Italian National Day Level: Easy Length: 30 minutes Overview: Create your own pizza flavours for Italian National Day. Materials: Pizza bases, a variety of toppings. How: Apply tomato passata to the pizza base and cover with your favourite toppings. Cook in the oven. Enjoy the delicious flavours of Italy... Buon appetito! Addition: Set the scene
Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Marking on a map where people are from, to inspire conversation. Materials: Large map of the UK and further if you have participants for anywhere else, drawing pins or marker pens. How: Ask people to locate their birthplace with a pin on the map. Discussion of birthplace,
Level: Medium Length: 1 hour Overview: Create beautiful canvases to connect together. Materials: Canvases (you can also use paper/card), paints. How: Choose a theme - flowers, birds, nature. Draw the outline of the image, with the canvases together. Then each participant can paint their canvas individually. Connect the canvases back together to see the full picture. Display
Level: Medium Length: 1 hour + Overview: Personalise your own deck of playing cards. Materials: Pens, pencils, card, scissors. Optional: Stamps, stickers. How: Cut card into 52 equal sized playing cards. Label cards with their suit and number on one side. Decorate the labelled side of the card using illustration, stamping or stickers. Enjoy a game
World Oceans Day Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Create a group or individual collage using scraps of patterned paper for World Ocean Day. Materials: Large sheet of paper, scraps of patterned/newspaper, pencil, scissors, glue. How: Draw the outline of a fish on a large sheet of paper. Participants can cut or tear up paper
Level: Hard Length: 1 - 2 hours Overview: A fun dance session for everyone to take part in. Materials: Music, various props (feathers, hats, scarves etc.), tea and cake. How: Use a wide selection of music from the 40’s to the 00’s and a range of props. You can start the tea dance with a seated
Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Create beautiful three-dimensional bird and butterfly decorations. Materials: Inkjet Printer, acetate for inkjet printer, scissors, stapler, acrylic paints. How: Print 2 copies of each bird or butterfly onto acetate. Cut out the whole of the first copy and just the wings of the second copy. Participants can colour
Level: Easy Length: 30 minutes Overview: Stencilling to create beautiful images to make cards, pictures etc. Materials: Stencils, paper, paints, sponge/paint brush. How: Lay your stencil on your paper in desired position. Use a sponge or paint brush to apply paint. Peel back stencil to reveal your image. You can also print onto fabric. Addition: You
Level: Easy Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Dancing using props to encourage movement. Materials: Music and various props - feathers, balls etc. How: Warm up by throwing and catching an object to get participants engaged. Passing a ball between people, keeping a balloon afloat and blowing feathers to each other. Exercise through dancing to
Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Create a group mosaic. Materials: Thick board, small pieces of tiles or buttons, PVA glue. Optional – grout, spatula and cloth. How: Draw an outline for your mosaic, you can choose a pattern, theme, animal, object, etc. Select your pieces of tile or buttons. Position and glue down. Leave
Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Stitch into hessian to make small decorated pieces. Materials: Wool, strips of fabric, ribbon, embroidery hoops, hessian, scissors, bodkins. How: Choose wool, ribbon and strips of fabric from a wide range of colours. Place hessian in an embroidery hoop. Use blunt bodkins to stitch into hessian, remembering your favourite
Level: Easy Length: 5 minutes + Overview: Non-verbal communication using rhythmic sounds Materials: Table top, drum or percussive instrument if available. How: Sit facing each other with access to a table top or drum. Person 1 makes a sound. Maintaining eye contact person 2 mimics that sound... and so on. If the person makes vocal
Level: Medium Length: 1 - 2 hours Overview: Bring the seaside inside. Materials: Buckets, spades, sand, seashells, starfish, pebbles, picnic blanket, old holiday postcards, ice cream with cones. How: Allow people to explore the sand with their hands and feet. Pass around the objects and postcards, allowing conversation to flow around memories of holidays to the
