Apple Orchard
Salmon Spawning Ground
Pumpkin Patch
Turkey Farm
Corn Maze
Spot To Fly Kites
Crafts Shows
Football Games
Watching The Farmers Bring In The Crops
Just For Fun
Acorn Jar Guess
Fill a small jar with acorns.
Have resiednts & Employees guess how many acorns are in the jar.
Award Prizes
Crafts
Autumn Bottle Great Sensory Project
Clean out an empty plastic pop bottle.
Add acorns, leaves, twigs etc. Seal the bottle closed using a little hot glue,
allow to completely dry. Tip the bottle back and forth.
Fall Collage
Go for a nature walk.
Supply the residents with a Ziploc bag to collect twigs, leaves, acorns, etc.
When you arrive back at your facility, use the materials to create a fall collage.
Use glue to affix the materials to construction paper.
Use clear contact paper to cover for placemats
Thankful Quilt
Give each resident a 9" x 9" square of white or colored
paper.Have them write in the center of the square
things they are thankful for & sign their name.
Provide sequins,buttons,stencils,markers,glitter etc.
& let them decorate outer edges of their square. When
dry turn over and connect squares using masking tape.
Usually 6 squares by 6 squares so you may have several quilts.
Hang your Thanksgiving quilts around the facility.
You can also paint a dowel rod and use wide ribbon to make a
hanger for the residents quilts.
Aluminum Foil Leaves
Using a table, place leaves under pieces of aluminum foil
and gently press and rub the foil with your hand to get a
leaf print. Glue the foil leaves to construction paper.
Dry Leaves
Collect some dry, brittle leaves. Cut a large leave shape
from construction paper and brush glue on it. Crumple up
the leaves over the construction paper leaf and scatter
the pieces over the glue. Let dry
Toothpick Tree
Glue toothpicks to a piece of construction paper to make
the trunk and branches of a tree. Use a sponge to make the
leaves with paint. You could also glue leaves that you've
collected onto the toothpick tree
Place cards
Glue small acorns to a small business card size piece of cardstock
and tuck little pieces of dried flowers or spanish moss around them.
Glue it to the left side, and write your guests name to the right.
Set it directly in front of each place setting
Make Place Mats
Collect leaves, press, lay out on colorful paper
cover with clear contact paper.
Pumkin Mum Pots
Hollow out pumpkins & plant mums in them
Put your pumpkin mum pots among hay bales with a scarecrow to top off the setting.
Easy Rustic Basket
Cover an empty coffee can with brown paper (paper sack).
Find several sticks of approximately the same diameter that you will cover the can with.
Snip sticks with a garden pruning shears to lengths a bit longer than the height of the can.
These can be varied to add interest. You will then hot-glue the sticks onto the can, laying
them side by side. Be sure to glue them while the can is standing. When finished drying, tie
a raffia bow around the center. Put silk leaves, flowers, living mums or dried wild flowers
into the can and display on the dining room table. or anywhere you need a little autumn flare.
AMARETTO COCOA MIX IN A JAR (Great fundraiser)
8 (1-pint) jars.
10 1/2 C. non-fat dry milk
4 C. confectioners' sugar
2 (8 oz.) jars Amaretto flavored non-dairy powdered creamer
3 1/2 C. Nestle's Quik
2 3/4 C. non-dairy powdered creamer
1/2 tsp. salt
Combine all ingredients and divide among the jars.
Yields approximately 8 pint size gift jars.
Cut Tags out of Brown Paper Bags Using Decorative Scissors
Add Directions Below To Tag
AMARETTO COCOA:
Combine 3 heaping tablespoons of cocoa mix into 1 cup hot water or milk.
Punch hole in tag and tie onto jar with fall colored raffia.
You could also paint outside of jar with the words "Grandma's Cocoa Mix"
Coffee Filter Fall Leaves
Cut leaf shapes out of coffee filters. Fill an ice cube tray with water
and then put a few drops of food coloring in each of the sections (orange,
red, yellow, and brown). Make each section a different color. Flatten out
a basket type coffee filter. Use a eyedropper to make designs on the coffee filter.
Each color will spread and run into the other colors. This is a lot of fun for the
kids and the grownups and makes a good lesson for what happens when you mix colors.
Let the filters dry completely and don't forget to put down some newspaper or your
table will likely be stained
Preserving Fall Leaves
Dried leaves
floor wax
a bowl
newspaper
waxed paper
an old catalog or phone book
old or inexpensive paint brushes
Gather some pretty fall leaves once they have fallen.
Lay newspapers down on a work surface. Pour some wax into the bowl.
Have the residents carefully brush wax onto the leaves. This will make them shiny.
