Activ8 summer toolkit

Summer edition

Learn, have fun, and smile through the seasons!

CHALLENGE

Inside this pack..

Your three-month toolkit, jam-packed with ideas to help you keep active and have fun.

Summer BBQ party Page4 Garden Wildlife Week Page 10 A taste of Japan Page 15

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E G N E L L A H C

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Our first Activ8 challenge ran from October to December and we loved seeing so many of you get involved and enjoy the activities! We’re back with a summer toolkit to help you make the most of the better weather to stay active, with fun themed activities for each month.

Remember to send your photos to communications@voyagecare.com CALL OUT MORE PICS whenever you finished an activity

MAY

JUNE

CHALLEN

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JULY

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Your activity pack Kicking off in May, we start our summer of fun with activities encouraging you to enjoy the great outdoors. Whether you make the most of your outdoor space and garden, or are able to get out into the community, we hope you have lots of fun trying new things!

In June, our focus shifts to the environment, with so many ecofriendly activities to help you make practical changes and be kinder to the planet.

Finally, we celebrate all things Olympics in July, with all the tools you need to hold a mini-

ARE YOU UP TO THE

ACTIV8 CHALLENGE?

Rules

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ity or complete an activ • Every time you t find the correct challenge, you mus . on your activity card sticker and log it ress. to track your prog This will help you 8 challenge you Activ the plete • To com free stickers, but feel need to collect 8 of them! to do more (or all!)

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er, tick off the m complete the rs. Enjoy!

e hosted a BQ party

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mer We made sum stacks erry shortcake

n you’ve • Let us know whe ity tracker by completed your activ or scan to ph sending a photogra voyagecare.com! communications@ and see your photos We’d also like to that you’ve taken video to evidence s!) t your consent form forge ’t (Don part.

basis wed on an ongoing • Entries will be revie completed the Activ8 have il and services who a confirmation ema ive rece will challenge . to claim their prize with details of how after ons will be judged share • All other competiti we’ll and s date ng l their respective closi ers through our usua details of the winn channels. communications

J U LY

JUNE

own We held our y ning ceremon Olympic ope

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We had a Prid

mpic ring toss

We played Oly

We made our rs own binocula

O medals

We made ORE t / veg

own frui We grew our

We made our swax wraps

We made bee

We went for

a spring walk

We made a rain

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We made a pond

of very best u all the ave lots of fun! yo h is w We d hope you h luck an

Olympic event – the perfect opportunity to get sporty and combine crafting, baking and exercise.

Remember to track your activities and complete the enclosed card. Make sure you tell communications@ voyagecare.com when you’ve completed the challenge as there are some great prizes on offer again!

We hope you enjoy Activ8 summer! Ready, set... Activ8!

Rules • Every time yo u complete an activity or challenge, you must find the c orrect sticker and log it on your activ ity card.

This will help y ou to track you r progress • To complete the Activ8 cha llenge you need to collect 8 stickers, but feel free to do more (or all!) of them • Let us know w hen you’ve com pleted your Activ8 tra cker by sendin g a photograph o r scan to communicatio ns@voyagecare .com • We’d also like to see your pho tos and video to eviden ce that you’ve taken part (don’t forget y our consent fo rms!)

• Entries will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and servic es who have co mpleted the Activ8 cha llenge will rece ive a confirmation e mail with details of how to claim their prize • All other com petitions will b e judged after their resp ective closing d ates and we’ll share deta ils of the winne rs through our usual comm unications chan nels.

We wish you a ll the very best of luck and hope you have lots of fu n!

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own r u o y Host

! y t r a p BBQ

The sun is shining; the sky is clear, and there is only one thing to do... have a BBQ party!

There is nothing more memorable than making the most of the sunshine outdoors and enjoying mocktails and tasty food.

We’ve put together some top tips to create the perfect summer BBQ.

MAY

Decoration

Keeping everyone entertained is a must! You could do a bean bag toss. Place a large hoop in the centre of the garden, give everyone a bean bag, and the first person to land theirs inside the hoop wins!

Food!

ep re Cut out and ke

cipe

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Summer berry s! shortcake stack

Attention to detail is key when it comes to decorating, but first make sure you cover the basics; paper plates, straws, cutlery and cups. Then you can go wild with your decorating! Why not choose a summer holiday theme and blow up some beach balls?

