Activities at Lancaster Grange Care Home

Baking on our Memory Lane Community a huge success. 

We decided on a recipe, it was something simple and easy to follow, this happened to be an old family favourite, the smell of ingredients certainly helped trigger memories. 

Cinnamon being a strong scent this afternoon... 

We made sure we had all the ingredients out and ready to use. If they’re in labelled bowls or jars, then that is even better as our residents can identify easily. 

Our tasks this afternoon were mixing, whisking and kneading, this is great for residents with dementia because it helps to always feel part of the process.

While we were working, we talked about the various foods that we loved and enjoyed eating and cooking when we were younger.

Baking with someone with dementia is less about getting the perfect looking cake, it’s more about enjoying the  activity together, spending quality time together and hopefully being able to reminisce. Finally, we tasted our pinwheels, it was a great sensory activity and gave us an enormous sense of achievement.

At  Lancaster Grange, our residents recognised St David's Day in many ways.

In our community of Memory Lane, our residents from different communities joined together to make Welsh cakes.

The recipe was supplied from our St David’s Day Activity book provided to us by Oomph Wellness a valuable resource we use here at Lancaster Grange. After our baking, we sat down and learnt many interesting facts about St David and enjoyed the fun colouring of our daffodils together. In our community of Sherwood, our residents participated in creative craft activities, social interaction and learning how to make beautiful daffodils the flowers that mark the day. Many needs were met today with St David’s day, we learnt so much, we felt proud of our Welsh cakes and a huge boost of esteem from our daffodils. St David is the patron saint of Wales and he is celebrated on 1 March. 

At Lancaster Grange we enjoyed celebrating International Women’s Day.  International Women's Day, an annual event that celebrates and recognises the achievements of women. We are proud to be part of Sainsbury's Community Engagement here at Lancaster Grange, today we gratefully received a huge donation of flowers and chocolates to share with our staff and residents here at Lancaster Grange. In receiving these wonderful gifts, our residents were filled with happiness, elated with the kind gesture of Sainsbury’s. Many of our residents were thrilled to have received them. Lots of smiles and happiness flowed through our home this morning, our residents enjoyed a fun morning of iconic women’s games and the activities team also visited individual rooms for meaningful moments of magic. 

A great day here at Lancaster Grange with the start of Crufts, a celebration of dogs!

Crufts attracts over 18,000 competitors alongside hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and is broadcast to an international television audience. We had the pleasure of welcoming Vikki from Pets at Home. Vikki chose to spend her yearly volunteer day with us here at Lancaster Grange. What a fun day we’ve all had, with dog games & quiz’s provided by Oomph Wellness, along with streaming Crufts live through YouTube this morning. Vikki brought our residents here at Lancaster Grange, a wide range of knowledge of pets and gave our residents gifts of calendars of dogs. 

Our residents were treated to a special virtual sensory storytelling session.  Together with Art Historian Jon Sleigh and the Historic Royal Palaces community team, we explored several royal palaces through the theme of food, dining and celebration!

We enjoyed a fantastic taste-a-long experience from the comfort of our home, from Tudor treats to Stuart sweets. A lovely time was had by all.

Across our services, our residents had a lovely time joining Mark Piesing for an exciting virtual event to discuss his book ‘N-4 Down: The Hunt for The Arctic Airship Italia’.

Our residents were thrilled to find out more about the book and the fascinating story of the world-famous exploring airship Italia, returning from the North Pole on May 24, 1928. The airship was struck by a terrible storm and crashed somewhere over the Arctic ice, triggering the largest polar rescue mission in history.

The virtual book club experience was truly enjoyed by all.