July Activities

The Activity Director's Office Presents
Activity Ideas That Work
by Gina Salazar, AD

You need Java to see this applet.

Fourth of July
Word Scramble:

1) gfal--------------------------Flag
2) frewksior-----------Fireworks
3) htwie----------------------White
4) utnedi--------------------United
5) aamerci---------------America
6) dre---------------------------Red
7) mdoefer--------------Freedom
8) lbeu-------------------------Blue
9) radepa-----------------Parade
10) steats--------------------States

Name all the
United States:

ALABAMA
ALASKA
ARIZONA
ARKANSAS
CALIFORNIA
COLORADO
CONNECTICUT
DELAWARE
FLORIDA
GEORGIA
HAWAII
IDAHO
ILLINOIS
INDIANA
IOWA
KANSAS
KENTUCKY
LOUISIANA
MAINE
MARYLAND
MASSACHUSETTS
MICHIGAN
MINNESOTA
MISSISSIPPI
MISSOURI
MONTANA
NEBRASKA
NEVADA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
NEW JERSEY
NEW MEXICO
NEW YORK
NORTH CAROLINA
NORTH DAKOTA
OHIO
OKLAHOMA
OREGON
PENNSYLVANIA
RHODE ISLAND
SOUTH CAROLINA
SOUTH DAKOTA
TENNESSEE
TEXAS
UTAH
VERMONT
VIRGINIA
WASHINGTON
WEST VIRGINIA
WISCONSIN
WYOMING

String of Stars

Decorate a porch railing with
these festive Fourth of July
garlands.

WHAT YOU NEED
• Craft Foam
• Scissors
• Tacky glue
• Hole punch
• Ribbons

Time needed:
Under 1 Hour

DIRECTIONS:
Step 1: Cut out a bunch of craft
foam stars that measure five or so
inches across.
Step 2: Next cut out smaller stars
of contrasting colors and use tacky
glue to attach each one to a larger
star.
Step 3: To finish, use a hole
punch to make two holes in each
glued pair, then thread lengths of
ribbon through to tie them together.

Ice Cream
Word Game:

Have residents name items to make
an ice cream treat....

bananas
butterscotch topping
caramel topping
chocolate jimmys
chopped nuts
whipped cream
marshmallows
chocolate ice cream
cherries
chocolate syrup
cookie crumbs
strawberries
gummy candy
vanilla ice cream
strawberry ice cream
waffle cones

Fourth of July Windsocks

These are great to decorate for the
4th or anytime!!

You will need:
Small American flags(one for each
resident)
Hot glue gun
Fishing wire
Hole puncher
Red,White and Blue Ribbon(the
cloth kind or curling ribbon)

Directions:
First give each resident a flag,glue
the ribbon on the bottom edge of the
back of one side of the flag,(or the
inside,if only one side to the
flag)start with the red ribbon,then the
white,then the blue and so on ,all the
way around the flag.Let dry.Then
take the flag and hold it horizonally
and glue the edges together so that
it looks like a cylinder without a
top.Then take the hole puncher and
punch one hole on each side of the
flag and attach the fishing wire to
desired length and cut and tie.Hang
outside.

What's Cookin'

4th of July Pretzel
Sparklers

All you need is a bag of pretzels,a
can of white frosting and red,white
and blue sprinkles.

Just have your residents put the
frosting on top of each pretzel,
then shake the sprinkles on
top.Thats it! So easy and taste
pretty good too....

Fruit Kabobs:
Get shiskabob sticks and
blueberries,
strawberries,bananas and limes.
Cut up bananas in slices and
wash strawberries and
blueberries,then
brush with lime juice
to prevent browning.
Next,put the strawberries,then the
blueberries,then the bananas
on the sticks.
Thats it.Enjoy !!

Fun Food:

~Fruit Cups~

This is such a simple recipe.
Just take cut up
strawberries,blueberries,pound
cake(cut into very small cubes)
and cool-whip and arrange in a
clear parfait glass.
Start with at the bottom of the cup
with the poundcake,then
strawberries,then poundcake
again,then blueberries,then top
with cool-whip.
Enjoy !!

Watermelon Roll :

All you need are a few
Watermelons and some
participants......
Line up your resident's
wheelchairs or chairs and give
them each a Watermelon and tell
them to roll it as far as they can,the
person that rolls it the furthest
WINS !!
This game is very simple,yet fun
because most of the residents
can hardly lift the Watermelon,yet
alone roll it !

MORE GAMES FOR YOUR
PARTY:

Badminton
Boccie
Balloon Toss
Capture the Flag
Croquet
Horseshoes
Sack Race
Tag Football
Tug-of-war
Volleyball

Fourth of July Crafts:

Firecrackers

You will need:
red,white and blue construction
paper
orange tissue paper
glue
scissors
tolet paper roll / or paper towel roll
(empty)

Directions:
Take the paper towel roll and cut
in half, you can make two with this.
If using the tolet paper roll cover
1/3 with red construction
paper(top)then the middle1/3 with
white construction paper and the
bottom 1/3 with the blue
construction paper, glue each
color onto the roll,red,white,then
blue.
then take the orange tissue paper
and put a small piece in the center
and fan it out so that it looks
like a flame .
These are so easy to make and
are very inexpensive decorations
for the holiday!

July Dates to Celebrate:

National Picnic Month & National Parks/Recreation Month- Take your residents to
the park for a picnic,serve sandwiches,fruit salad and drinks.Bring a plastic wading
pool to let the residents put their feet in.Bring a C.D. player and have a sing along
too.

