Activities at Hilderstone Hall Care Home

Science has played a large part especially medical science in many of our residents previous occupations, with this in mind we decided to conduct our own experiments to see what the outcomes would be. We produced our own erupting volcano and a rainbow using skittles. Another experiment we conducted was to see if a bag who hold water when pieced using pencils without it breaking. This afternoon was a fun afternoon which brought back many skills that our residents would have used in their previous occupations.

This month we travelled on our mini bus to the potteries museum and art gallery to look at the heritage of the potteries. The pot bank industry was a large part of many people’s lives here in Staffordshire. Many of our residents have and art background and therefore were keen to see the works of this area. Some of our residents have joined us from far and wide and loved seeing the historic Staffordshire hoard. The potteries museum is also a firm favourite to visit the exhibition of the spitfire where many of the residents reminisced about its use. It was a highly manoeuvrable aircraft and was continued to be used up until the 1950s.

To boost our creative minds we were joined by the traveling ceramic café. Many of our residents have worked within the pot bank industry and therefore would have been decorators of ceramic. We were taught what was needed to ensure that our pieces were of a high standard, this encouraged our residents to plan and focus on a task. A brilliant afternoon was had by all our pottery creations were taken away to be fired and returned to us in all their splendid glory.

To celebrate international flower day we decided to do a spot of flower arranging. Our residents used their senses to create two eye catching flower arrangements. Within these arrangements we used many types of flowers including carnations, gypsophelia and gladiola. These arrangements have been a welcome addition to our reception area. We have some budding florists in the making.

During the month of January we held a race day with our residents they enjoyed choosing their horses and seeing who would win! We also watched some virtual races and thoroughly enjoyed getting into the race day spirit. Race day wouldn’t be complete without a toast to the winners, we enjoyed a sip or two of bucks fizz and embraced the atmosphere. A brilliant afternoon was had by all.

This month at Hilderstone Hall we spent the afternoon with some animal friends. Many of our residents have had pets and animals in the past before moving to Hilderstone hall.  We were visited from a 17 week old dachshund called penny a Guinea pig and a mini lop rabbit. Penny went down a treat and gave our residents some much needed interaction with animals. Animal therapy has many benefits to our residents including reducing stress.