#PlayMonday (21/12/2015)

Fifth Play Monday!

The most wished monthly Monday!

Today, our Play consisted in Shadow Puppetry and make a story “à la minute”!

And here it is! How can we play?

We start by introducing our Shadow Puppets to our clients so they could choose the names and the roles that they would have on the story.

So, our first four characters are:

Sheperd Manuel

Mimi

Joana

João

After the names were chosen, we went to play!

In this first part, it was me and Raquel who controlled the puppets according to the story that our clients where telling, which was a way to ease up the beginning of our Play.

Ms. C started: “Once upon a time, there was a girl named Mimi that went to the school along the road and when she looked to the side, she saw a shepherd that had a herd of sheep and he liked to sing a lot.”

Ms. C.B. added: “The girl asked to the shepherd if he could sing for her and teach her the song. And the shepherd taught it, by starting to sing:

“Toda a vida fui Pastor

Toda a vida guardei gado

Tenho uma cova no peito

De me encostar ao cajado.”

(Everyone laughed!)

Ms. M said: “The girl thanked to Shepherd Manuel and kept going to school. She went running because she was late. As soon as she arrived to school, she apologized to her teacher about being late and the teacher demanded that would never happen again, but she was apologized anyways.”

Mr. A also said: “The girl played a lot in school”

Ângela asked: “And what did she play?”

Mr. A : “ She played to “Marco Polo”!”.

And Mr. C. added: “After playing she went to pick flowers. But a man appeared and he was really upset at the girl because she was picking flowers, but the girl answered that those flowers were for her mother because that day was her birthday. Mimi went back home, gave the flowers to her mom that got really happy. Then they went to lunch and later, the girl did her homework with her mom’s help. At night, Shepherd Manuel went home and had dinner with his whole family.”

But here Ms. C.B. suggests: “what if everyone is from the same family?”

That way, we reformulated the relationship between all the characters! The Shepherd Manuel changed to be João’s father. João now is Joana’s husband and Mimi is their daughter and granddaughter of Manuel. After everything’s in their right places:

Ms. M kept going with the story: “Because Mimi didn’t want to sleep, her grandfather told her a story.”

“And which story would be?” asked Ângela.

Mr. J tried to start telling it, but then he said that it would be better if other person do it, now that he thought about it, he thought he wasn’t a good storyteller.

Ms. C. said that she would help and started telling us the “Little Red Riding Hood”

And so it was, until Mimi fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Ms. C.B. arrived and said he went to visit her, so he ended up sitting and watched our playfull theatre.

SECOND CHAPTER

Ms. C.B.: “Shepherd Manuel, after telling a story to his granddaughter, he tried to find his wife but he could not find her. He searched and searched and nothing. His son appeared and asked his father who he was searching for. Shepherd Manuel said it was his wife. But his wife had already passed away. And he didn’t remember it.”

And then Raquel asked: “And why couldn’t he remember that his wife passed away?”

Ms. M answered: “Because he had Alzheimer.”

Ms. C.B. continued the story: “So, Joana, Shepherd Manuel’s daughter-in-law, that liked him really much, helped him going to bed, because it was late. Then all of them went to sleep and dreamed a lot.”

And I asked: What did our characters dream during the night?

Ms. C.: “The girl dreamt about toys and school and a bicycle, because she really wanted to have one. Every girl in the school had one and she didn’t.”

And that was when Ms. C.B. and Ms. C gain courage and started to manipulate our Shadow Puppets.  Here the Play got much more special!

So, they tell the story between Shepherd Manuel and his granddaughter Mimi that wanted a bicycle.

Ms. C.: “Hello grandpa! How are you? I wanted a bicycle so much! Can you give me one?”

Ms. C.B.: “My granddaughter, I don’t have much money, but I’ll offer you the bicycle. I’m going to sell two sheeps to buy it.”

In this part, Ângela asked Mr. A what the son could say to his father

Ms. M: “Meanwhile Mimi’s father appears and gets mad at Shepherd Manuel, because he shouldn’t offer the bicycle, because he’s too old and forgetful to buy those things.”

Ângela asked again to Mr. A what could the son say more to his father: “Say whatever you want Mr. A! Set your imagination free!” Mr. A got a bit nostalgic, because he reminded of his father: “ I wouldn’t say anything because my father died many years ago, choose another game for me. Sorry, but I can’t.”

And everyone respected that Mr.A’s moment,  that watched the rest of the theatre, but always very lost in thoughts.