Level: Easy Length: 30 minutes Overview: Stamping with fruit and vegetables. Materials: Fruit or vegetables e.g. broccoli, Brussels sprouts, apples. Paint, paint brushes, paper. How: Take your chosen fruit or vegetable and cut in half, dip or paint your vegetable and stamp onto your paper. You can also add stems and leaves to your painting. Holmer Manor
Level: Easy Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Matching the hands and what those hands have done in their lifetime to the person. Materials: Paper, scissors, glue, decorating materials - sequins, crayons, ribbons, stamps. How: Trace around your hand, cut out and decorate. Write on the back what these hands have done in your lifetime. Try
Level: Difficult Length: Long-term Overview: Grow your own ingredients for moisturisers and lotions. Materials: Plants - cucumber and aloe vera are good for moisturiser, rose and lavender are great for their scent. How: Plant outside or in pots. Once the plants are growing well, cuttings can be taken for making your own lotions, with soothing
Level: Medium Length: 1 - 2 hours Overview: Watch the horse racing, place bets and play games. Materials: Large pictures of horses, giant dice, chocolate coins. How: Prepare for a day out at the races, wear your fancy clothes and hats. Create a race track with a start and finish point. Place bets on the winning
World Music Day Level: Medium Length: 1 hour Overview: Play music to evoke memories and conversation. Materials: Record Player, records. How: Ask participants, family members or friends to bring in records to play. Have a chance to listen, sing along and talk about memories evoked by the music. Hazelhurst Nursing Home
Level: Easy Length: 30 minutes Overview: Use the alphabet to encourage discussions around flowers. Materials: Whiteboard or large piece of paper, pens. How: Sit with the whiteboard or paper visible to all. Go through the alphabet naming flowers. It can lead to conversations about favourite flowers and what you have grown in the garden. Holmer Court Care
Level: Easy Length: 10 minutes + Overview: Use hats as a prop for encouraging a fun, imaginative story to develop. Materials: Hats. How: Try on different hats, and get into character of who would wear the hat. What would your job be? Where would you live? What do you like doing? Let your imagination run wild...
Level: Medium Length: 1 hour Overview: Taste different ciders and apple juices. Materials: Small glasses, a variety of ciders and apple juices. How: Pour a variety of ciders and apple juices into glasses. Guess which cider is which. Encourage conversation around apple growing and making cider in Herefordshire. West Eaton House Care Home
Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Paint your own pot. Materials: Terracotta pots, acrylic paints, paint brushes, pencil, table cover or newspaper. How: Cover the table to protect it from the paint. Choose a theme, such as nature. You can draw the outline with pencil first, to give guidance when painting. Use the paint
Level: Easy Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Plant your terracotta flower pot with bulbs or flowers. Materials: Compost, plants or bulbs, flower pot, gloves, trowel, plastic sheet. How: Place plastic sheet over your table. Fill your flower pot over half way, place in your plants or bulb. Fill up with compost, pressing down
Level: Easy Length: 15 minutes per person Overview: Relaxing hand massage Materials: Cushion, relaxation music, towels, lotion, massager’s hands. How: Play relaxing music and dim lights if possible. Place hands onto comfy cushion and one at a time give hands a light massage. Use delicious smelling lotions to awaken yours senses. Stonebow Unit, Hereford
Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Finish the phrases. Materials: Paper, printer or a pen, scissors. How: Choose some interesting phrases and print them off (or write them out). Cut the phrase in half. Allow participant to match the phrases. A leopard cannot…change its spots. Revenge is a dish…best served cold. An apple
Level: Medium Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Block printing and stamping to make beautiful cards. Materials: Card, inks, sponges, stamps/wooden blocks. How: Choose your desired piece of card. Sponge an even layer of ink onto your stamp. Turn stamp upside down onto your card and push down firmly. Admire your beautiful creation. Addition: Make
Level: Easy Length: 30 - 60 minutes Overview: Imprint curious objects into icing that can then decorate a cake. Materials: Ready to roll icing, rolling pin, icing sugar, food colouring, cling film, cake, objects to press in - coins, small ornaments, stencils, doilies, etc. How: Warm the icing in your hands. Sprinkle icing sugar onto