when you do that. See if a resident will start talking. Ask them questions about the seasons – “Tell me about walking through fall leaves? What sound did you hear?” or “Did you go out in fresh snow and make snow angels? What was that like?”
You can do these activities with a large or small group or even one-on-one. That’s where your knowledge of your residents will come in. Most likely, you will know what your residents can handle and how long to extend the activity.
Use what the residents create to make a bulletin board or a memory board titled “Fall Memory Board” or something like “Our Fall Memories.”
There’s such a variety of activities, you don’t have to do the same activity every day. You can change it up.
You may want to laminate the individual word cards and prompts and make copies of the sentence prompt pages and put them into a seasonal binder or an activity folder.
Benefits you may notice
This is a benefit to you, as the activity director, as it’s one more activity you can add to your resources.
If you have volunteers, it’s a quick to put together activity they or your staff can use.
The activities encourage conversation, story telling, creativity and self-expression.
Supports cognitive stimulation and memory recall.
Builds social interaction among residents.
What’s coming next: Summer
The Spring kit is all ready to go on Etsy and I’m planning the Summer version filled with sunshine, flowers, and outdoor memories – perfect for keeping engagement fresh year-round!
In addition I want to add more “kits” that are more theme related rather than seasonal.
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Where to get these kits
You can get these kits at my Etsy store, DementiaHelpingHand.
Remember, these are digital downloads. Nothing is shipped to you. You will receive a link to the download. Then you are able to print out the activities.
You might be interested in this post of Fall Activities for People with Dementia
or this one –
You might also like to view these products to use with your residents: