Care Home Activity Ideas That Are Great for Groups

When planning activities for your care home, it can be tricky to find something that suits everyone. It’s important to keep things engaging and fun, while at the same time making sure the activities match your residents’ physical and cognitive abilities.

You know your residents better than anyone, so we thought we’d give you a list of ideas for a range of activities perfect for care homes.

Below you’ll find activities that suit a range of abilities, interests and budgets.

Get musical

Everyone loves music, and there are so many ways to get your residents involved and enjoying their favourite tracks and artists.

Whether it’s a karaoke session, watching a virtual concert or simply listening to songs that bring nostalgia, it’s hard to go wrong with a musical afternoon.

Take things one step further and dust off those dancing shoes with a tea dance or disco!

Take a trip down memory lane

Reminiscing is important for older people, especially those with dementia, according to the Social Care Institute for Excellence.

There is so much you can do to get your residents talking about their younger years; try looking at old photos or get them to bring their own photo or tell us their favourite memory.

Another idea is to have a scrapbooking day. You could source old photos or magazines and inspire your residents to create something that tells their story and recalls memories of growing up and living life.

Put your thinking caps on

If you have residents that love to read or learn, why not embrace this with a book club or class?

You’re never too old to learn something new and, as this care home found out, foreign language classes helped boost its residents self-confidence and wellbeing.

Other ideas include watching a film or reading a book and opening up a discussion about its themes or even solving puzzles and playing tabletop games.

Inspire creativity

Arts and crafts are therapeutic, and relaxing and picking up an old hobby, or trying something completely new is always fun.

Are there any residents in your care home with a special interest in a specific art style or craft?

It could be fun to get them to share their passion with others!

If not, try something new like life drawing, watercolour, collaging or sculpting clay.

Get moving!

Being active is good for both mind and body, and exercise can be adapted to suit everyone’s abilities.

Aside from exercise classes, you could inspire residents to get moving by hosting a dance, setting up a gardening project or going for a walk in the local area.

Get outdoors

Surrounding ourselves with nature is great for our health and wellbeing and what better way is there to combine light exercise, creativity and socialising than gardening.

Dedicate an area of the garden that’s totally owned by the residents – they get to plan and decide what they’d like to do with it and what they’d like to grow. It could be a rose garden or social space, or even a vegetable patch.

Extend the garden fun by investing in some giant games like giant chess or Jenga.