No 1, 2011
Increasing Activities in Care Settings E-zine
Using sweets to inspire
activity
For further details about the Increasing Activities in Care
Settings Program in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan
don't hesitate to contact me:
Alison Haden: Ageing Well Coordinator
[email protected]
I have written this as a reference guide for the sweet
picture resources, and to suggest other ways you can
use the sweet theme in activities . The whole
resource will come out A5 size, if you follow the
printing guide below.
This will be the new format for the e-zine, so you can
use them to build up a reference bank of activity
themes to dip into when you need them. Get
yourself a box and start collecting the e-zine sets as
a handy reference tool over the coming months. If
you have a suggestion for a theme please get in
touch.
How to Print
Print out the “Picture resource file” in colour, on card,
single sided, then cut the cards in half to create a
useful pack of A5 reminiscence cards.
Print this booklet out as A5 by following these steps:
(if your printer does not have a double sided print
option you will need to feed the paper through
twice)
Select print. Looking for the “Paper Scaling” drop
down box. (may already say “fit to printable area)
Change it to “Booklet Printing.”
You can print the pages out using the “fit to printable
area” setting if you require large print for any pages.
2
Using Reminiscence Picture Cards
1: Offer the cards, face down, and ask a client to
pick a card. Invite them to talk about the sweet type
they have picked. Invite other group members to talk
about that sweet, and once conversation has dried
up, ask the next client to pick a card.
Try these questions to keep conversation going:
Do you remember these sweets?
Have you ever tasted them?
What was your favourite sweet?
What sweets don't you like?
How often did you have sweets as a
child?
How have sweets changed these days?
2: Ask the client to go through the cards and choose
their favourite sweet.
3. Choose four (or more) pictures, and buy the
sweets in the image. Play match the sweet.
3
Use sweets in other activities
A wide range of traditional sugar free sweets are
available so most people
will be able to join in.
Organise a “taste and
reminisce” session.
Keep sweets in paper bags
as part of a “Feely” quiz.
Include the sweet shop as a
destination for personalised
trips. (you may need to visit
first to ensure it is
wheelchair accessible)
The smell of sweets can be
very distinctive, so use them in a “Smell Quiz”
Palmer Violets, Pear Drops, Turkish delight (rose),
Mints, Chocolate, Strawberry Bon Bons, Liquorish,
Treacle toffee, Sherbet lemons, etc.
When talking about sweets use the smell to lead on
to other memories so you take your clients on a
journey;
Palmer violets=walks in the woods
Pear drops = nail varnish and glamour
Turkish delight = rose garden
4
Dementia and the senses
When working with dementia clients it has been
found that sensory activities can reduce anxiety,
improve sleep and mood.
Stimulating the senses can be a way to connect
between the here and now, and the past.
Sound and Sight are often use in reminiscence
activities, e.g. using the picture resources from this
e-zine. However smell, touch and taste also links into
feelings and memories.
What smell or taste tigers a memory in your mind? To
me, the smell and taste of rusks takes me back to a
play mate and I being naughty, aged three; that
memory triggers all of the associated memories as
we grew up together.
For dementia clients who find joining others
difficult, non- intervention activities are of the
utmost importance.
5
Non-intervention activities
A non-intervention activity is any activity that your
client can enjoy without anyone else prompting or
guiding them.
It is very important for all residents to have lots of
opportunities to do things that are not “organised”
activities.
e.g.
Watching a fish tank
Reading a newspaper
Watering plants
Knitting
Cleaning their room
Playing patience
Doing a cross-word
Playing their favourite CD
Writing a letter
Chatting to a friend
Personally I feel a large part of an activity
coordinator and care staff's role is ensuring that
clients have the right things around them so that
activity just happens.
It doesn't take a lot of time to bring a board game out
of the cupboard, however if it is in the cupboard the
staff member will need to prompt the client that it is
there. Surely having the board game on display so
clients can pick up and play without staff time makes
more sense.