Crumbly shortbread layered with fresh berries and a creamy filling, what’s not to love?

Ingredients: For the biscuit

✔ 75ml crème fraiche

✔ 80g butter

✔ 100g full fat soft cheese

✔ 45g caster sugar

✔ 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

✔ 200g plain flour

✔ 1/2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

Games

For the filling

✔ Either 100g of strawberries (thinly sliced), blueberries or raspberries

1. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat together until smooth 2. Stir in the flour until the mixture forms a dough.

Wrap in cling film and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes

The most important part of a BBQ is, of course, the food!

Grab some burgers, hot dogs, buns and cobs, and you are there. Why not end your BBQ with some yummy summer berry shortcake stacks?

Check out our tasty recipe!

3. Dust your work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/2 cm. Using a 5cm round cutter, cut out 24 rounds. Place on the baking sheet and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes 4. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees 5. Remove from the freezer and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Transfer to a cooling rack 6. To make the filling, beat together the crème fraiche, soft cheese, vanilla and icing sugar 7. Spoon one teaspoon of the filling on top of eight biscuits, then add some fruit, and top with extra filling. Repeat with another eight, then stack these on top 8. Finally, top with the remaining eight biscuits, dust with icing sugar, and you are done!

z z u ! s e e B B

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abouecto-friendly way to keep food

h s are an rinse clean wit st Beeswax wrap Ju s. g a b c sti using pla reuse them. n a c fresh without u o y d n a … mild soap get buzzy then s t’ e L cold water and ? e n o g in a go at mak Want to have Baking paper issors Sc Hanger Beeswax pellets rush tb in Pa ic 100% cotton fabr

: d e e n ll ’ u Yo

2

1

Line the baking tray with baking paper and place the fabric on top.

If your fabric is one-sided, place the patterned side face down.

Preheat the oven to the lowest setting. Cut the fabric into the size that will fit on your baking tray.

3 5 Using tongs, remove the fabric from the baking tray. It should feel cool to the touch after waving it for a few seconds in the air.

Hang the fabric upto dry.

Once dry, the beeswax is ready to be used!

MAY

Evenly sprinkle the beeswax pellets all over the fabric. Make sure you get pellets near the edges too.

4

Place the tray in the oven for about 4-8 minutes. When the pellets melt, take the tray out and use a paintbrush to spread the wax over the fabric.

Visit Hive to learn how to spell your name in British sign language!

hive

7

Walk this way

Catch the rain!

Walking is good for the mind and body! May is National Walking Month, and we want you to get some fresh air.

Did you know that one way to keep our environment healthy is to measure and re-use rainwater? All you need to do is build a rain catcher.

Don’t worry if walking long distances isn’t for you. We’ve set up a walking challenge for everyone.

o Cut along the d

tted line

All you need to do is go off on an adventure, whether that’s around your garden or your local park, and tick off when you see the below items on your walk:

1

Empty and wash out a 2-litre bottle. Cut off the top where it begins to curve and set aside

2

Fill the bottom of the bottle with small pebbles and sand, 4.5cm deep

3

Pour water into the bottle, just so it covers the pebbled floor

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5

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Beginning at the top of the pebbles, use a ruler and mark every inch up to the top Take the lid off the bottle and place the bottle inside the other half to create a funnel.

Secure the two parts together with duct tape Place the rain catcher in your garden in an open area. Check your rain catcher every couple of days to measure how much rain your garden is collecting!

Send photos of your rain catcher in action to communications@voyagecare.com

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e d i Prpicnic n w o r u o y t Hos

June is Pride Month; an important mark to raise awareness, promote inclusivity and celebrate the LGBT+ community. In its honour, why not host your own pride picnic?

For a long time, the rainbow has been a symbol for Pride, so we’ve come up with lots of rainbow-themed picnic ideas for you…

Decorations for the picnic Pride paper plate bunting Before your picnic, it’s time to get your craft head on and create some decorations.

This simple paper plate bunting will look fabulous in the sunshine.

1

Cut a paper plate in half and then cut a small semi-circle in the middle of the straight edge to create an arch. You’ll then be ready to make two rainbows

2

Paint or colour in the stripes of the rainbow on the plate

3

Glue some cotton wool to the bottom left and right corners of the plate.

