This week we visited our older friends at the care village. The children got busy immediately engaging in stories, drawing, building and threading. In the afternoon, we all engaged in a yoga session which everyone enjoyed. The children and adults really enjoy listening to the calming music as they completed their yoga moves.
Wednesday 28th May
The children were as enthusiastic as ever to arrive at the care village. We raced into the lounge to meet our friends… to our disappointment the residents didn’t know we were coming to play! It was time to take matters into our own hands and venture off into the corridors and knock on all our friends’ doors. We were greeted with smiles, cuddles and reassurance that everyone was eager to join our exploration. Once united in our communal space, one of the children were keen to show off her mask which she had brought all the way from Venice.
The children and residents were excited to create their own masks. Using our craft resources we worked with our friends to decorate the most extravagant masquerade masks. After a spot of lunch, the residents joined us in a yoga session. To finish off the day the children and residents performed some action songs with one another. To our surprise one of the residents brought his harmonica to play each song. It was really a magical experience for all the staff, residents, nursery grown-ups and children.
Wednesday 21st May
This week, the children were so excited to visit their older friends and we had a lot of things to get through. This week we focused on food activities and the plan was to make our own smoothies. We took strawberries and bananas which everyone worked together to chop into small pieces. We then added milk and a blender and voila, yummy smoothies all round. All of the children (and their older friends) had a try and it was delicious!
As it was World Meditation Day, we decided to try our hand at yoga. We were amazed by everyone’s yoga skills. One of the residents is a yoga expert and showed us some extra moves. We are hoping to continue our yoga sessions each week so watch this space! After yoga, everyone had a healthy snack of melon. What a very healthy and productive day!
Monday 12th May
This week the children visited their older friends as usual and they were keen to explore some new equipment and activities. One of the areas we would like to focus on more is ICT so this week we took our large laminator with us. The children and adults were each provided with a laminating pouch and asked if they could fill the pouch with some coloured cellophane. They were then supported by the adults to place it through the laminator before punching a hole through and tying with string. The children and adults then held these up to the light and watched in amazement as the light peered through the cellophane, creating beautiful, coloured light around the room.
The children and adults were also provided with large Duplo blocks which they worked with together to create a whole host of different creations. Duplo has become a firm favourite of the children and residents as it provides endless open-ended opportunities.
Wednesday 7th May
Today the children were very excited about visiting their older friends at the care village. We chatted on the minibus about who we would spend our time with and what sort of activities we would like to engage in. On arrival, we quickly took off our shoes and jumpers, collected our resources and headed into the communal lounge. Some of the children immediately greeted their older friends whilst others began to play.
One of the children had brought some family photos to share with their special friend. Their friend loves to hear about the child’s life and will often ask how his Mum, Dad and brother are. The two share a wonderful bond. As the child enters the room, his older friend beams and they chat together, read together and engage in drawing and jigsaws together. This bond becomes stronger every visit!
The children have established firm friendships with the residents and are becoming more and more confident in the space. The children love nothing more than teaching their friends new skills which is often reciprocated by the adults. On this occasion, the child asked the resident if she would like to play a game. The resident replied, “yes, but I don’t know how to play". The child then said “I’ll show you the game. You can have the red ones and I’ll have the green ones. You need to put yours on the white squares and I’ll put mine on the blue squares”. She continued to explain the rules of her game and the two played happily together. The older adult praised and encouraged the child, telling her she had really enjoyed her game! The huge smiles of achievement were clear to see.
Wednesday 23rd April
This week we continued the Easter celebrations with our friends. Festivals bring everyone together and as usual our Wednesday group were feeling rather creative! The children worked with their friends to create some Easter bonnets, engage in Easter egg decorating, Easter crown making and even made some Chocolate Crispy cakes. Several groups worked on the crispies but one group ate more crispies than went into the cupcake cases! We spotted you!
Since beginning our trips in September, we have observed children developing strong bonds with their older friends. Their friends are always waiting for them to arrive and eager to engage in activities. One child and resident who have recently become friends, have enjoyed spending the day together creating some amazingly creative things. Not only have they made a huge cardboard aeroplane together but this week worked on an Easter bonnet. The child is happy to ask his friend for support and chat about what he is doing. His friend listens intently, offering words of wisdom about how to get the hat to stick together. They have begun to learn about each other’s lives and as practitioners we observe these wonderful interactions and what we hope is the start of a beautiful friendship.
After lunch the children decided they all wanted to become animals of different sorts. This required a tail for each child. Some children enjoyed making their own tail whilst others asked for a little adult support. Before we knew it, we had lots of different animals prowling the area. We even had one of our oldest residents decide she would like to join in and a tail was made and attached to her walking aide. Imaginative play isn’t just for children! A dragon was eventually thrown into the mix and hey presto, a creative, imaginative group of children and adults enjoying their time together.
Monday 14th April
This week the children were excited as always to see their friends and were thrilled to see them waiting in the lounge. There was a vast selection of craft resources available, and the children began making different types of hats and crowns. Craft materials is a favourite activity for all, and we see the children and older friends working together to create things. It allows for wonderful discussions where they share their experiences together.
