Activities at Maple Leaf Lodge Care Home

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch is an annual event to try to understand what is happening to our native birds. The idea is to log all the birds you see in your garden, from your window or in your local park in a one hour period any time between January 28th and 30th.  Last year over 1 million people took part and between them they counted 17 million birds.  Sadly we have lost over 38 million birds from the UK skies in the last 50 years so it is vital we do all we can to protect our birdlife.

Residents had a brilliant time filling up bird feeders, making fat balls to attract the birds before they got started and then looking up the different species in their bird books to make sure they were logging them correctly. They saw three wood pigeon  four blackbirds and a magpie we then spent the afternoon making some bird art, resident Joan said she likes the pheasant as it reminds her of her dad and working on the farm.

Burns Night, held in honour of Scotland's most famous poet Robert Burns, is celebrated at the end of January every year.

Residents at Maple Leaf have spent the day celebrating the day. We have been busy making Scottish dishes, like Cranacan and short bread. Our kitchen team made Cullen Skink for our starter at dinner, on the menu was traditional haggis as-well and we were treated to Dundee cake for pudding.

Resident have enjoyed watching virtual tours of Scotland and learning how to Scottish dance. The day wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t taste taste different whiskeys, it’s fair to say resident Ron is a natural when drinking whiskey. Ron said “His mother was Scottish and he was stationed in Scotland in the army, men would play bagpipes on the mountains and the sound would travel down, it always sounded beautiful”

Residents have been taste testing popcorn this morning, popcorn has been consumed for many years.

Aztecs used popcorn to decorate their clothes, create ceremonial embellishments, and also for nourishment.

Native Americans have also been found to consume and utilise popcorn in their daily lives.

Residents tasted different flavours we had sweet, salty, mince pie, toffee, white chocolate, dark chocolate and honey. We then had a go at some popcorn art and made a blossom tree by painting the popcorn.

Residents have been busy making some beautiful window decorations for Memory Lane! Our Memory Lane communities are for our residents living with Dementia to help them live happy and supported.

We decided to create some beautiful window decorations for our residents to look at whilst enjoying their tea and watching some TV.

Resident Joan said she can’t wait to see the different colours shine through on a sunny day!

Staff and residents marked World Braille Day on 4 January. Invented by Louis Braille, a young Frenchman, each braille cell is made up of up to six dots, rather like a domino, and spells out the alphabet.

Not just for reading from a page, braille is used in all sorts of different ways to help blind people stay safe and maintain their independence.  Braille can be found on signage in public places, in lifts, on door signs, on menu and medication, the list goes on.  Braille can even be found on board games and on Lego bricks, helping blind people embrace all aspects of daily life.

Everyone had a go at learning the braille alphabet which was far more difficult than it looked and then residents played a game looking around the home for things that were marked in braille to see how many they could find.

Throughout the month of December residents have been busy making gingerbread men, Christmas cakes and mince pies! The home has been full of joy and the smell of cinnamon, sherry and orange are all wonderful smells that reminds us of Christmas. We had a lovely time joining Paul Hawkins and Steve Wiles from Unilever for an exciting immense Christmas experience. Our residents were welcomed with chocolate treats as Paul and Steve took them on an exciting chocolate truffle and biscuit making journey!