Activities at Orchard House Care Home

Residents at Orchard House, Newport, celebrated Squirrel Appreciation Day by inviting in Tracy Dove from Zoologica to give us a fascinating talk about Red Squirrels on behalf of the IW Squirrel Trust. Not many people realise that there is such a thing as Squirrel Appreciation Day, however with our thriving, and protected, Red Squirrel communities, we regularly get to see these magnificent creatures.

Tracy showed us a DVD that highlighted a year in the life of a squirrel.  This led to many fantastic questions from the residents, and we had a wonderful discussion which then led onto nature in general and what we can do to help.

Residents learned many key facts, and some that really surprised them, such as, only 1 out of every 6 squirrels will make it past a year old, and that they need extra food put out for them during spring when their food sources are scarcer.

Resident, Pauline, said: “I was very interested in this talk. I discovered that female squirrels only come into season twice a year for one day at a time, which was very surprising, also that they eat the bones of dead animals for the calcium.”

General Manager, Kim Fleming, said: “We work very hard to ensure that we offer a broad and balanced life enrichment program. Visitors like Tracy, are very welcome, as they help us to engage with the residents, and foster their interest of the outside world, which has been particularly important in these Covid times.”

Debbie Webb, Head of Lifestyle, said: “We have at least 2 of them who visit our grounds and delight residents with their antics on almost a daily basis.  We learned today about the Squirrel Project and are keen to report our sightings to them, and residents decided that we should put out more bowls of water and hazelnuts to help keep them healthy.”

Residents of Orchard House Care Home have been participating with Year 2 children from Broadlea Primary School in an art project.  As part of their Personal Development Learning, the collaboration gave the students a purposeful reason to learn how to paint portraits.  The residents were only too happy to help and had their head and shoulders photographed ready to send to the children.

The children enjoyed looking at other portrait artists, then learned to draw and painting facial features. They spent many weeks studying the photos of the residents and then replicating them. To make them extra special, the children wrote a little note to wish the residents Happy New Year.

Emily McCarty, Y2 teacher, said “the children have had many discussions about how Covid has affected the elderly. The children were really excited to do something nice for the residents.”

The residents were so pleased to receive their portraits and eager to share them with each other and with staff.  Some put them up on their wall straight away, others spent a long while studying them intently, but all were so delighted.

General Manager, Kim Fleming, said “We are so grateful to the students of Broadlea Primary for their delightful portraits, I know that the residents were thrilled. We are thankful to the school for creating a way that our residents can interact with the community, which is something we are always looking for. Residents particularly find intergenerational projects fulfilling.”

Head of Lifestyle, Debbie Webb, said “These portraits have had a huge impact on our residents, the buzz around the home that day was wonderful, and there was so much laughter and so many smiles, everyone interacting together, it really made the day special.”

Resident, Malcom, said “the portraits were simply marvellous, there was such attention to detail which is wonderful in children so young, there are lots of budding artists in that school.”

Broadlea’s Art coordinator, Ali Bonnick, said “it was lovely to make links with our local community and show how art can have a real purpose, like being used to reach out to others and make them smile, rather than just being something made in a classroom and taken home.  Hopefully this has allowed pupils to realise that art has an important place in the world and how powerful its effect can be.”

Staff at Orchard House Care Home have entertained residents with their Christmas antics this December. On Elf Day staff dressed up as elves and their jingle bells could be heard all over the home, the residents could certainly tell where the staff were! Sascha Powell was voted by the residents as the best dressed elf, and she won herself a bottle of wine!

After some Elf crafting from the residents, there was a hunt the elf game. As many of our residents require wheelchairs, the game was adapted to suit. Residents had to close their eyes, staff then hid some elves, and then the residents had to see if they could spot them! There were some very creative hiding places!

The highlight of the day was when residents threw snowballs (polystyrene ones) at the “naughty staff elves”. Residents had so much fun and were quite worn out by the end. Snowballs that made contact with the elves were logged and we had a grand winner, Lillian Prowse, who hit the most elves and won herself some chocolate!

Lillian, a resident, said “What a wonderful day, I really enjoyed throwing snowballs at the staff – what a great Christmas activity”, needless to say this will now become a yearly event!!

Christmas Jumper Day gave staff another opportunity to dress up for the residents, with a variety of Christmas outfits being worn.  Staff added all sorts of Christmas accessories too, and the residents enjoyed admiring all the outfits being sported.

Resident, Sheila, said “It’s always lovely when the staff dress up, it makes the place brighter and more cheerful”.

Orchard House looks very Festive with its lovely Christmas trees. There are 5 within the home, and the residents really like the lights when the dark evenings draw in. The arrival of the trees have put all the residents in a very Christmassy mood.

Just to add to the festive cheer, the maintenance crew have added some lovely bright lights outside of the home too. Christmas has well and truly arrived at Orchard House.

We were very pleased to welcome the Caledonian Society who very kindly gave residents an amazing display of lively dancing. Residents had lots of great things to say about them, especially the energy that the dancers had and that they really liked the kilts.

Orchard House commemorated the signing of the Armistice Day agreement on the day that the guns finally fell silent. They joined the rest of the United Kingdom in holding a two-minute silence at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month.

As well as marking Armistice Day by wearing poppies and observing the national two minute silence, residents took part in therapeutic art activities. Residents painted poppies to make their own wreath, made paper plate poppies and hanging poppies. They painted the bottoms of bottles to create their own poppy garden, whilst reminiscing about the significance the day had for them.