It did not take long for the grown-ups to join in and together they created some amazing designs! The older grown-ups enjoyed colouring, and the foam egg shapes were really popular. One of our friends said to one of the children “you have taught us how to colour in again, I forgot how much fun it is!”
The highlight of the day was making our easter crispy cakes! This was a special moment as several of our older friends talked about their memories of making chocolate crispy cakes with their children and how exciting it was. We saved the cakes until after lunch and all enjoyed them together. We had some very messy faces!
Age Friendly Award 2025
Over the last two years we have been working alongside Honey and Apple Nightingales and Generations for all on a ‘Creating Intergenerational Communities’ toolkit which they hope will develop potential indicators of good practice. This week we have learned that the lead co-ordinator of the toolkit has put us forward for a prestigious award of Intergenerational Dream Team.
We are very excited to have been nominated so please wish us luck!
Wednesday 9th April
This week the children continued to develop their friendships with their older friends. As the children spend more and more time at the care village, we are observing the close bonds forming. The children will plan their day around their interest and their special friend. When the children see their friend heading into the community space, the often run to them to say good morning or wait patiently for them to reach their seat before explain what they will do that do.
Some children have remained with their special friend since the beginning of our project whilst others are finding someone special to work with now. The residents are happy to share their skills and support the children in learning new ones.
Wednesday 31st March
As usual, the children were excited to visit their older friends. They skipped into the care village ready to start their day. The children helped to set out their resources before choosing an adult to work with. The children are very creative and before we knew it there were lollipop creations, ribbon pictures and lots of drawings. As the day progressed, the children began to create their own games. One of the children enjoyed playing a game of peek-a-boo with a resident which made them both giggle with delight (see picture above).
Wednesday 26th March
This week the children were feeling very creative and enjoyed using some new resources with their older friends. We opened our new makedo sets and chatted about tool safety. The children and residents then had a demonstration as to how to use the tools to cut the cardboard into shapes and attach them with the fixings provided. Everyone got straight to work and we had some wonderfully imaginative objects created. One child worked with a new resident to create an aeroplane. They supported one another with the saw and screwdriver. What a team!
The children enjoyed working with their older friends on a range of activities. Books always draw the children and adults together as well as a shared love of drawing. We have been surprised by everyone’s creativity especially with the make resources. We saw high levels of engagement and team work throughout the day, showing the true collaborative spirit of our project.
Monday 17th March
Some may ask, what is it that you do in the care village or what do the children and residents get out of working together. We can not begin to describe the amount of learning which takes place and how the interactions between old and young create such a magical atmosphere, but we will try!
Being together provides opportunities for children to learn about personal space as well as learning from knowledgeable, older adults. It is not only the adults who teach the children but the children are able to teach their older friends many new skills. We often hear, “yes you can do it” or “team work makes the dream work” from these three and four year olds as they encourage their friends to ‘give things a go’. Our friends are often surprised by some of the activities and reminisce on their younger years, smiling and laughing as they tell their own life stories, much to the children’s delight.
Literacy, language and communication play a huge part within our day. The children are keen to share stories with their older friends and in turn their friends provide them with something special, time. They have all the time in the world for their little friends and love to engage in story time. They enjoy ‘putting on voices’ to add to the characters and asking questions of the children and if they attempt to change the story, even slightly, the children know! The children are also able to read some of the more familiar stories back to the adults. They love nothing more than sharing an information book together, developing their understanding of a new subject and gathering new knowledge. We often hear comments such as, “did you hear that? I didn’t know that” from the older adults as they engage in the information books together.
The children are kind and considerate, thinking about their friends, old and young, as well as themselves. Today, one of the children was ensuring all of his friends had a ‘healthy green’ temperature with the thermometer whilst another child used the handheld hoover to clean up after lunch. The photo above shows a practitioner sharing a baby scan photo with a child. The practitioner wanted to take the scan photo in to share with the residents because as the bond between the children and their older friends have deepened so have the friendships between the residents and practitioners. They are all definitely part of our ‘Childsplay Family’.
The children and residents are also masters of singing and dancing. Here is a sneak peek of us working on something special ready for our celebration day later in the year.
Wednesday 12th March
This week we had a very special visitor come to meet us. The mayoress of Gateshead came to see what our project is all about and meet the children and residents. She was amazed by the children and their older friends interactions and could see the value of our project. The children showed her what they have been up to and what they do when visiting.
We have been observing the interactions between the children and their friends as friendships continue to grow. Some of the children have found a special friend to spend their time with and others enjoy moving around activities and spending time with several residents. One child in particular has enjoyed spending time with a new resident. They have a very similar personality and enjoy sharing stories and drawing together. We can see this blossoming into a very special friendship.
This week the children enjoyed exploring the theme of Spring. We created spring bracelets, rainbows (we have seen several rainbows when on our minibus) as well as making flowers. Some of the children used the paper to make paper planes, screwdrivers and fans. How very creative!
