How to Plan Earth Day Activities with Storytelling
Happy Earth Day, caregivers! This is a special day where we celebrate our planet and everything that it provides for us. As caregivers or nurses, you may be looking for ways to engage your patients in meaningful Earth Day activities. One way to do this is by using storytelling. Stories can help us connect with nature and understand the importance of protecting our environment. In this blog post, we will share some fun Earth Day activities that you can try with your storytellers. Let's get started!
Fun Earth Day Activities that Involve Storytelling
With Earth Day on the mind, what better theme for your activities than the great outdoors? There are so many options for how we can incorporate these themes into our caregiving, below I hope to give you some examples and create some ideas for your work!
Earth Day Activity Ideas
These ideas can be adapted to resident ability and cognitive level. If you are looking for support on this aspect, feel free to book a call here and we can make a plan you can implement.
- Plant a garden – encourage residents to choose plants that will tell a story about them or their family
- Have residents write down their history and put it in a book to share with their families or have in a library in your facility
- Make a time capsule of letters with your residents and bury it in the yard of the facility or keep it somewhere that can be opened in 12 months time
- Create a recycled art project, such as a birdhouse or wind chime – encourage residents to tell stories about their experience with art or being outside
- Have a picnic outside and tell stories around the campfire (or eat dinner al fresco)
- Go for a nature walk or outing and look for things that inspire your residents to tell stories
Things to read, listen to, or watch
- Read – How to Tell Your Best Spring Story
- Watch – Your Favorite Season – From 52 Weeks of Storytelling
- Listen to – 5 Minute Storytelling – Your Favorite Outside Activity
A Resource to Check Out – Spring Storytelling Video from 52 Week Series
Need some help sparking conversations around Spring? This guide gives you some ideas of how to start!
Storytelling Activity I’m Loving
I love encouraging people to start conversations about things people never think to ask about, like their favorite plant, tree, flower, or outdoors activity. Sometimes these questions go over well, sometimes not so much. A lot of that depends on the person you are chatting with.
If they have dementia or Alzheimer's, how you ask questions makes a huge difference. Additionally, storytellers may not answer in the way you expect. If you haven't watched this TEDMed talk by Anne Basting, I highly recommend it. She offers a few ways to observe and discern how someone may be responding to your questions.
How can storytelling be used to engage people in environmentalism and conservation efforts?
Storytelling is a powerful way to engage people in any topic. When it comes to environmentalism and conservation, storytelling can be used to personalize these issues and make them more relatable. By sharing stories about the environment and its impact on our lives, we can create a connection with nature that can inspire people to take action.
As caregivers, parents, and nurses, you have a unique opportunity to share these stories with your loved ones and patients. By sparking an interest in environmentalism and conservation through storytelling, we can help promote sustainability and stewardship for future generations.