Nursing Home Projects

1. Interview the person you observed at the nursing home. Plan the questions in advance, get the teacher's approval for the questions, write them in your journal, and record the answers. The following ideas may be included in the interview:
   
   
   For a resident:
• the person’s history
• what the city or town was like when he/she was growing up
• what a school day was like when he/she was in middle school
• inventions that made a difference in his/her life
• how children played indoors and outdoors when he/she was young
• volunteer opportunities that the person was involved in as a child and/or adult
  
  For an employee:
• who, what, where, when, why and how questions that relate to the employee's work at the home
• what he/she knows about the history of the nursing home
• his/her feelings about the presence of volunteers in the nursing home.
  
  Select one the following formats for presenting the information you collect:
• Video tape the interview and show it in class.
• Write a story about the person and illustrate it (picture book format).
• Make a poster displaying what you learned (include pictures and explanations).
• Put up a bulletin board in the hallway of the home or the school featuring the person you interviewed (include pictures and write an essay or poem.)
• Make a pamphlet about the nursing home and feature the resident/worker you interviewed.
• Write a narrative poem which includes the information you have gathered.
• Write an essay or poem comparing your life with the life of the resident when he/she was your age.
2. Write a seven-day devotional booklet that could be used with the residents. This could be done with a group of three students by dividing the responsibilities.
   
   
   Book:
   • Include a cover with a title, illustration and/or Bible verse.
   • Include a title page with the name of the school, date, and your name.
     
     Devotional:
   • Choose a theme for the seven days (optional).
   • Include a title for each day.
   • Include a Bible passage for each day.
   • Include a meditation with a short story for each day.
   • Include a prayer for each day.
   • Include a thought for the day (optional).
     
     Theme ideas to get you started:
   • Beauty of Creation
   • Importance of Love
   • Forgiveness of Sins
   • Fruits of the Spirit
   • Proverbs
   • Season of Lent and Easter
   • Season of Advent and Christmas
   • Encouraging One Another
   • Psalms
   • Giving and Sharing
   
   
3. Write a story for the school or community newspaper about your experience at the nursing home.
   
   
4. Get together with three other students and make an exhibit about the nursing home, the work you did, and the people you worked with there. Display the exhibit at school to encourage others to volunteer. This exhibit could include poems, stories, pictures, pamphlets from the nursing home, etc.
   
   
5. Get together with three other students and plan a chapel service or assembly for students to promote the need to do volunteer work in our community. This assembly could include a Bible passage, skit, panel of students with personal stories about the nursing home experience, songs, prayer, poems, a speaker from another community program welcoming volunteers, etc.
   
   
6. Make a video or scrapbook of the work you performed at the nursing home. Prepare a talk that you can include on the video or give orally to the class explaining what is shown.