Special Occasion Theme Days
This activity project sheet will focus on special occasions and events which are the perfect solution to finding activity themes all year round and celebrating religious days or international festivals provides your facility with a large variety of theme days and activities.
We suggest at the beginning of the year that you plan out and choose which calendar events you want to participate in and which religious holidays or international culture days you would like to participate in, spread them out over the year then add these all to your activity calendar so you have plenty of preparation time.
Not all of these activities have to be carried out over the full day but can be reduced to meal times or a few hours in the morning or afternoon.
When making preparations for the day try to get the clients involved as much as possible, decorations can be made during group activities on days leading up to the special occasion and food can be cooked during cooking activities.
January 1ST
New Years Day : After a evening of celebrating most clients and staff are looking for a quiet and relaxed day. If you are looking for some small activities for late afternoon or early evening you could have group discussions on your clients most remembered New Years Eve parties from the past or discuss their new years resolutions.
January 26th
Australia Day : This is a great day to start your clients on bush dancing and singing or go for a bush picnic in the country side. If your facility can afford it arrange to have a bush band ,singing groups or aboriginal dancers come along to entertain your clients. Get the clients involved by dressing up and cooking Australian dishes like damper and billy teas as well as encouraging them to play games such as egg and spoon races. Australian movies, books or poetry can be used to fill in the days activities.
Chinese New Year: This is a great day that can be filled with many Chinese activities.
Clients can dress up in Chinese dress and dance to Chinese music and dine on Chinese food. Enquire about borrowing or using Chinese flags and paper dragons from your local Chinese community to decorate your facility with. Use magazine and poster cut outs from travel agents books to make decorative collages and displays with. Don't forget the fortune cookies.
February 14th
Valentines day :This would have to be one of the simplest occasions to decorate for.
Get your clients involved by making crafts that use hearts as there theme, make paper heart collages, heart mobiles or get your clients decorating paper hearts with glitter and paint and stinging them into large room decorating garlands. Cook up some heart shaped cookies during cooking activities and entertain your clients with a romantic couples Ball filled with dancing and old romantic dance tunes.if your clients are not very mobile then discussions on past romances or their first love could be very interesting.
March 17th
St Patrick's Day : With Irish music playing and green four leaf clovers decorating the table tops and wall's your clients will be feeling the luck of the Irish in no time at all, serve green food and green drinks and if permitted order in some Irish beer to get the festivities started. Make enquiries with your local Irish club about getting in some Irish dancers for further entertainment.
March 25th
Greek National Day : Organize some Greek dancers and Greek food with plenty of fruit for this occasion, clients can try some Greek dancing and decorate the facility with Greek colors such as blue and white balloons and streamers, fly the Greek flag and create table center pieces out of grapes, wine and Greek breads.
May 5th
Children's day : This is a great day to get clients and family involved together, organize a large family picnic with children as the main focus, have the picnic at a children's playground where the clients can watch the children play. You can have the clients bring out their own photographs of their own children or have the clients make or bag sweets to give to the children, and if you talk to your local school they may be able to arrange some of the children to come to your facility to sing or just serve afternoon tea to your clients.
2nd Sunday in May
Mothers day: Everyone has or is a mother and this is a great family gathering activity, put on a mothers day dinner or morning tea and send out written invitations to their families, have the clients bake cakes and scones for the morning tea. You may want to put some funding aside to provide each Mother with a small gift if family and loved ones are not able to attend.
1st Monday in June
Queens Birthday holiday: This is the ideal occasion to have an old fashioned English tea, have the clients dress up in their finery and Sunday best and have the clients create their own hats in activities leading up to the special day. You can purchase inexpensive hats from discount stores then use flowers and bows to decorate the hats into creative masterpieces. Place your dining tables outside in the garden and have yourself a very refined old English tea party with the union jack colors decorating your table top's.
4th July
American Independence day: Anything American is going to be the theme for this special day, have staff and clients dress up in American characters such as cowboy's, football players, cheerleaders and more. Decorate with American flags, red, white and blue balloons and streamers to help create the theme. Serve hamburgers, hot dogs and soda drinks for the day's food. Show some old cowboy and western films for extra entertainment.
Oktoberfest
This is actually a 2 week festival that can be spanned over the whole time or limit it to just one day. Decorate in a German theme with German colors and flags, serve German sausages, horse radish and strudel. Use cut outs from magazines and travel posters to create collages and paper displays. Arrange for some German dancers or singers to entertain your guests or contact your local school to organize a visit from a German language class who can sing some German tunes.
Grand Final Day: This activity day is going have one major activity and that is of course the game, divide the clients up into teams and have each side barracking for their own team, have your clients dress up in their chosen teams colors and eat meat pies and drink beer in front of the television. Decorate with team colors and footballs, use cardboard t create football goal poles. You could have a cake made in the shape of a football or a football field to serve after the game. Contact your local football team and see if they can organize an outside football display to entertain your clients.
Spring Racing Carnival : Organize an outing to your local race track and have your facilities decorated with spring flowers, get your clients involved in some hat wearing and in house horse racing, by having agile clients race each other while other clients place bet's on them. Decorate using some cut out horses and jockey colors to add to the atmosphere.
Halloween: This special occasion can be used to create a great fun filled day for the clients. Get clients involved with costumes and games such as bobbing for apples on strings or having children visit the home for some trick or treating, you can have the clients make baskets to hold sweets in several days leading up to this event to hand out to the visiting children. Decorate with ghosts and ghouls, pumpkins and witches to help set a spooky occasion.
Melbourne Cup Day: Use decorations left over from the spring carnival theme day to help decrease your preparation work for this one. Organize a in-house fashion parade by getting the clients to dress up or organize some children from a local school to come in.
Consider a trip down to the TAB for a morning outing, or take the group to a local club for a luncheon and to watch the race on a big screen.
Fourth Thursday in November
Thanksgiving: This is a time to be thankful for the harvest season in America and is a great area to base your decorations on. Create displays of grains, pumpkins and vegetables to decorate your rooms or tables settings with. Serve turkey and pumpkin pie to your clients and organize some family visits to set a family atmosphere.
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