New Activities for Nursing Homes

Whether you're an activities coordinator at a nursing home or a volunteer looking for a way to get seniors active, introducing new activities into your nursing home activity schedule could get seniors up and moving. Since most nursing homes have patients of varying abilities, all activities may not be suitable for all patients.

Get a Wii

• According to the "Christian Science Monitor," Nintendo has found a new demographic for their Wii gaming system among seniors in nursing homes. If your nursing home doesn't already have a Wii, pick one up with the standard sports pack, and purchase other games, like Wii Fit or Sports Resort, which will keep your seniors moving. For a special weekend activity, sponsor tournaments. Do you have a holiday or family visit day coming up? Sponsor a tournament that pits family teams against each other, such as a Wii tennis pairs team featuring a grandmother and granddaughter.

Try New Art

• Add a new program or two to your art schedule. Try a class in clay, instead of watercolors. Add new types of art into the schedule, such as mixed media projects or digital photography. If the nursing home is located in a town with a college or university, see if an art graduate student or professor to come teach a class to your residents. According to "The Washington Post," an expert artist can sometimes get seniors more excited and involved in an art project.

Create a Scrapbook

• Having lived the longest, seniors have more memories them most. Help your seniors record their history in a scrapbook. They can pick a special event in their lives, such as a wedding, birth of a child or the day they retired, or have them create a pictorial autobiography mixing pictures from their own lives and online historical sources which offer images, such as the Library of Congress or the National Archives.

Take a Trip

• Trips to places near and far have often been on the nursing home activities schedule, but if you have seniors who are up to it, expand the offerings. Visit more unusual museums, make an evening trip to hear the orchestra, or go to a small festival, which won't require too much walking. Find opportunities to pair up for trips with a school group or other senior center, keeping your seniors involved and introducing them to a wider social network.