Dance for AdultsTRS TeachersAn Active Armchairs New Year

I wanted to bring sparkle and looking positively into the future to my Active Armchairs sessions at the start of January. Straight away, I was sure the liquid gold would play a part and it went down really well, as always. It was wonderful to see the carers and family members getting involved. It even turned into a mermaid tail.

I tried something new with positive affirmations. I thought it would be nice to read them together, but wanted to do this in a fun way… role up positive affirmation plates that become frisbees! We all enjoyed choosing our positive affirmation plate, read them to each other and some, mostly the one about wearing a crown and the sun one, were even represented by dance moves and power poses. We did some movements with them and, finally, threw them across the room. Paper plates make great frizbees!

Written by Jenny

I’ve been visiting my care homes during January with my ‘Happy’ new year theme using lots of uplifting, positive songs and I have LOVED it! I’ve had some great magic moments!

At Pilgrims View Care Home 2 ladies who don’t usually join in that much were both loving the music and wanted to dance with me. They were both up on their feet too and we had a good boogie. Afterwards they told me about how much they loved dancing when they younger and that the songs brought back lots of memories. It was a joyous moment!

At Fairby Grange Care home we danced to ‘Is this the way to Amarillo’ and everyone was singing along and enjoying the movement. One lady finds it difficult to raise her arms, but this week she noticed she was raising them higher; She was over the moon with herself and said ‘ I can do!’ It was a real moment of positivity.

At Harpwood Care Home the residents particularly enjoyed ‘Wake me up before you go go’ by Wham and ‘I feel good ‘ by James Brown. We had party vibes going on with lots of singing! They loved using the props and there were lots of carers joining in too! When I left they all thanked me and said what a great time they had.

I also used my soft stars to play a game! We started by squeezing and rubbing the stars to get our hands moving and improve grip and strength. I then asked each resident to think of something they enjoy or something they were looking forward to and, as they thought of it, they had to throw the star into the target- the hulla hoop. Some of things that they said were, visits from their family, singing Karaoke, eating a box of chocolates and my favourite one – looking forward to the next Active Armchairs session!

I love how I have got to know each resident and the relationships that I have built – even though I only see them once or twice a month it is lovely to know that they look forward to their sessions and how much they benefit from them.

I’m looking forward to visiting my other care homes with the theme 😊