Raquel added, doing João’s voice: Now that my old father wants to buy a bicycle to my daughter… Well, but my father is a wise man, he never went to school, he doesn’t know how to write or read, but he has a degree in the school of life. What should I do to my father? He is so sick…

Then Ms.C said that: “João  e Joana talked about the situation, about which would be the best way of taking care of Shepherd Manuel, if it would be hospitalised, if it would go to a retirement home, and they thought that it would be better if he stayed at home, with João an Joana’s help, because he still takes care of his sheeps alone, although he is sick.”

Ms C.B added: “So, Mimi asked to her parents why her grandfather doesn’t remember some things. Is it because he has almost 100 years old? Her father answers that it’s because he is sick and that’s why he doesn’t remember things.”

Raquel: “My grandpa may forget a lot of things but I still like him really much! I love my grandpa! Let’s go see your sheep, because it’s a beautiful day.”

Ms. C: “What a good idea, let’s go!”

And so, our great improvised story ended with our clients satisfied with the story and it’s end (even Mr. A was lively after that.)

At the beginning, when we went to the room with the puppets, our clients were shyer, but then, it all got easier and funnier.

We draw the conclusion that we want to do more Shadow Pupetry, with more characters and objects!

It was really interesting to see, during the story, the daily routine portrayal, many years ago, their relationships with their family, as well their fears after they started to depend of the help of someone to do their daily activities.

As always, thanks to my coworkers!

(Extra thanks to Raquel that borrowed us her projector, and to Joana that filmed and took pictures!)

[PORTUGUÊS]

Playing Seriously

Since the first Play Monday that was made in August that we never gave up on this idea. That Play Monday transforms moments, no one have doubts about that. And our clients ask us when it is going to be the next Play day.

As such, now we consider that Play Monday is part of our activity plan, because all the excuses are good enough to change the routine.

But this Play also helps us to complete our clients monthly clinical evaluation, because during that activity we can focus on diverse aspects:

Joana, occupational therapist tells us that “with Play Monday I focus on objects manipulation,  uni, bilateral and visualmotor coordination, understanding and accomplishing orders, but mostly on occupational engagement and social participation. I believe that the performance in different activities is affected by the activities that we choose”;

Ângela, socio-cultural instructor considers that Play Monday is “like a smile sharing, which gives colour to a grey day. It’s also teamwork, interaction and assistance between everyone, evaluating the desire to participate and build and the well-being with ourselves, because in those moments we are one”;

Raquel, Psychologist reveals that “playing activates brain connections, promoting emotional and psychological well-being and relief/decrease of depressive symptoms and distancing of reality through playing”;

Me, as a Nurse, think that the highlights of Play Monday are the pain relief, like some clients tell me after our Play, and all this because of the endorphins that are generated due to the good mood and the laugh, which is excellent to release tension and relief stress (and not just that).

And so, we play seriously in our Unit! We would like to read and see other Plays, who knows on next Play Monday! That’s why I’m inviting again all the Health Professionals, Clients, Relatives, Care Givers, Friends… In an hospital environment to adopt this blog and sharing your Plays.

Let’s do it?

[PORTUGÊS]

Play Monday (23/11/2015)

Play Monday - Fourth!

Good morning Mr and Ms passengers. Welcome to our Play Monday. This is a “playing” flight with an indeterminate amount of time.  For your own confort and leisure, please put your availability and good mood upon your
skin!

During the take-off preparations please smile, thighten the glow in your eyes and put your thoughts in a joy position.

Thank you and have a nice trip!

And here we go straight to Play without leaving our recreation room.  Today, we are flying together on a paper plane! Weightless, fast and colourful!

“I missed paper planes” said Ms. C.B

The biggest doubt was which colour to choose. Ms. C, just like in the Baloon play chose the green plane which has the same colour of her football club. The other clients chose their planes according to their preferences.

Mr. J. said that he didn’t remind how “that” worked, so Joana gave a micro piloting class and everything went well.

Let’s do a race?

Joana is in the start line with the race flag in position.

The “arm-engine” is in maximum rotations. In 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … Go! And our airspace got full of colours and the landing strip was colourful as well! But we are just warming up and making our planes even more perfect. Ms. M wasn’t satisfied with her dark-blue plane flight because she wanted a longer flight. We have to try again. 

Me and Joana caught the planes that were on the floor and we

gave them to our pilots. Another race? “Yes” said in unison! Let’s go|

Everything was set again, with arms really high and 4 … 3 … 1! What? Looks like Joana has a very funny race flag that likes to test everyone’s attention. 

“Be careful with the fake starts!” said Ms. C. B and everyone laughed a lot.

