Storytime at Sunnyside

 

Months ago I read about the benefits of having a preschool inside a seniors home and I thought, how neat is that? Too bad I am not in a position to start something like that (with two kids under the age of 3, something of that nature is crazy ambitious).

A month or so later I saw that one of my good friends from junior/senior high school had started a Storytime group at a senior home in Red Deer. I ended up messaging her to find out what she did and how it went over.

I have a great contact at our town's senior home Sunnyside Manor, since the proceeds of my crazy brainchild, Spooky Strolls treats (90 minute guided tour of St. Paul's downtown), $130 went towards their Christmas party/fireplace repair.

I told her about my idea of doing a 1 hour story and song time at the home, once a month and she was happy to oblige. After checking the next month's schedule (senior be cray cray busy) she helped put this idea on print.

Themes are a beautiful thing, so I thought, let's start out easy and did November's as "Colours".

I prepared an outline of a rainbow and had the kids pick out a colour and ideally wanted them to find the corresponding marker that would be handed out to each of the seniors attending, encouraging interaction. Then we would do a song or story that associated with that particular colour.

Red - "Red is Best" by Kathy Stinson


Blue- "Blue Hat, Green Hat" by Sandra Boynton
 

Yellow- "Bananaphone" song by Raffi (which also consisted of dancing, talking and then consuming a banana)



Green- "The Princess and the Pea" interacting story with actions that I improvised.

Purple- Purple Stew song

Orange- "ROY G BIV song" by They Might Be Giants




After we were done all of that I had a quick craft of making a Christmas card into a circular/globe-like Christmas tree decoration(which were used at a Nativity display that I helped co-ordinate, but that is a separate story for another day) and the home offered some cookies and juice.




We were set up near the fireplace, which was nice and cozy but lacking the traffic. Before getting into full swing we had the toddlers march through the busy atrium (they had a bunch of vendors selling things that day) to spread word of our planned fun. A couple of ladies said, "oh, but I don't sing" you don't need to. You can sit and watch just be with us.

Unfortunately only one senior stayed for the whole time, while many others peered through the glass window and smiled.

What I learned after the first meeting:
1) We needed a different location
2) I needed help gathering more seniors

December was insanely busy at the home so we jumped to January.

January's theme was "Feelings." I did it the week of Blue Monday aka the most depressing day of the year.

Intro- "The Pigeon Has Feelings Too" by Mo Willems
Sang Intro name song


Sad- "Tough Guys Have Feelings Too" by Keith Negley (Awesome book!)




Insy Weensy Spider but said "Sad little" at the beg and "Happy little" at the end

Scared- "Scardey Squirrel" by Melanie Watt




Bananaphone song (it's tradition and a good way to make eating healthy fruit look like a ton of fun)

Mad- "Grumpy Bird" by Jeremy Tankard
 

"Happy And You Know It"with actions and using their piano

Happy- "Cat the Cat" by Mo Willems



The kids then picked out from a pile of "If You Take A Mouse to School" and a Grandma's lap. The sound of 5-6 Grandma's reading out loud at the same time made me deliriously happy.



I ended the group with a mix of "You Are My Sunshine" and "Don't Worry Be Happy" which I learned over 5 days (I redeemed some of my Airmiles and purchased a beginner's ukulele). You only need to learn four easy chords so anyone with a bunch of fingers could do it. Seriously so easy! And so fun to play!

 

We had 5-6 seniors come out this time which was so awesome! The co-ordinator helped to gather those interested. The location was awesome (there was 3-4 that watched from a safe distance). And I had help from one of the moms attending to get some ladies she knew out to join us. We aren't that scary.

At one point a lady came over with her walker and said, "Who wants a ride?" and the kids took turns sitting on her walker, facing her, while she pushed each kid around the facility.

Another touching moment was when one of the ladies noticed that one of the boy's socks had a hole in the toe. "I can mend that up and have it ready for next time" she smiled. Oh my heart! Who mends socks any more?

Total disclosure: Little Dragon DID run around and had some other boys chasing him at a couple of points which was frustrating but kind of expected. We are working on that. 

Next month, for February, is going to be all "Aloha" themed (which means Love, Hello and Goodbye). We will be focusing more on the LOVE part because it is Valentines, duh!


All I can say it is that it is going to include: Hula dancing, books, home-made valentines, songs and fresh tropical fruit!
 

After spending 10 minutes to fill out a two page form, I was approved for funding from our local Co-Op so I don't have to spend more of our borrowed "student debt" money to pay for my crazy endeavors. Awesome! I am in talks with the other stores to see if they will pitch in to our healthy snack fund.

If any of you reading this want to start one of these fun little groups up, DO IT! It is so easy to get funding too. I have found in the past most grocery stores are happy to donate community causes, just come equipped with a letter for the manager (Sobeys/Safeway, Superstore/Extra Foods)

Please steal these ideas and share your own with me. It is so incredible to see the young children interact with the seniors and create friendships. These moments make Pamper commercials look like crap. (Pun intended)