SLIDERS: LET THE GAMES BEGIN (BASEBALL THEME)

By Christine Jennings


Learn & Listen – April 4th is the first Major League Baseball game of the year. You can find the regular season schedule on MLB.com and then check out lots of Major League History on Wikipedia to discuss with your residents. I recommend you print out the schedule so you can see which games will be aired on your local cable channels and plan an activity game party around your resident’s favorite teams to cheer them on.

During this activity talk to the residents about the information you read on Wikipedia (unless you’re a baseball fan and can talk the talk). Ask questions to get the discussion started such as: Have they ever attended a major league game? If so, who was playing and do they remember the score? Ask them question relating to the history information you reviewed on Wikipedia.

Game – Batter up! Play a game of baseball with foam noodles and a balloon or if you have a Wii get one of the baseball games to let the residents play. Make sure to divide up in teams and get the staff involved by letting them be on resident’s teams as well. Have fun playing American’s favorite pass time game!

Food –Make little hamburger sliders to incorporate the theme name. The mini hamburgers are quick and easy to make. Stores now sell the mini hamburger buns so you don’t have to cut bread slices into squares. No need to go overboard; just serve with cheese, ketchup, mustard or mayo.

OR

What else but peanuts, popcorn and hot dogs! Instruction on how to make boiled peanuts can be found on eHow.com under How Tos or just do a search on the website. Let residents make some popcorn or cook some hot dogs. Try to make decorate the kitchen with some baseball décor to get the residents in the mood or weather permitting take them outside to fix the hot dogs on the grill.

Exercise – Doing the exercise today try to incorporate some moves they use in baseball and if you can get enough baseball bats they would work for props to use for stretches and baseballs to do hand griping exercises. For residents that have difficulty with lifting give them a team flag to wave for movements instead of the bat. The main point is to incorporate today’s theme in your exercise program today with either music, props, moves, or include baseball trivia during rest time between each exercise.

Craft – Make baseball team pennants. Use the following materials:

poster board the color of their favorite team
construction paper
glue
Scissors
Markers
Printed pictures of the team’s mascot.
Cut out a pennant shape from color poster board.

Cut out strips of the second team color from construction paper.

Cut out two circles from white paper to use as baseballs for both sides of the pennant. Use a red marker to make the design on the white circles to make it looks more like a baseball.

Glue the second team color strips and the baseball circles on each side.

Now glue on the team mascot to finish the pennants.

If the residents don’t have a favorite team, then just let them decorate the pennant with words such as Cheer, Go Team, #1 or any other fun decoration.

Game – Name That Player

Check out baseball-almanac.com for historical player information that you can use to create status information to give to the residents so they can guess the players name. You can even print out some pictures when you go to the player’s page and click on the player’s name. Cover up the player’s name on the picture and see if they can name the player.

Movie – Oh, there are so many baseball movies out there to show but here are a few and as always preview the movie to see if it is appropriate for your residents.

Angles in the Outfield (fun light-hearted baseball movie) – 1994 – Tony Danza, Danny Glover
The Babe – 1992 – John Goodman, Kelly McGillis
Eight Men Out – 1988 – John Cusack, Clifton James
Field of Dreams – 1989 – Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan
A League of Their Own (a little something for the women) – 1992 – Tom Hanks, Geena Davis
The Natural – 1884 – Robert Redford, Robert Duvall
For more suggestions Google baseball movies and you will find a ton of suggestions if you don’t want to use any of these.


See more of Christine's Themes!