National Baked Bean Month, National Hot dog Month, The 4th of July - Well,this is
too easy...Have a Fourth of July Barbecue Blowout-Serve hot dogs,baked
beans,red,white and blue cupcakes,red or blue punch.Have everyone wear
red,white and blue clothing.Have a resident read the Declaration of
Independence(see upper right of this page). Play find the flag(see below). Ask
residents to sing God bless America.

July 11th- Birth anniversary of E.B.White,the author of Charlotte's Web-Hold a
Charlottes web party for the children/grandchildren of the staff and residents.Invite
all the kids to come in and watch the video with their family,serve refreshments.

July 23-The Ice cream cone was invented on this day-Why dont you have a Ice
cream Party. Take your residents out for a cone.

Frozen Uncle Sams

This Fourth of July, invite your residents to turn ice cream cones into edible, festive
Uncle Sam top hats.

Ingredients:
1 scoop store-bought vanilla ice cream
1 Wafer ice cream cone
White frosting
Blue fruit leather
Red and blue decorating gels
Red and blue M&M's
Canister of ready-made whipped cream

Directions:
Place a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a plate and return it to the freezer to harden.
Meanwhile, construct an Uncle Sam hat out of a wafer ice cream cone.

Use frosting to attach a blue band of fruit leather around the bottom of the cone.
Squirt vertical stripes of red decorating gel down the sides and blue gel on the top.

Using a star tip, squirt on white frosting stars around the blue fruit leather, if
desired.

TIP: To avoid smudging the Uncle Sam hat design, have your resident hold the
cone from the inside while decorating it with fruit leather and icing.

Remove the ice cream-scoop "head" from the freezer and top with the Uncle Sam
hat. Working quickly so the ice cream doesn't melt, add blue M&M's eyes and a red
M&M's nose. Finally, add a whipped cream beard. To do this, have your resident
hold the canister upside down while squirting on a long white beard.

Serve up your Uncle Sam ice cream cone immediately; he goes over well at July
4th celebrations. Makes 1.

Ring Toss and Other Games

For this game, contestants need the
tossing skills of a Frisbee player and the
good aim of a seasoned horseshoe
pitcher.

For the scoring poles, you'll need nine
dowels. Set them in the ground in three
rows, each composed of three dowels
and spaced 2 feet apart. Decorate the
planted poles by wrapping them with red,
white and blue crepe-paper streamers.
For the rings (you'll need three per team),
use a dozen sturdy paper plates. You
can either purchase colored plates or
spray paint plain ones. Cut out a large
circle from the center of each plate. Then,
place two of the plates face-to-face and tape together all the way around the rims.
Repeat for the remaining five rings.

During the game, members from both teams
have three attempts each to toss a ring
around one of the poles. (It's fun to alternate
turns between the two teams.)
A ring that lands around a pole in the nearest
row is worth 10 points; a ringer in the middle
row earns 20 points; and a ringer in the far
row earns 30 points. The team that
accumulates the most points wins.

Fourth of July Games

Find the Flag

Ask one player to leave the room.Then hide an American flag so that everyone but
the absent player knows where it is.Call back the player and explain to him that
while he is hunting for the flag, the crowd will sing Yankee Doodle, softly when he
is away from the flag and louder when he is close to it.This game is a lot of fun!

What to Wear to the Parade

Whether elaborate and citywide or a simple neighborhood march, Fourth of July
parades have been a tradition since the Liberty Bell rang in 1776. Festive hats,
makeshift drums and an independence banner signed by all will get your holiday
march off on the right foot.

FIRECRACKER HATS

With this quick and inexpensive design, you can
easily outfit a crowd of paraders with hats that
will flutter as they march.

MATERIALS
2 full sheets of newspaper
Ruler
Pencil
Blue, red and white tempera or
acrylic paints
4-inch poly-brush (foam sponge on a wooden handle) or wide paintbrush
White construction paper
Scissors, tape and glue

First, unfold the two newspaper sheets one atop the other as if you were reading
them, and treat them as a single two-ply sheet thereafter--this will strengthen the
hat and provide a double layer of fringe.

To make the brow band, mark a line that measures 3 1/2 inches from the bottom
edge of the sheet and fold up along that line. Roll the band up once more and
flatten the fold. Paint the brow-band blue. When dry, paint broad red and white
stripes on the flip side of the newspaper (this will be the inside of the hat). While
waiting for the paint to dry, cut star shapes from the construction paper.

Fit the hat by wrapping the brow band (painted side out) around a persons head
and taping the overlap securely. At this point, the hat should resemble a tall cylinder.

Decorate the brow band by gluing on the stars. Finally, use the scissors to fringe
the top of the hat, making cuts (spaced an inch or so apart) that extend about
halfway down the cylinder.

Fourth of July Party Ideas:

~ Red,White and Blue Table Centerpieces~

You will need:

small sand pails(one per table)
sand
small American flags(three per table)
red,white and blue types of fake flowers
paints
paint brushes

Directions:
Give one pail to each resident with some paint and let them paint stars and ribbons
on the sand pail,let dry.
Then take some sand and put into sand pail to three quarters full.
Next,arrange the flowers and the flags in the pail.
Put on each table in your dining room for fun,festive centerpieces.

Have a Safe and Happy Fourth of July !!!

Gina Salazar, AD