Ok, now is the time! Let’s go! In 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … Start! And Mr. A’s plane made a long flight almost to the other side of the room. We have a specialist pilot here! “It’s because the plane is red” he justifies. I wonder if there’s a colour there is more light and flying than the others?

And so on we flew for a minutes, in every race a new winner, a new rebel plane and a lot of laughs and good mood.

In the end, everyone kept their planes and Ms. C.B said that it was going to give it to her granddaughter.

Play Monday is fun time guarantied.
Thanks for choosing our company for this trip. Have a nice day and see you next time!

[PORTUGUÊS]

#PlayMonday (19/10/2015)

Third Play Monday!

This month’s Play Monday was really light. Lighter than a balloon! But not just one, many of them!

This time the words played right away:  “Let’s go to another Play Monday?” And before we started, we remembered what we did on “Second Play Monday”, the games, the simple plays, the good mood and… we showed a bag full of empty balloons.

“Today we’re going to have a balloon game”. After a lot of breaths (I was really rusty in the task of filling balloons) and with the help of my coworkers Ângela and Raquel, and a special help from Mr. A, we filled a lot of balloons with many colors. “What now? We are going to be on a circle so we can see each other better.” each one with their own balloons (Ms. C. was really happy for having a green balloon, “it’s the same color of my football club” she said).

To start, we did an individual balance exercise, just to warm up. Raquel noticed that Mr M. had a good balance with his balloon on his head, and Mr. J.C. too, Ms. C as well… All of our clients are good players!

That’s when Ângela had an idea, write or drawing what means “Playing” for every person. Our balloons were much prettier than before.

The “Playing” in a word-balloon-drawing wrote by each one:

Ms. M.: “Yo-yo”

Ms. C.B.: “Youth”

Ms. A.: “Happiness”

Ms. I.: “Happiness and Youth”

Mr. J.C.: “Playing without fighting”

Ms. C.: “Rope jumping”

Mr. A.: “Fishing”

Ms. E.: “Smiling”

Mr. M.: “Spinning top”

Ms. F.: “Having fun”

Mr. J.R.: “Two oxes and a sproket” 

(Here I had to ask to Mr. J.R. what was that, in other words, why that means “Playing” for him. Then he explained: “When I was a child, they carved two oxes and a sprocket made of cork for me to play, and this was my favorite toy. My toys were made of wood or cork and this one represented my parents job on the fields”)

What I liked the most in this play was noticing that the clients, like “a lamp that lights up”, started to play games from their childhood, to their memories and the meaning that those had to them. So, from the nowhere (correction: from everything!) they started talking enthusiastically about games they made with their friends. Then occurred the game “Linda Falua”, the “rubber band game”, the marbles, leapfrog, the tissue game… and it was so good our Play Monday, there, in that moment, with the light of that lamp on top of us. I think it was a meet between two different times that weren’t that far.

After this playful warm up, we moved to our main game which was throwing the balloons between everyone in the group without letting that the balloons fell on the floor. And it was a colorful dance of balloons, each one would go higher than the other and Ângela and Raquel were in the middle of the circle trying to catch those balloons that wanted to escape. It’s impossible not to smile with this game. And yes, let the pain go away! At least, the pain was so light as the balloons weight.

It’s also important to say, this time we had the collaboration of some client’s relatives in our Play Monday, to be more specific, Mr. J.C.’s granddaughter and Ms. C.B.’s husband, that when they arrived to visit their relatives, they were surprised with the idea and they also played! It were three generations with the hands on the balloons!

That was when Ms. C.B. , during our game, started to sing a song. She arranged the song to our game and it was like this:

 “Oh balão,

E oh lindo balão,

Casadinho sim,

Solteirinho não.

Oh balão,

E oh lindo balão,

Amor da minh’ alma,

Dá-me a tua mão.

Eu tenho um balão correndo,

À tua porta parou.

Quando o balão te quer bem,

Que fará quem o jogou!

Oh balão,

E oh lindo balão,

Casadinho sim,

Solteirinho não.

Oh balão,

E oh lindo balão,

Amor da minh’ alma,

Dá-me a tua mão!”

And it was many rounds of balloons! And music! And fun! And good mood! And memories! And laughs! And…

 Ah! We also had a little Play Monday in the rooms (infirmaries), because the balloon game was in the recreation room. Here it was even lighter (not going to tell all the steps because I think the photo explains it all). I just know that from today on, I’m going to start having a bottle of soap bubbles in my pocket.

And again, thanks to my coworkers!

[PORTUGUÊS]