Activities at Cheshire Grange Care Home
The activities team are constantly striving to meet the varied needs of everyone who lives in our home, offering a wide range of group and individual social events. There are regular visits from entertainers, along with craft activities, baking, games & puzzle days and pampering sessions, which fill the week. However, we can always find time for outings and just spending that little bit of special time with residents who enjoy the peace and quiet. We aim to bring the activities to the individual, whilst making it a whole home experience.
Jo Eland
After originally starting at Cheshire Grange in May 2015, I'm delighted to be back in the role of Activities Coordinator. It is a privilege to be in this role and spend time, getting to know our ladies and gentleman and their loved one, whilst doing all the fun things that can make such a difference to their days.
Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.
Read our brochure
Activities and Events Partnerships
As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies
Life at Cheshire Grange Care Home
Remembering & Celebrating VE Day
We marked the 79th Anniversary of VE Day in true Cheshire Grange style. The home was decorated with bunting, flags and photographs from the era, residents' had listened to music and historic newsreels as well as reading some very poignant poetry. Residents shared some of their memories of the day, many recalling that everyone was singing and dancing but not really understanding why as they were only young children at the time.
After lunch it was time to don our dancing shoes, as we welcomed singer Lainey to take us on trip down memory lane, songs of the day got residents into the party spirit, there was much flag waving, singing and dancing and of course an abundance of smiles.
Chinese Language Day
Chinese Language Day gave Activities Coordinator Robecca, the perfect reason to teach the residents some basic sayings in Chinese. Residents practiced simple phrases, Hello, How are you and Thank you and quickly picked them. There were some cookies for residents to try too and the hospitality included a sweet & sour dish and Chinese curry on the days menu.
World Poetry Day
We recently celebrated World Poetry with a variety of activities, we read some short verses, with groups, we also explored some well-known poems including Wordsworth's Daffodils, which many residents remembered learning at school.
We also took the activity to residents in their rooms, reading and discussing what we thought some poems might mean.
We decided that we could be poets and residents chose the subject of 'Time' and with lots of suggestions to work with the activities team created two works from the residents ideas.
Time Is…..
Poetry time, family time
Things to say & do time
Making time, gin time,
Love things all the time time
Memories Tim, reminiscing time
Time waits for no man time
Learning time, visiting time,
Don’t let time pass you by time
Snooze time, quiz time,
Leading to conversation time
All these things involve meaningful time
Don’t let time pass you by!
As with all our activities we learn so much about our ladies and gents and the staff and discovered that we had published poets on the staff and also a resident who had read their works at church gatherings
Home Safari Animal Visit
Residents had asked us for something a little different to the usual entertainers we have, so they were delighted as well as a little apprehensive when we invited Home Safari to visit. The ladies and gents were able to get up close and make friends with Jethro the Skunk, Tom the Tortoise, Salt the rabbit, Alfie a tenrec who tipped the cuteness scale into overload!! There was also a lizard, a very fluffy guinea pig and a skinny pig – a hairless guinea pig. Residents, along with staff and visits all soon relaxed and were cuddling the array of animals and asking lots of questions about them.
Violin Music To You
We are very fortunate at Cheshire Grange to have strong Community links and a strong volunteer base who bring different skills and talents to our home, enhancing our residents wellbeing. One of our Duke of Edinburgh students Georgina brought her violin in and played for the residents in their rooms, she played a beautiful piece ‘ladies In Lavender’ as well a piece from the musical Annie.
We like to involve all our residents in activities within the home and taking the activity to those who are nursed in bed, or choose to spend more time in their rooms is a priority in our planning. One of our residents had a family member visiting and she got in touch later in the day to say thank you ‘Mum seemed to love it, she was certainly enrapt, and so did I! It made my day’
Puppets
We have many regular events and entertainment happening at our home with our residents enjoying a variety of life enrichment activities for their minds, body and soul on a daily basis until now we’d never had a ventriloquist visiting Cheshire Grange, until earlier this week, when we invited Donna and her friends(puppets) along.
Residents were introduced to Vinnie the Monster who had quite a curmudgeonly view on life and Big Bear who loved hugs and honey.
There were songs, jokes and a little bit of magic with help from our very own Debbie McGee, in the form of Activities Assistant Sophia, and of course lots of hugs from Big Bear, who was a little sad not to have got any honey and was happy to go back into hibernation.