To dry, place them between two pieces of wax paper and place between the catalog
or phone book pages. Use to make cards or decorate the windows and doors
Apple Printing
Cut an apple in half. (make a lateral cut, separating the top from the bottom)
You should be able to see the "star" that the core forms in the apple.Put some
red or green tempera paint in a shallow container,(a pie tin works well) and
show your residents how to dip the apple in the paint and press onto a piece
of paper creating an apple print
Seed Collage
Save the seeds from a bunch of apples & pumpkins. Allow them to dry,
Have your residents draw a picture & glue on the seeds to fill in their picture.
You can also use indian corn,beans etc to make a colorful picture.
Black or red licore string can be glued to outline the picture first.
Pumpkin Paiting
Purchase small pumpkins and let each resident paint their own pumpkin
Thankful Tree
Draw One Or More Tree Trunks.
Have your residents make a leaf for the tree and write on it what
they are thankful for. Glue residents leaves on the trees and display on bulletin boards or in hallways
Some Great 1 On 1 Ideas
Acorn Hunt
Fill a dishpan half full with sand and add a few acorns.
Let resident find the acorns, and count them when they are done.
Acorn Sort
Provide many acorns for the residents to sort.
They can sort by color, size, whether they have a cap or not.
(The Activities Below Can Also Be Done With Pumpkins, Leaves, Etc, Anything Fall)
Apple Lacing Cards
Cut colored posterboard into an apple shape and punch holes around the edges.
You might want to glue it to a heavier piece of cardboard.
Then let your resident lace yarn or a shoestring into the cards.
Match the Apples
Cut out two apple shapes from 4 or 5 different colors of construction paper.
Laminate them to make them last longer. Have your resident pick an apple and
then find it's mate. Variation: Use the same color for the apples, and draw
on different designs
Apple Sizing
Cut out many different sized Apples. Ask your resident to line up the Apples
from largest to smallest.
Games
Pass the Apple
Played like hot potatoe... have the residents sit in a circle and pass an apple
around the circle when mucis is playing, when the music stops the resident holding
the apple sits in the middle or the "apple pie pot" until the music stops again
and the next resident replaces the first.
BARNYARD ANIMAL GAME
Have residents write down their favorite barnyard animal, as long as it is NOT the rooster.
Next have residents write down five different numbers between 1-20 (depending on the group size).
Start calling out numbers, and the residents who have that number have to make the sound of the animal
they wrote on their paper & mark that number off. Barnyard animals are not shy, so there should be a
lot of loud sounds. After someone has all five numbers called out that they wrote down, they win...BUT...
they have to crow like a rooster to receive their prize.
Great Tension reliever and just a lot of silly fun.
Autumn Toss
Plastic Pumpkins
Plastic Ears Of Corn
Plastic Apples
Large Country Straw Hats
Give each resident one kind each of the Plastic Fruits & Vegetables
Place Hats On Floor and the resident who throws the most fruits
and vegetables in their hat is the winner.
If you don't have enough hats take turns and the winners have a play off.
Ring The Pumpkin
Line up three large pumpkins with stems, to form a ring toss.
Use your ring toss hoops or embroidery hoops. Mark a throwing
line on the floor and let residents take turns trying to ring a pumpkin stem.
Or you can have them try to ring an entire large pumpkin with a hula hoop.
Spin Me A Yarn (Which Means Tell Me A Story)
Take one strings of yarn per resident all different lengths and have each resident pull out
one string of yarn. Whoever has the shortest string must tell a yarn. It can be a
short poem from their younger days. A funny story, a fond memory of the past,their
greatest achievement,their most embarrassing moment,their wedding,anything they wish to tell.
That resident is then eliminated along with their string. Have the rest choose a string again
and continue on till there are no strings left or time has run out to play
You might wish to set a timer and have a time limit.
But remember "go with the flow" if one story leads to another residents reminiscing that's great !
Remember
Always look for Door,Hall, Facility & Window Decorating Ideas that your residents
can help you with. It not only allows you & your assistants more time to spend with
residents but is a great facility involvement project.If you haven't done so already
start a Resident Decorating Committee. Give Your Committee a Great Name. Think of
eveything you do around your facility and involve your residents as much as possible.
Even if I only had to run to the store for a few things I grabbed a resident
or two to go with me. When I was in my office doing paper work. I had oldies
playing on the CD Or Record Player. Often I would walk out the door and find a dozen
residents sitting their listening. ( It also helped me get my paperwork done because as
most of you already know by now. They love to hit the office. LOL. But it seems when
they heard the music they forgot their troubles and just sat and enjoyed.
And remember chart everything.
Put Your Head On My Shoulder
