Activities at Bedewell Grange Care Home

Two of our local school children, Lillie Mae and Johnny, delivered 100 roses to our residents this Valentine’s Day, bringing lots of warmth and happiness to our residents.

Both children are regular visitors to Bedwell Grange, with Lillie Mae also being our Christmas elf and Johnny attending our community events. The children are very fond of our residents, so were thrilled their teacher allowed them a special visit alongside their parents to give out the roses which they had wrapped and decorated with love hearts.           

We love a cheese board here at Bedewell and is mentioned regularly at our resident meetings. So we jumped at the chance to celebrate world cheese day.

We also threw a surprise Baby shower for our house keeper Donna who will be going on leave very soon to give birth to a baby boy. Our residents enjoyed raising a glass of bubbly to wish Donna well and we are looking forward to meeting the baby for cuddles.   

We went along for Christmas drinks at the sundial where our residents were thrilled to meet Santa around the Christmas tree. We were taken to the fantastic light display on the red carpet where our residents were in fine tune singing Christmas carols.

We had a lovely afternoon and were very impressed with the decorations.   

Our residents enjoy showing their artistic flair and being creative in our regular craft classes. We used recycled products and a bright colourful mix of paints to make a firework display for bonfire night.

The finished products were lovely and our residents displayed them for everyone to see. Our residents enjoy the sessions as they enjoy sharing ideas and enjoying time together.  

Our residents have been busy making homemade gifts for our upcoming Halloween party, where we will be joined by residents and staff's children and grandchildren for party games.

Our residents made pumpkins which they painted and filled with sweets and handmade bats for the games. Our residents can't wait to see the children in their costumes.  

We enjoyed making Chinese lanterns and our resident Alex shared stories of celebrations that are held in Hong Kong over the two week event.

Alex also showed us how to write happy new year onto the lanterns which we displayed in our dining rooms along with other handmade decorations.

This year is year of the fire horse. In the Chinese zodiac, the horse is known for its vitality and confidence.      

We were thrilled to get our magic table up and running this month. Our residents tried out different apps including sensory, knowledge games as well as a bit of competitive games.

This has brought so much enjoyment to Bedwell and can used in group sessions as well as on a one to one interaction.    

We were thrilled with this year's travelling panto northeast producers with the panto, a Christmas carol. Our residents loved the interaction with scrooge as they got involved in the production.

We sang Christmas carols at the end of the and got into the Christmas spirit with a glass of bubbly.     

Our monthly intergenerational dance class was a huge success as always. We celebrated Bills birthday with the little movers and Stanley nursery. Bill  was thrilled to be serenaded with the children singing happy birthday.

Our residents and children had lots of fun as we sang along and danced to the music with pompoms and colourful scarfs.

This is a favourite activity which our residents always look forward to.    

We have been awarded a grant through the equal arts who are a leading creative ageing charity supporting the older generation and those living with dementia.

We had our first session with Aaron, who is an artist trained in dance. We learnt moves to tia chi, which everyone enjoyed. We will have weekly sessions where we will learn more tia chi and ballet moves.  

We welcomed back the little movers and Stanley nursery for some intergenerational dance and fun. We danced along to the music with the children with scarfs and pom poms.

Our residents look forward to this monthly session, which brings so much enjoyment and excitement, as the residents look forward to the visit. There were smiles on everyone’s faces, which was so lovely to see.

Some of our residents went into the dance circle for the dance off at the end.  

We have had a busy month for birthdays with nine residents celebrating their special day with afternoon teas and trips out with families.

Our residents love Elvis, so we had a joint party with Mike Memphis as Elvis, who came in to entertain our residents. 

Elvis is a regular and popular visitor and always leaves a lasting impression even after Elvis has left the building!  

Our Christmas fayre was a huge success raising funds for our residents. Santa’s grotto was full of excited children sharing their Christmas lists. 

We had a tombola, craft stall and refreshments, and it was a fantastic turn out from our families, staff and the wider community. We are very grateful for everyone’s support.     

We held an intergenerational pumpkin carving class here at Bedewell as we celebrate Halloween. Our residents and the children loved carving up the pumpkins, making some fabulous designs with paint and different fabrics and textures.

We enjoyed spooky music and finished off a lovely morning with Halloween snacks and treats.       

We have been out whilst the weather has been nice to replace some of our bedding plants with some autumn colour. We swept up the leaves and made sure it was tidy and pretty, as we still like to get out of the garden when we still can.

There was a lot of teamwork as we spruced up our pots.