Fun activities for a class of first graders to do with seniors?
March 6, 2016 7:26 PM Subscribe
I'm taking a group of first graders to our local retirement home, and I've run out of ideas for activities. Any thoughts?
I teach a class of first graders, and we go semi-regularly to a retirement community nearby to hang out with the residents. We do a significant amount of prep work ahead of time, so the kids are familiar with the activity, comfortable in the environment, and so they have strategies ready for if/when the interactions get tricky.
But, I seem to have run out of dynamite activities. We always sing first (new songs we've been learning in class), and re-introduce ourselves. Afterwards, we do something where the kids can interact more closely and meaningfully with the old folks. We have already: interviewed the residents, played board games with them, done portraits of them (and vice versa), and read books to them. While I'm happy to repeat the activities, it would be lovely to have something new on the agenda.
The tricky bits: many of the residents (though not all) are impaired in their ability to respond to the kids; we never know how many will be there (there might be more kids than residents); the room is small; the residents are all sitting in large chairs with huge armrests.
Thoughts? By the way, it's OK if the activity stands a chance of ending up with some children doing something more or less on his/her own with a resident nearby; we talk a lot about how even if the folks we visit are unable to respond, they will still enjoy our presence. Thanks!
I teach a class of first graders, and we go semi-regularly to a retirement community nearby to hang out with the residents. We do a significant amount of prep work ahead of time, so the kids are familiar with the activity, comfortable in the environment, and so they have strategies ready for if/when the interactions get tricky.
But, I seem to have run out of dynamite activities. We always sing first (new songs we've been learning in class), and re-introduce ourselves. Afterwards, we do something where the kids can interact more closely and meaningfully with the old folks. We have already: interviewed the residents, played board games with them, done portraits of them (and vice versa), and read books to them. While I'm happy to repeat the activities, it would be lovely to have something new on the agenda.
The tricky bits: many of the residents (though not all) are impaired in their ability to respond to the kids; we never know how many will be there (there might be more kids than residents); the room is small; the residents are all sitting in large chairs with huge armrests.
Thoughts? By the way, it's OK if the activity stands a chance of ending up with some children doing something more or less on his/her own with a resident nearby; we talk a lot about how even if the folks we visit are unable to respond, they will still enjoy our presence. Thanks!
Could the kids do a short play? How about charades, but the kids do the acting out of the words and the old folks do the guessing. Maybe the kids could team up to act out the words.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 7:58 PM on March 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by WalkerWestridge at 7:58 PM on March 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Colouring? There are some great adult colouring books that the seniors might enjoy too, and you can often print off pages free from online. If the adults don't have the physical ability to colour, they might enjoy helping the children choose what colours different parts of the pictures should be.
Also what about making up a story together? You could have sort of pre-scripted story even where they have to make decisions about filling in the blanks together, e.g. "Once there was a _____ called _____. They really wanted more than anything to _____. Because of ________ they thought this would be impossible. But one day ______ said to them that _______. So they ___________ and it turned out that _____________." They could take turns at coming up with something for each gap, or they could brainstorm together.
posted by lollusc at 8:12 PM on March 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also what about making up a story together? You could have sort of pre-scripted story even where they have to make decisions about filling in the blanks together, e.g. "Once there was a _____ called _____. They really wanted more than anything to _____. Because of ________ they thought this would be impossible. But one day ______ said to them that _______. So they ___________ and it turned out that _____________." They could take turns at coming up with something for each gap, or they could brainstorm together.
posted by lollusc at 8:12 PM on March 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Jigsaw puzzles.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:14 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:14 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
How about Bingo?
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:11 PM on March 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:11 PM on March 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm not familiar with 1st graders, so I don't know if this would work. I was thinking, if your local library has Bifolkal Kits (example 1, example 2), maybe you could do a project where the residents can tell the kids about what things were like when they themselves were little.
posted by bentley at 9:45 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bentley at 9:45 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Poetry writing and presentation? As a country kid, the community was quite close knit, and we used to learn a famous poem and make a presentation of them - like Jabberwocky or Kublai Khan or I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud - for our old folks home visits. We also did a mini pantomime of Greek/Roman myths like Androcles and the Lion or Icarus etc. we also wrote a mini play of the history of our town in mythical style and performed it for them.
As a teacher I've taken a parrot, a puppy or some other interesting animal like a horny mountain devil, into a workshop and we wrote poems about them with a mix of very young and very old students.
We also wrote our own stories and read them aloud, made a mural full of flowers etc for everyone to write upon.
Also, we had a garden where the old folks came along sometimes to teach us how to plant stuff.
posted by honey-barbara at 4:45 AM on March 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
As a teacher I've taken a parrot, a puppy or some other interesting animal like a horny mountain devil, into a workshop and we wrote poems about them with a mix of very young and very old students.
We also wrote our own stories and read them aloud, made a mural full of flowers etc for everyone to write upon.
Also, we had a garden where the old folks came along sometimes to teach us how to plant stuff.
posted by honey-barbara at 4:45 AM on March 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
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A brief interactive exercise is have the children ask the seniors what their favorite games were when they were kids.
Maybe you could even have a chart and list the games- a reminder to the seniors of games they'd played as kids. Then you can ask both groups to raise their hand if they've ever played the top ten games.
Boogie woogie bugle boy and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and my two song suggestions.
Sounds like a great program.
posted by ReluctantViking at 7:36 PM on March 6, 2016 [6 favorites]