Wednesday 26th February
There was a lot of love in the room this week. The children were so excited to visit their older friends and as we arrived we realised that one of our friends had returned from a long hospital stay. One of the children who had built up a particularly strong bond with her was very excited to finally see her friend. There were huge hugs all round.
Sadly one of our friends was feeling unwell this week and needed to stay inside their flat. Again, one of the children who has worked with the resident since their first trip to the care village was a little sad that they couldn't see their friend. We talked through what we could do to make him and his friend feel better. He decided to make a card which one of the care staff kindly delivered. The resident was quite overwhelmed and even more so when the child waited outside his window so he could wave. These are the moments when you see just how much it means to both the children and their older friends to have developed these close friendships.
New friendships are blossoming constantly and one child has made a special new friend who has been teaching her how to operate her mobility walker. She even asked if the child could help her put her brakes on and then off before praising her. The child desperately wanted to sit on the walker, as she had seen several of her friends do before. After speaking with a practitioner, she wondered if she would be able to. The practitioner encouraged her to ask the resident and of course the resident was thrilled to help her sit on the walker and proceeded to read her a story. The child displayed the biggest smile of delight we have ever seen!
The children thoroughly enjoyed their day and from paper plane making to tower building, everyone was feeling very creative!
Monday 17th February
This week the children continued to develop their friendships with our older friends. The children broke off into smaller groups independently with some choosing to complete jigsaws, others drawing and the other children sharing stories.
Some children enjoyed sharing a story about dinosaurs with a practitioner and two residents. The residents were amazed by the children’s knowledge of dinosaurs as they learned about how small the smallest dinosaur was (about the size of a chicken), what we call a dinosaur who eats meat/plants and how heavy the heaviest dinosaur was. A classic example of children teaching the adults.
Some of the children have enjoyed working with our building resources with one of our residents. They have created a whole host of different structures, using problem solving skills, communication and fine motor skills. One of our residents who is a master paper aeroplane maker, demonstrated his skills to the children and before we knew it we had aeroplanes flying everywhere!
Wednesday 12th February
Today the children enjoyed celebrating Valentines Day with their older friends. We created beautiful heart decorations which we hung from the ceiling, coloured in Valentine's themed sheets and decorated biscuits with icing sugar, chocolate stars and pink sprinkles.
One of the children and their older friend worked really hard and decorated a cake which we shared. It was delicious and definitely the best decorated cake we had ever seen! The children enjoyed marvelling at their friend’s handy work.
As well as celebrating Valentines Day, we have been practising a new song which we hope to perform later in the year so watch this space!
Monday 3rd February
This week the children and their older friends began their Valentines celebrations. We began our day with lots of beautiful drawings and colour by number activities which the grown-ups really do love to engage in. We then moved onto making Valentine cards. We thought about the different colours we associate with St Valentines Day.
In the afternoon, the children and residents supported one another to create beautiful heart pictures. We lay heart stencils onto laminating pouches and filled the hearts with pieces of tissue paper. They were then laminated, cut out and a ribbon placed through to hang them from the windows. They looked beautiful! Everyone was very proud of themselves and so they should be.
Wednesday 29th January
This week the children were very excited to see their older friends and celebrate Chinese New Year as well as pyjama day. The residents did wonder why the children had their pyjamas on but the children quickly explained it was pyjama day back at nursery. We all got busy colouring lanterns, dragons and even trying our hand at writing ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese.
Some of the children wanted to decorate the space and began creating multicoloured paper chains. Even some of our older friends helped make decorations with one of our friends making a multicoloured Chinese New Year stick. How very creative! One of the children showed her special dress which she had worn especially for the day. The residents thought it was beautiful!
Monday 20th Jan
This week we continued to create pompoms with the wool and cardboard. The children have been fascinated by how easy it is to produce your own pompom and the residents have thoroughly enjoyed sharing their tips and tricks to make the perfect pompom. Everyone is becoming more and more adventurous and one resident has introduced multicoloured pompoms whilst another has shown the children how to make tassels.
Reading and drawing still remains a huge part of our day and the children often showcase their talents and we even have our own resident artist! The children have made themselves completely at home and feel comfortable within the space, often lounging on chairs whilst chatting to their older friends. The environment the residents have created brings our Childsplay family ethos to life with the care village.
Wednesday 15th January
Today the children enjoyed another visit to one of our favourite places, the care village. The children were eager to get there as we had a special activity we would be attempting that day. The adults had lots of card, wool and scissors in their bags. Yes, you have guessed it, we would be spending the day making pompoms. The children got to work quickly threading their wool through the card. The residents quickly joined in and before we knew it, it was pompoms galore. Some of the residents remembered making pompoms when they were younger and knew all the tricks to get the best out of the wool.
Some of the children continued their interest in board games, matching games and dominoes and the residents were quick to help support them. Our photo wall also proved a highlight this week with one of the residents and children looking at these together and sharing stories of what they have worked on. We had some new residents visit us today and we are very hopeful that they will be there on our next visit.
