I’m not sure why, but evening activity ideas can a challenge for me. Having the same activities repeat over and over can cause boredom and a lower attendance. Perhaps some of your residents want more to do in the early evening. Or maybe your company would like more evening activities reflected on your monthly calendar. We all have sat looking at next month’s calendar and wondered what we should plan. Below are some of my tried-and-true Ideas for Evening Activities:
- Paint & Sip Class
- Game Night
- Trivia Pub Night
- Travelogue or Armchair Travel Program
- Karaoke Songs Night
- Piano Music & Cocktails
- Watch a Sporting Event on TV (Football…etc.)
- Awards Night Shows (Academy Awards…etc.)
- Bible Study Group
- Knitting Club (Crochet, Embroidery…etc.)
- Poker Night
- Music Entertainment
- Specialty Game Clubs (Skipbo – Bridge – Scrabble – Dominoes – Mah Jong – Uno – Chess…etc.)
- Pizza Night (with movie or sporting event)
- Movie & Popcorn
- Holiday Carolers from local churches
- Holiday Family & Resident Events
- Holiday Christmas Lights Drive
- Holiday “Hallmark” Christmas Movies
- Bingo
- Crafting Class or a Craft in a Bag for an individual pursuit.
Staffing is the challenge as many of these will require at the very least set up by the activity staff. There are some that can be resident, or volunteer led.
I recommend knowing your resident’s interests. Do you know what games that your residents enjoy? Have you updated a resident interest survey recently? These can be enlightening if they fill them out. I find that I have had to take the survey back and personally ask more detailed questions many times.
Evening activities may be almost anything that is offered during the daytime. Every community has their own preferences.
Please let us know about your evening activities at your community. Visit our Facebook Group called Activity Helper. We are always looking for new ideas in our group!
