Box Two
Hello, and welcome to the second instalment of Culture Box!
Delivery 1
An Introduction to BBC Music Memories
In this video, Julian West explains how to use BBC Music Memories, a website where you can easily access many genres of music from different eras that has been specifically designed for people living with dementia.
This website also gives you access to Memory Radio which brings you the best of BBC radio from the 1940s to the 1990s. This includes activity sheets with discussion points related to each decade.
Listening and enjoying music is a universal experience and has powerful connection to memory. For people living with dementia, music can help improve wellbeing by stimulating memories, reducing anxiety and depression and help maintain speech and language. Above all, listening to music is an enjoyable activity that enhances the quality of life for both care home residents and their carers.
Travel Madagascar, Highlights of a Magical Country
To introduce our tree of the month, we would like to share this video that explores all the different things you can see in Madagascar. Madagascar is an island off the off the south-east coast of Africa, that is home to some of the world’s most unique animals and plants.
See if you can spot the towering Baobab trees, the different fruits and vegetables in the bustling markets, and the lemurs and chameleons of the rainforest.
Delivery 2
Delivery 2 will be posted to your care home and contains the activities below.
The activities can be downloaded by clicking the purple links.
Baobab Tree by Martin Jordan
Oil on Canvas
This month’s tree is the Baobab, as the Culture Box team wanted to bring a tropical flavour to our winter weather.
Martin has painted the life cycle of the Baobab from fruit to adult tree, a process that can take 1000 years! The painting also includes a tiny person to show to great height that these trees can grow up to. Baobabs are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa and Australia and have been introduced to regions in Asia.
This painting is accompanied by document of questions and discussion points which you can download by clicking the link below.
Martin is a visual artist who specialises in botanical and zoological painting. To find out more about him click here.
Baobab Fruit by Martin Jordan
Colouring-in Activity
Martin has also produced this colouring-in activity inspired by the fruit of the Baobab tree.
This is accompanied by a document of questions and discussions points that you can download by clicking the link below.
Delivery 3
Weaverbird Chirping Video
There are many species of weaverbirds found throughout the continent of Africa, and many of them make their nests in the branches of Baobab trees.
Play the video to listen to the sounds of weaverbirds chirping and have a think about:
Do they sound familiar to you?
Do they remind you of any other birds?
What could the bird be doing?
What else can you hear?
Lets Chat! by DementiAbility
Let’s Chat! is a book by Gail Elliot from DementiAbility that has been designed for people living with dementia. The book contains conversation prompts that aim to facilitate conversation and stimulate memories. Let’s Chat! allows for both carers and residents to find out more about each other as the conversation prompts cover a range of topics that give insight into people’s personalities and memories.
The slideshow below shows some pages from Let’s Chat! with topics ranging from dating, marriage, happiness, gifts and animals. Click the arrows to the left and right to view the questions.
This can also be downloaded by clicking the link below.
Delivery 4
Red Diamond by Drawing Life
This is a life drawing exercise by Drawing Life. The aim is to observe the picture of the young woman wearing the diamond and to draw your own interpretation of it. There are guides below with instructions and tips. This is a fun activity that carers and residents can both do.
Drawing Life provide access to the arts for people living with all stages of dementia through life drawing activities. Life drawing is a creative form of self expression that can improve the wellbeing of participants and in turn, combat stigmas associated with dementia, raising awareness to the wider public.
They have found that the drawings their participants create reveal fascinating insights about their lives and memories as well as offering carers new subjects to talk about with those who may have lost the art of conversation.
