In our Short Activities class, the groups did a great job comming up with a wide range of different activities. The activities included: Innovative Painting; Making Magical Music; Musical Expressions; Chair Yoga/Shoe Ice Breaker; and my groups- The Egg Drop. Below I will provide a description of each:
Innovative Painting: This Activity is great and easy because all you need is paint, paper and any random objects to use as the "brushes." This group provided things like feathers, sponges, strings, marble sized balls, cotton balls and more to create a picture of whatever we wanted. The focus was to create art using materials we normally don't think to use for art. It was relaxing and can be used for almost any population. Precautions to take would include dispursing the paint for younger populations or for populations that have cognitive disabilities and to cover tables with news paper to avoid messes.
Making Magical Music: This activity was not my favorite. I am not very musically tallented and I felt very intimidated having to create a song. In this activity, you use all different kinds of objects such as blocks, sprinkles, pots, pans, sticks, etc. Using these mateials, you create a beat and make a song. It seemed so wide open and I felt like I wanted more direction. It was suggested at the end of the activity that perhaps with people with cognitive disabilities you would do a song as a group with the facilitators leading. I think I would have enjoyed that better myself.
Musical Expressions: This activity was very neet. We got into groups of 4 or 5 people and were each given a peice of paper and a marker. The lights were shut off and the facilitators turned on a specific song projecting a certain mood. We would close our eyes and draw, or move our had to the music, reflecting our mood. When the facilitatiors would switch the song, we would rotate our papers, creating many different emotions on each paper. We did this 4 or 5 times. Alterations mentioned for this activity included leaving sight into the activity so some populations could see what they were drawing, especially with populations such as people with autism who may not be patient in the dark for that long.
Chair Yoga/ Shoe Ice Breaker: This group did two activities, both which I enjoyed. First they used an Ice-Breaker activity using our shoes. The class stood in a circle, removed one shoe, and threw it into the center of the cirlcle. On the command of the leaders, we were to go and pick out a shoe that was not our own, and then find the person who the shoe belonged to. Once finding that person, we had to find out one interesting fact about them and present that to the rest of the group. It was a great way to get us talking and interacting with eachother.
Next we did Chair Yoga. It was very relaxing and would be great for individuals who use wheelchairs as we never stood. Staying seated we did a variety of strethces with our arms, necks, and legs.
Egg Drop: This was the activity that our group facilitated. Using straws, tape, and news paper, the groups had to together create a protective casing for an egg. Once "protected" the egg was dropped from the next floor up to see how successful the casing was. This activity helps with team work and communication. Although many of us as student have done this activity, it would probably be very innovative in elderly settings.
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