6
Designing a sensory,
non-intervention activity
using sweets
Use the “Talk about Sweets”
Picture resources for a non
intervention activity:
Have a shelf put up in a
corridor, or communal room.
Cut out images of sweet jars
and stick them on the wall,
just behind the shelf (as if
they were on the shelves of a
sweet shop, see the picture on
the right for an example)
Regularly place some (sugar
free) sweets on the shelf for people to pick up and
engage with.
The senses smell, touch, taste and sight are all
involved.
You could add a set of balance scales, sweet
advertising from the 50's and 60's, or even have a
few real jars containing sweets.
7
Mars Bar Crispy Cake
A No Bake recipe using Mars Bars; as people are
stirring talk about the advertising slogan.
“A Mars a day helps you work, rest, and play” was
written by Francis Hamer-Brown and Peter Pfeffer in
1959.
Ingredients
3 standard Mars Bars
2 tbsp golden syrup
3oz butter
enough rice crispies to coat
Melt the Mars Bars, the syrup and the butter together,
when smooth stir in enough rice crispies so that all
of the mixture is coating them.
Press the mixture into a tray, allow to cool, then cut
into pieces.
How about using the advertising slogan
as a group activity, write it up on a sheet
of flip chart paper and see how many
words can be made from the phrase.
8
WWII Rationing
The BBC have a lot of online resources about
rationing, including photographs and some short
films.
www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/
food_and_shopping/
Timeline
One Person's
1939 WWII declared (BBC “On
This Day”)
1939 – Petrol rationed
January 1940 – Bacon, butter
and sugar rationed
March 1940 – All meat
rationed
Weekly Food
Allowance
4oz (113g) lard or
butter
12oz (340g) sugar
4oz (113g) bacon
July 1940 – Tea and margarine
rationed
March 1941 – Jam rationed
May 1941 – Cheese rationed
1 June 1941 – Clothing
rationed and coupons issued
2 eggs
6oz (170g) meat
2oz (57g) tea
2oz (55 grams)
sweets or chocolate
June 1941 – Eggs rationed
July 1941 – Coal rationed
January 1942 – Rice and dried fruit rationed
9
February 1942 – Soap rationed. Tinned tomatoes and
peas rationed
March 1942 – Gas and electricity rationed
July 1942 – Sweets and chocolate rationed (Each
person was allowed 2oz (55 grams) a week)
August 1942 – Biscuits rationed
1943 – Sausages rationed
1945 – WWII Ends
1946 – Bread was a rationed and the sweet ration
was halved to 1oz (23grams) a week.
July 1948 – End of flour rationing
March 1949 – End of clothes rationing
May 1950 – End of rationing for petrol
May 1950 – End of rationing for canned and dried
fruit, chocolate biscuits, treacle, syrup, jellies and
mincemeat.
September 1950 – End of rationing for soap
October 1952 – End of tea rationing
February 1953 – End of sweet rationing
September 1953 – End of sugar rationing
July 1954 – All food rationing ends
10
Cryptic Sweet Quiz
A different way to use a quiz, you could print this
page and the next out, single sided using the “fit to
printable area” setting on A4 paper. Cut out the
answers and give people the quiz with the cut up
answers to match together.
