Activities at Hethersett Hall Care Home

In the days leading up to VE Day, we spent time reminiscing and reflecting on the Second World War. Residents enjoyed hearing poems of victory and watching videos of epic street parties. One lady shared that she was actually in London for the celebrations, “it was wonderful, everyone was so relieved, everyone hugged – didn’t matter if you knew them or not. We were all so happy!”. Our residents celebrated VE Day in style with a fabulous afternoon of decorated cupcakes and a refreshing glass of Pimms and lemonade. Our celebrations were topped off with the wonderful Miss Kitty Collins performing wartime favourites accompanied by everyone waving flags and singing along!

We are delighted to be able to take our residents on trips out again. So we’ve been going out as much as we can; parks, garden centres and Hethersett Forget Me Not Dementia Café. Earlier this month, we took a trip to Taverham Garden Centre with a couple of our lovely residents. We spent time walking around looking at a variety of different plants taking on board their suggestions for our new sensory garden. We also had a look around the aquarium seeing lots of colourful and unique fish. Our trip finished with a visit to the café where residents enjoyed a drink and snack of their choice. These two lovely ladies were smiling and giggling all afternoon, happy days! Last week, our residents were treated to a tea tasting sensory session recently, lots of different fruity and delicious aromas filled the lounge. Our residents were tea connoisseurs and afternoon tea professionals for the duration of the session. All enjoying the exquisite, tasty and sometimes unusual tastes of different teas including Earl Grey, lemon with ginger, and peppermint tea, sweetened up with a dash of sugar. Perfect! I think the smiles speak for themselves!

In April, we welcomed three new additions to the family; Nugget, Tikka and Chow Mein. The three Cream Legbar chickens arrived at 10 weeks old, we kept them safe and warm in a cage in reception with a heater which is essential for young chicks. Residents have loved watching them grow over the past few weeks and it’s brought back many memories to residents who once owned chickens themselves. Recently, our three friends moved into a new little hut in our Memory Lane Garden where residents can sit and watch them. One lady in particularly loves checking on them each day and helping us to feed them. They’ll be having an extension on their house soon – watch this space!

We celebrated Easter with a selection of different activities to meet a variety of needs. From the busy hands on Tuesday making no-bake nest cakes to quiet time on Sunday at our Easter Reflection Service. The highlight of our week was Good Friday. We took our residents on an Easter egg hunt where they enjoyed working out the clues and finding all the brightly coloured hidden eggs. 

Later that afternoon, we welcomed the fantastic sounds of Splash Duo who performed out in the garden while our residents and staff danced the day away in the Lounge. While they sang along to party classics from the 50s and 60s we served toasted Hot Cross Buns of all flavours which went down a treat! We ended our celebrations on Easter Monday playing lots of Easter themed games such as; Egg a la Greek, Hook a Chick, Guess How Many, Egg Basket Toss & a balancing egg act! 

Also, a big thank you for the Easter Cards from our friends at Friend in Deed, it always nice for our residents to hear from you!

We were delighted to welcome six duckling eggs from Incredible Eggs earlier this month. Residents and staff eagerly awaited their hatching. On day three, all ducklings hatched. A couple of days later we took them to meet our residents who loved touching their fuzzy little coats and hearing their squeaks and beeps.

Later that week our little friends had their first experience paddling. Our residents were amazed watching them dash about and waddle around, this particular activity brought such joy to the residents. One lady said ‘oh they are gorgeous’, we definitely agree!

Our World Poetry Day started with an interactive reading session in Garden House with Juli who started by reading a variety of poems to include “Daffodils by William Wordsworth”. It was lovely to hear one resident cheerfully chime in, reciting it word for word which she had remembered from school. Residents were asked how spring makes them feel, which was all put together to make a jolly good poem. It was such an uplifting activity for our residents who are delighted to welcome spring!