Activites at South Grange Care Home

We love seeing our little friends every week for some fun-filled activities. The residents' faces always light up when the children arrive. Our beautiful garden is a great environment for our residents and the children from our local nursery to enjoy a variety of amazing outdoor activities. A favourite is the giant games and bubble machine.

 Residents have made such special bonds with the children who visit regularly, so we were delighted to invite them back for our annual picnics. These are held over two weeks when the children spend a couple of hours over lunchtime at South Grange playing games, chatting away and enjoying a delicious picnic with the residents. We laughed, posed for photos, sang songs, made lots of lovely memories and shared some tasty homemade biscuits that the children made for us and, most of all, had a wonderful time.

Residents enjoyed our indoor drive-in movie-themed afternoon, with the residents' choice of movie. Everyone came together and decided to watch an old-time favourite, the classic 1978 musical Grease. The lights went off, and the curtains were drawn, and the snacks came out. Residents were happy to receive a tasty cinema snack box each with a delicious hot dog, a drink of choice, some crisps and a few chocolates, served by their very own “Pink Ladies”. 

The afternoon was filled with laughter and sing-songs, as we sang along to some of the most popular tunes, such as Summer Nights, and You’re the One That I Want. Everyone agreed it was a fantastic afternoon, and they all thoroughly enjoyed their movie munchies.

Last week was an energetic, fun-filled week of movement and exercise for residents and staff. We got moving and put the ‘fun’ into exercising with an amazing week of activities. We started off our week with some of our gentle chair exercise classes. We then got creative and did some balloon exercise games. We were thrilled to be joined by family and friends too. What a laugh we had!

We continued the week by getting everyone involved in our Dancercise morning classes, which is chair dancing to some of the classic party songs, such as the YMCA, Macarena and many more. Everyone who took part had a fantastic time and left feeling more energised!

The activities team at South Grange served a selection of delicious cakes especially prepared by the home’s hospitality team, including an assortment of cream cakes, tarts and some sweet pastries which were enjoyed by everyone who came to the event.

Guests included friends and family of residents, staff at the home and the volunteers from Cycling Without Age Monifieth who kindly offer their time to the home each Friday afternoon and take residents out on the trishaws around the streets of Monifieth. We also invited along our beloved therapet - Korky and owner Sandy. Even Korky got to enjoy a biscuit with everyone!
 

Over the last few weeks, residents of South Grange have enjoyed making use of the lovely outdoor areas that we are so lucky to have. Our Seven Arches residents have made use of their patio area to dine out for their meals, soak up the sunshine with music of their choice on the speaker and have meaningful interactions with carers. 

Our elderly unit has welcomed the children into the garden for some fun and games in the sunshine, from using the bubble machine to playing hook a duck. Whilst others have spent some precious time with their families and friends whilst participating in family tree making and donut tasting. The activity team love to see our visitors getting in on the action too!    

Activity staff and residents got busy in the garden getting their hands dirty as we celebrated National Bee-friendly planting day. We added some new geraniums, gazania frosty kiss and hydrangeas. Residents chose these flowers as they are known as the most popular for our friendly bees.

Our next task was to add some new additions to our garden to add some more colour and show off our residents' artistic skills as they painted their own wild flower creations onto rocks. They chose their colours from a variety of acrylic paint pens, which was a first for our residents in our home, and they all said they were very easy to use. All our hard work has paid off as our garden now looks beautiful and full of colour.

As always, we were treated to a well-deserved cuppa and a delicious slice of cake for all our hard work!

Residents, staff and families came together to celebrate VE Day’s 80th anniversary. Our home was specially decorated for the occasion with flags, bunting and other memorabilia of the special day. 

We welcomed back our local ukulele band, Dee Ukes, who entertained us with a variety of old wartime music to some modern-day melodies. Everyone had a great time singing and clapping along. We all tucked into some delicious buffet food prepared by our kitchen team, which went down a treat along with some fizz.  

Our activity team dressed up as soldiers and land girls fit for the occasion too. What a great time had by all! 

Resident, Alison had always wanted to go on holiday to St. Andrews, so staff at the home made her wish a reality, proving the old adage, it’s never too late.

Alison, a resident of the homes Seven Arches community, enjoyed a week in a lodge with hot tub and balcony in St. Andrews was accompanied by nurse, Val and carer, Nikki, who supported her on this getaway.

Alison has lived at South Grange for 13 years and is loved by staff and residents alike. Staff at the home were delighted to be a part of making this possible for her, as they know how much it means to her to be able to live her life to the fullest. 
 

Residents celebrated National Learning about butterfly day by getting involved in looking after our very own caterpillars.  Over the course of 3 weeks, residents and staff watched our caterpillars eat, spin, silk and grow. After an amazing week, we saw them hang upside down and turn into chrysalides. When eventually, they completed their transformation into beautiful butterflies. 

At the end of the eye-opening 3 weeks, we spent an afternoon in our garden soaking up the sunshine, admiring the stunning colours of the butterflies before we set them free. Our residents were happy they got to hold them before they flew off.