OCTOBER 2007



The seasons are changing, and soon nature will create a feast for our eyes! Autumn is particularly colorful - from the leaves on the trees, to the grapes on the vines, to the pumpkins in the fields. It’s the perfect time to make your activities a sensory experience for your senior adults.

Some of the season’s holidays, national celebrations, sporting events, festivals, and family outings are highlighted below. Use them to evoke memories of the sights and sounds of autumn. Add your own sensory activities to the mix.

  • Family Farm. Reminisce about life on the family farm during the harvest season. Use the following action verbs to stimulate some memories: pick, thresh, press, chop, rake, plow, tend, gather, harvest, and shuck. Pass around seasonal favorites (such as corn, acorns/nuts, wheat stalks, straw, sunflowers, apple or cornhusk dolls) for visual stimulation.
  • Farmers Market. Create a seasonal decoration such as an autumn centerpiece using gourds, berries, Indian corn, dried flowers, and small pumpkins. Sample fall fruits such as pears, grapes, and apples.
  • Pick-Your-Own Orchard. Hold an apple-tasting party. Slice varieties of apples (e.g., Red and Golden Delicious, Stayman, Gala, Empire, Rome Beauty, or Fuji) into bite-sized pieces. Ask your group members to pick their favorite. Enjoy a favorite apple dessert.
  • Grandma’s Kitchen. Enjoy some flavors of fall. Sample some of Grandma’s favorite fall desserts (e.g., cinnamon buns, apple spice cake, pumpkin pie, or gingerbread). Identify baking spices by scent (e.g., cinnamon, clove, nutmeg).
  • German Oktoberfest. Sing the famous polka song "Beer Barrel Polka" and demonstrate the Chicken Dance. Sample some German foods such as Black Forest cake and apple strudel.
  • College Football Game. Wave college pennants and sing football fight songs. (Example: "Notre Dame Victory March") For exercise, pass a football. Watch a DVD of football bloopers.
  • World Series Playoff. Reminisce about Yankees baseball in the 1950s, the decade in which the team won six World Series championships. Show photographs of managers/players such as Casey Stengel, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, and Mickey Mantle. Invite a baseball card collector to talk about Topps baseball cards in the 1950s.
  • Veterans Day Parade. Share recollections of military parades, ceremonies, and speeches. Listen to some patriotic music. Invite members of veterans organizations (e.g., American Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars) to speak about activities in the community. Display vintage military uniforms.
  • Election Day Polling Place. Invite a long-time election poll worker to share memories of presidential election days at the polls. Pass around presidential campaign memorabilia. Hold a straw election.
  • Halloween Party. Ask participants if they recall when the first Halloween costumes appeared in the stores. Create a character costume from the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, or 1960s. (Example: Charlie Chaplin)
  • School Classroom. Read some traditional poetry on the autumnal season. A favorite: "To Autumn" by John Keats.
  • Broadway Theatre. Celebrate the fall season on Broadway by watching the film version of a 1950s musical, like State Fair, Guys and Dolls, or Oklahoma!
  • State Fair. Celebrate this popular American tradition by sampling food-on-a-stick. Show photographs of fair entertainment (e.g., dog show, pig race, tractor pull, demolition derby, rodeo) and ask your group to talk about family fun at the fair.
  • Fall Foliage Trip. Ask participants to describe an autumn drive on an Indian summer day. Collect several kinds of colorful leaves and ask participants to identify as many of the leaves as they can.

You can savor the season with some helpful resources from our ElderSong catalog. New this month - Volume 2 of I Hear Memories! Check out the preview below.

Continue to look for updates of this newsletter the last week of the month. Our newsletter contains useful information to make your job of working with older adults more fulfilling. In this issue, you’ll find:








AUTUMN SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

The fall season stirs many nostalgic memories among senior adults. You can use ElderSong’s newest product, I Hear Memories! Volume 2, to reacquaint your group with some of the sounds of autumn. The CD offers 20 one-minute sound scenes for reminiscing. Fall sound scenes include Classroom, Football Game, and Halloween. (Other vintage sounds on the CD: Diner, Beauty Parlor, Pets, Grocery Store, Airport, Office, Handyman’s Workshop, Camping, and more.) The companion book features a description of each sound scene, prop suggestions, discussion questions, and songs for listening or singing. Here are some sample discussion questions for Halloween.
  • What symbols are associated with Halloween?
  • Did you ever play a trick on anyone at Halloween? What did you do?
  • What kinds of activities or games are fun to play at Halloween or a costume party?
Try the following song suggestions: "Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider," "Have You Seen the Ghost of Tom?" or "That Old Black Magic." You can add props such as masks, children’s costumes, and soft candy for stimulation.

Enjoy trivia quizzes and word games on seasonal and holiday themes in Holiday Mind Joggers. Try the trivia quiz on "Halloween." (You’ll find some sample questions later in this newsletter.) Challenge your group to some mental exercise with some crossword puzzles and word scrambles from the book. For the fall season, consider the following quizzes: "School Days," "Autumn," and "Trick or Treat." You can use the word lists (e.g., bonfire, canning, turf, hues, cider) to trigger memories of seasonal sights and sounds.

Relish the beauty of nature as you view Wood Star Videos: Memories of the Zoo, A View of the Ocean, Autumn’s Walk - three relaxing programs on one DVD. In Autumn’s Walk, you’ll experience a beautiful fall day from dusk to dawn. See sun-kissed ponds and rolling mountain streams. Gaze at colorful trees across a quieted landscape. Enjoy the sight of migrating geese, squirrels, and birds - to the accompaniment of soothing background music.




HALLOWEEN CELEBRITY QUIZ

Enjoy a Halloween trivia quiz with your group. Serve pumpkin cookies for a treat! (Note: Several trivia questions are taken from the ElderSong resource Holiday Mind Joggers by Sandy Minor.)

  1. Which popular tri-colored Halloween candy is in the shape of a kernel? Candy corn
  2. When pumpkins are carved, they become what? Jack-o’-lanterns
  3. Who was the author of the horror story "The Pit and the Pendulum"? Edgar Allan Poe
  4. Jasper was known as what? The friendly ghost
  5. Which charity organization holds fundraisers for children at Halloween? UNICEF (Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF)
  6. A large, nocturnal bird with hooked claws and front-facing eyes is what? Owl
  7. A trick or practical joke played at Halloween is called what? Prank
  8. Which Peanuts Gang character gets rocks in his trick-or-treat bag? Charlie Brown (It’s the Great Pumpkin)
  9. This song, recorded in 1962 by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers, is still a Halloween favorite. "The Monster Mash"
  10. Boris Karloff played this popular monster in the 1931 film. Frankenstein



FEATURED PRODUCTS FOR OCTOBER

I Hear Memories! Volume 2 - 20 sound scenes on CD with companion book. Regularly $17.95. Online sale price $15.25.

Holiday Mind Joggers. - 31 trivia quizzes, 56-page book. Regularly $11.50. Online sale price $9.75.

Wood Star Videos: Memories of the Zoo, A View of the Ocean, Autumn’s Walk - 90-minute DVD. Regularly $24.95. Online sale price $21.20.


THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH

"Good manners are made up of petty sacrifices."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson




The ElderSong online newsletter is written by Sue Hansen.
Copyright © 2007, ElderSong Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.