Bring singing into your care home, quickly and easily, by streaming a pre-recorded singing session from our free library. You will be joining a community of over 850 care homes across the UK who engage with our virtual singing sessions.
Read More
Resources
52 weekly activities
New stories
Using remembered childhood books and illustrations as a stimulus, participants explore significant moments from their own life stories through a series of linked activities.
Credit: Dr Alison Waller with Gemma Seltzer and Wallis Eates. Developed in partnership with Holybourne Care Home in Roehampton.
52 weekly activities
Mardi Gras masks
This simple craft activity invites participants to create their own Mardi Gras mask. It is accessible and tactile and allows participants to develop their own creative ideas within the context of a gentle art activity.
Credit: Artcore.
52 weekly activities
Line One
A simple drawing activity for a group where participants initially create small artworks on their own and then bring their separate drawings together to make a collaborative artwork.
Credit: Creative Lives/Linda Evans
52 weekly activities
Colour as writing inspiration
Use a range of resources and ideas to tap into colour as poetry and creative writing inspiration. Focus on
a specific colour that you see lots of or particularly like, and let your mind take you wherever it wants to!
Credit: Creative Writes / Nichola Charalambou. Developed in partnership with NAPA – Arts in Care Homes, Greensleeves Care & Sunrise Senior Living
52 weekly activities
Collagraph printing
Collagraph prints are a creative and experimental form of printmaking, with printing plates made from many different materials, including cardboard, yarn, fabric, leaves, or masking tape. The activity is a great way to use up scraps and encourages the use of recycled materials.
Credit: Charlotte Cranidge, developed in partnership with C&C.
52 weekly activities
Abstract Art Collage
This is a great activity for participants who don’t feel confident with art activities. The three main stages – paint, scissors and glue – could be made into separate activities for different capacity levels if preferred.
Credit: Creative Minds / Tracey Knight, developed in partnership with Lister House Nursing Home.
52 weekly activities
Two small dances (Dance and movement)
These dances offer a way to listen and observe sensations and small movements within the body. For both dances it is helpful if the facilitator does them both at the same time as the group to serve as a demonstration.
Credit: Mary Prestidge / Bluecoat, developed in partnership with Belong.
52 weekly activities
Something to talk about
A two-session activity that encourages participants to curate their own set of personal objects into something that offers the opportunity for reflective discussion.
Credit: Roger Hill / Bluecoat, developed in partnership with Belong.
52 weekly activities
Making stories together
This relaxed activity supports a group to create a piece of creative writing. It is a great way to bring people together and the end product brings a sense of achievement.
Credit: Belong Crewe / Natalie Ravenscroft. Developed in partnership with Bluecoat, inspired by an original activity by Roger Hill.
52 weekly activities
Sashiko stitching
Sashiko is a mindful and peaceful activity that enables participants to share and chat. This 500-year-old technique from Japan can create both simple and more complex designs depending on the participants’ knowledge of stitching.
Credit: Derby Quad, GoldsQUAD / Phillipa Larkin.
Art by Post: Explore and Inspire
The Southbank Centre in partnership with NAPA, Nightingale Hammerson and Nenagh Watson
This booklet has been developed for anyone working in care settings, and was inspired by The Southbank Centre’s Art by Post project, which brings free creative activities direct to the door of the individuals, care-givers, practitioners and professionals most isolated by social distancing methods.
It includes a range of activities designed to take creativity into every corner of your care setting, including making nature clay prints, shadow puppets and slow looking.