Our residents had a great time last week on our Nellsar virtual mini cruise to Mexico here at Loose Valley Care Home.
Our conservatory got transformed into a mass of colour and all our residents received a handmade Mexican souvenir made from felt – a donkey, cactus, chillis, fajitas, taco and even a piñata.
We all wore our sombrero hats and we even had an authentic Mexican one from our team member Charlotte’s fiancé who went out there on a school trip many years ago and brought it back with him! There were also some colourful ponchos and a Mexican senora dress to admire.
On Monday we hosted a Mexican quiz, and enjoyed some trivia and facts about Mexico. We also made our own maracas out of dowling sticks and plastic eggs half-filled with mini bells and beads, decorated with silver and gold stickers around the brightly coloured shell – instant maracas to ‘Shake, shake, shake, Senora!‘. With our new instruments, we shook them in time to themed tunes, including a Mariachi band playing throughout lunchtime and our activity time.
As part of the fun, our residents watched cartoon clips of Speedy Gonzales who shouted “Arriba, Arriba, Andale, Andale!” – the fastest mouse of all time!
We played Mexican games on Tuesday, hitting our colourful piñata that was filled with sweets; our residents had a go at hitting it over and over with the stick trying to break it and had a great time!
Next it was ‘Pin the tail on the donkey‘, blindfolded! This was a good giggle and only one of our residents got anywhere near where it was supposed to go – well done Evelyn, you were really close!
Our Mexican cruise wouldn’t have been complete without some authentic food and on Wednesday we made fajitas with lots pepper and onion chopping for the wraps!
Our week’s menu was amazing, featuring fried chicken torta, chilli beef nachos, fajitas, Mexican chicken casserole and more! Huge thanks to our Chef and Kitchen Team for such wonderful food.
Finally, we all enjoyed a Mexican bingo-style game, with pictures including a cactus, mariachi band, donkey, tequila bottle, señorita lady, Mexican food, chillis and more! When your picture was called, you covered it with a coin – great fun!
We all thoroughly enjoyed all our Mexican activities and immersing ourselves in the Mexican culture.
