Activities at South Chowdene Care Home

Staff and residents at Barchester’s South Chowdene care home care home in Low Fell had a fantastic time celebrating National Chocolate Cake Day on January 27th, surely one of the best days of the year!  Overseen by head chef Lynn Parkin, staff and residents whipped up a selection of different chocolate cakes from chocolate cupcakes to chocolate trifle, to chocolate fudge cake.

Residents made Chocolate Mug Puddings at lunch time for themselves for pudding and very much enjoyed eating them.  We then held at tea party compete with chocolate cakes (and other varieties) to celebrate Greta’s birthday with her very own hostess trolley and best china.

Staff and residents at South Chowdene Care Home in Low Fell welcomed in the Year of the Rabbit with a day of celebrations and activities.  Inspired by Chinese culture and traditions, the home was decorated with hanging red lanterns and residents learnt all about the traditions and superstitions of Chinese New Year.  Our hospitality team cooked up an oriental feast for lunch and residents enjoyed the delicious food washed down with pots of Chinese tea.

We used these days to take the opportunity to learn about different religions and flowers. We had a look into different foods used to mark key celebrations and as imagery across the various religions of the world. Residents were quite amazed by some of the reasons for eating certain foods and had a great time tasting them.

For International Flower Day, our florist friend Sue made us a big bouquet and we found out about all the flowers in it and we put our memories to the test completing puzzles around the names of different flowers. The quiz really taught us all a lot about flowers from around the world. Every day is a schoolday!

As a firm favourite at South Chowdene we couldn’t miss celebrating what would have been Elvis’s 88th birthday. We learned a fair few fun facts about the ‘King’ himself during the quiz and factfile and then, residents had a great time singing along to our Elvis tribute act and chatted about their memories related to songs and films.

Hartbeeps were back with us at the end of 2022 to share some New Year joy between residents and the youngsters. It was evident to see how much our residents were enjoying having the children in and joining in nursery rhymes and games. The children in turn thought it was great to see some new faces and decided it was their job to make them laugh = win, win. We are looking forward to Hartbeep’s next visit!

Across our services our residents have enjoyed a wonderful live virtual talk about starlings, one of the UK’s most gregarious birds, hosted by Rachel Dowse from The Royal Parks London.

Rachel examined our long history with this bird and the importance of common species to our lives. Our residents had the opportunity to find out more about the great murmuration and why we need to pay special attention to these beauties before it's too late.

The virtual experience was truly enjoyed by all.