Luau Café—A café filled with leis, pink flamingos, and ukulele music
The Luau Café contains activities for a large or small group of people with dementia or Alzheimer's at a memory cafe, in an instutional setting, or at home with a small or large family consisting of people of all ages.
Special Guest:
Lena Syed, the daughter of one of our GLSS coworkers came to the café and played a few songs on the ukulele for our guests. You can see if you can find someone who would be willing to play live at your cafe.
Activity Supplies:
- Plastic Flamingos and buckets with sand to stand them in (At Amazon: Bright Pink Flamingo Yard Ornament (2pack))
- plastic rings for ring toss (too small for most people) (At Amazon: Cosmos 10 pcs Medium Size Plastic Toss Rings for Speed and Agility Practice Games)
- larger plastic rings for ring toss (makes the game easier) (At Amazon: Crystallove 12pcs Plastic Random Color Toss Rings for Carnival Garden Backyard Outdoor Games (9.4 Inch))
- pack of Hawaiian leis (At Amazon: Kangaroo Jumbo Party Bag ~ Tropical Hawaiian Luau Lei Styles (25 ct) ~ Party Favors )
- plastic fish bowl (At Amazon: Drum Fish Bowl Size: 1 Quart )
- small fish net (At Amazon: Penn Plax Aquarium Fish Net - Aqua Blue Quick Catch Mesh Wire Net Safe for All Fish - 4 Inches )
- drink umbrellas (At Amazon: Cocktail Parasol Drink Umbrellas)
- paper pineapple table toppers (At Amazon: Beistle 55105-12 2-Pack Packaged Tissue Pineapples, 12-Inch)
- wooden hibiscus flowers (At Amazon: Hibiscus Flower Shape Wooden Craft Cut Outs 3" inch 6 Pieces)
- wooden anchors (At Amazon: Factory Direct Craft® Group of 24 Unfinished Wooden Anchor Cutouts for Kids Crafts, Creating and Embellishing)
- paint and paintbrushes
- inflatable beach ball
- seashells & starfish
- Luau bingo cards(downloadable pdf document that you can print )
Other supplies:
- Table Supplies
- Themed napkins and tablecloth
- Brown craft paper to cover tables (At Amazon: Kraft Paper Jumbo Roll - 30" x 1200" (100ft))
Snacks:
We usually incorporate a themed snack whenever it is possible or if it applies.
This month featured:
- Goldfish crackers ( At Amazon: Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers, Colors, 30 Oz Carton )
- Gummy sharks ( At Amazon: Gummy Blue Sharks)
- Swedish Fish { Amazon: Swedish Fish Gummy Candy)
- Fruit kabobs
- Hibiscus tea
We also had our regular spread which consists of:
- Coffee, tea and water
- Crackers, cheese, fruit, pastry
Consider the time of your café, and any safety and dietary restrictions that may apply to your particular group.
Music Playlists:
This month we featured background music that had a beach theme. The song titles are available in this Youtube Playlist.
Participation:
Invite your guests to wear the leis provided. If you have enough time and have a regular guest list, you can ask them to wear a Hawaiian shirt or grass skirt if they have one.
Structure:
Lena Syed, the daughter of one of our GLSS coworkers started the event and played a few songs on the ukulele for our guests. A crowd favorite was when she played “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”
Next we brought out the craft supplies we purchased from Michaels but they are also available through Amazon if you don't have a craft store close by. They were small wooden anchors and hibiscus flowers. Each guest was allowed to choose an anchor or a flower to paint it.
Following the craft we got everyone on their feet to play Flamingo Ring Toss. For this game we placed two plastic flamingos in white plastic buckets filled with sand. The sand helped the flamingos to stand upright, and we placed purple cellophane around the buckets so they looked more festive. We set a line on the floor and gave each person three rings to try their luck of landing it around the flamingo’s head. I would recommend using larger rings than medium. The size we purchased off Amazon was a bit small and made the game more challenging. We included a larger size as well in the supply list. Despite the difficulty, there were a lot of laughs and we had fun.
We finished the day with Hawaii Bingo. This board featured all different Hawaii and beach related pictures. The winner received a small prize.
Following Bingo, we gave a reminder of the next month’s theme, said our goodbyes to guests and the staff began clean up.
Downloads:
The Hawaii Bingo boards are made to work as a dementia-friendly activity. The boards have pictures. It also includes large cards that can be held up to help people match an image that is called to an image on the Bingo board. Print on a color printer and bring chips to have the attendees put over the blocks.
