earth day

images courtesy audubon society

To celebrate Earth Day I gave a bird quiz to the residents at Touchstone. These are all birds that can be found on the campus. The residents tried to match the name to the picture of the bird.


Then I played the bird calls for them, and they tried to match the sounds to the bird as well. Afterward, I made tea. Seemed like a fitting way to celebrate being on Earth -- to notice and to appreciate our fellow earth creatures, animals and plants alike.

I actually gave the quiz twice, first to a group of higher-functioning residents, and then to a group of lower-functioning residents. Because the activities involved engaging the senses, they worked equally well in both groups, despite the differences in cognitive ability. And the activities worked well for the staff members who participated.

Operating at this level, at the level of the senses, allowed me to use the same activities across the spectrum of cognitive ability. In other words, whereas a lecture-stlye format would have had to be tailored to the cognitive ability of each group, a sensory-based, hands-on format could be used without any such tailoring.