1 Wobbly Infants (5,6)
(Jelly Babies)
2 Where refined people live (7,6) (Quality Street)
3 There was a mutiny here (6)
(Bounty)
4 Wobbly pre-schoolers (5,4)
(Jelly Tots)
5
9s,10s,11s,12s.... (5,6)
(After Eights)
6 This could keep them quiet (10) (Gobstopers)
7 Little black devils (4)
(Imps)
8 Scrooge’s idea of Christmas (6) (Humbug)
9 Rome’s Trevi ..........with a fizz! (7, (Sherbet
8)
Fountain)
10 The sport of prince's (4)
(Polo)
11 A Group of English girls (5)
(Roses)
12 Small purple flowers from
(Parma Violets)
Italian ham town (5, 7)
13 All Sorts of Girls (5, 8)
(Dolly
Mixtures)
14 Belly Dancers (perhaps) (7, 7)
(Turkish
delight)
11
15 A Royal Herb (4, 8)
16 _plane, _nautical (4)
17 Sweets to carry messages to
those you adore (4, 6)
18 Mothers Local (4, 3)
19 Feline Sports Wear (3, 3)
20 London has big red ones (6, 6)
21 Home for alcoholic teeth (4, 4)
22 Punishment for nuts (6, 5)
23 A Galaxy (5, 3)
24 Inhabitants of a Mediterranean
island (10)
25 A piece of the Scottish capital’s
foundation (9, 4)
26 A French sweet (6)
27 Clever people (8)
28 Edible Coins (9, 5)
29 Fallen fruit (4, 5)
30 The red planet (4)
12
(Mint Imperial)
(Aero)
(Love Hearts)
(Mars Bar)
(Kit Kat)
(Double
Decker)
(Wine Gums)
(Walnut Whips)
(Milky Way)
(Malteasers)
(Edinburgh
Rock)
(Bonbon)
(Smarties)
(Chocolate
Money)
(Pear Drops)
(Mars)
Pear Drops=Nail Varnish
It is summer fête planing time again, and the ideal
opportunity for staff, residents and friends to come
up with different fund-raising ideas. As well as
guessing the number of sweets in a jar, how about
offering nail art.
Glamorous residents may enjoy pictures painted on
their nails as well!
Zhujun Yang is a journalism
student who has joined our ezine team recently. She has
created this guide to nail art for
us.
Nail Beauty
Nail Art can be expensive; here are some tips of
doing it on your own. I promise they are easy to learn
and will make your nails very pretty.
1. Flower: apply light
coloured nail polish as base,
wait till at least half dry.
Then, use needle/iron wire
dip in another bottle of nail
polish – better to choose
bright colour. Put needle/iron
wire on nail right angle to leave a dot. Do it several
13
times to create a circle as petals. Last, make an eye
in the middle of the flower with another colour (a
bigger or a smaller dot according to own taste).
2.Heart: apply light coloured nail polish as base.
Remember to make a thin
layer and not to wait till it’s
dry. Use a pencil to draw and
carve a heart on nail and make
sure it covers the nail as much
as possible for it’s easier to
draw and to apply nail polish.
As the base is still wet, make sure the pencil goes
deeper to carve instead of only leaving a mark.
Lastly, fill the heart with another colour.
3. Create your own shape or design according to tip
2. Here are some ideas which you can refer to :
14
And Finally:
Links I have discovered over the past few months
that may be useful:
www.ukmagic.co.uk Traditional downloadable Music
and Lyrics (40 traditional Welsh Songs) + Images of
Post Cards from 1841 to 1956
www.wildlife-sound.org The Wildlife sound
recording society. If you go to the resources page
there are sound quizzes of birds and mammals.
www.bfi.org.uk The British Film Institute: look on
their learning resources page (under education) for
different images from films through the ages.
www.freecoloringsheets.net A wide range of free
colouring sheets. Remember colouring is only a
meaningful activity if it is something the client
enjoys doing. These images could be used for crafts
as well (e.g. card making or embroidery).
alzheimers.org.uk The Alzheimer's Society has
launched a new downloadable leaflet to support
people with dementia who are going into hospital.
15
With thanks to Deina and Steve Price at Prices Sweet
shop, High Street Arcade, Cardiff for allowing us to
take photographs of their shop and stock.
The shop is laid out to make it fully accessible,
although the door may be too narrow for larger
electric wheelchairs.
Deina and Steve are happy to create a taster pack
ready for you to pick up, of old fashioned sweets for
reminiscence sessions. They have a wide range of
sugar free options available.
Just call them with your needs on 02920 340 724.
16