Psssttt – these are your clouds!

Something to eat You can’t have a picnic without some yummy treats.

Here’s a couple of rainbow-themed snack ideas. Green peppers

Pride pizza

There’s lots of different toppings that you can put on your pizza to create a rainbow, can you find something for each colour?

JUNE

Carrot

Tomato

Sweetcorn

Red onion

Once you’ve found something for each colour, all you need to do is layer them on the pizza base to create a stripe. Pop in the oven and you’ll be able to serve your very own rainbow pizza!

Remember to send us pictures of you celebrating Pride! We’d love to share them across our channels. Email communications@voyagecare.com

9 You can connect your rainbows together with some string to create some bunting, or you could glue some sticks to the back and wave them as flags.

Game ideas Rainbow coin toss What is the game? Each colour of the rainbow is worth a different number of points. Stand a few metres back and try and throw a coin into one of the rainbow tubes to get as many points as possible.

What you will need 1 2

For this game, you’ll need to make sure that you keep all your kitchen and toilet roll tubes leading up to your picnic

3

A few days before, you’ll need to paint them rainbow colours. Decide beforehand what colours you want to be worth the most points. It’s always a good idea to have less of the highest scoring colours as it makes it harder

Rainbow cookies What you will need ✔ 75g soft butter ✔ 125g caster sugar ✔ 1 tbsp golden syrup ✔ 125g self-raising flour ✔ 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda ✔ 100g M&Ms or Smarties

When they are all dry, you’re ready to set the game up. You can position them wherever you’d like and it’s time to play – how many points can you get?

Instructions 1. To start, pop your oven on at 180°c and then use some butter to grease your tin / baking paper 2. Cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy 3. Warm the golden syrup a little (until it’s runny), then add to the butter mixture 4. Add your M&Ms / Smarties to the mix, then sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix it all up!

5. Spoon out a heaped teaspoon amount and roll into a small ball before placing onto your pre-greased baking tray.

Repeat with the rest of the mixture – you should get around 8-10 cookies 6. Bake for around 10 minutes or until golden brown, leave to cool and serve at your picnic – yummy!

10

e f i l d l Wi atch

The first week of June is Garden Wildlife Week, so it’s the perfect excuse to get in the garden!

w

When it comes to looking for wildlife in the garden you may need a helping hand. Why not make a pair of binoculars to help you?

Instructions 1

What you will need Two toilet roll tubes String Paint or felt tips Glue Hole punch

JUNE

Decorate your toilet roll tubes, you can paint or colour them however you like. Why not take inspiration from the garden by drawing butterflies and flowers?

2

Punch a hole at the side of each tube, about 1/3 of the way down

3

Glue the tubes together so that the holes are facing the outside – they may need to be left overnight to set

4

5

Thread the string through one of the holes from the outside. Once it’s through the tube tie a knot big enough that it won’t fall through the hole. Repeat on the other side It’s time to go wildlife detecting with your new binoculars!

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Green Fingers!

There’s lots you can be doing in the summer months to look after the planet and your wellbeing. Here are some activities to get you outside that are eco-friendly and great for your mental health.

Strawberries are easy to grow in the garden of your service and will bring you lots of delicious treats for summer.

1

Choose the right spot – you need somewhere with lots of daylight

Here are some top tips on how to look after them.

1

Feed your strawberry plants with tomato fertiliser – this will help them grow

2

When you start to see the strawberries appear, put some straw around the plants, it keeps the slugs and snails from eating them

3

Choose ‘ever bearing’ strawberries to plant.

It means they will keep growing right through until autumn, so lots more fruit to enjoy!

2

3

Find a watertight container – is there anything you can upcycle, like an old washing-up bowl or takeaway container?

If you’re able to dig a hole for your container put it in the ground. If not, then you can just have it sitting on top

Making a mini pond!

You might not have room for a big pond in your garden, but even a mini pond can be a great home for animals like frogs and dragonflies. Here’s how to make one…

5

You can then add pond plants, logs or stones to give the creatures lots to climb in and out of

Top Tip:

4

Next you need to add a layer of rocks or gravel, before filling your pond with 5 rainwater Don’t use tap water as it isn’t good for the wildlife.

Create your own rain catcher, like on page 7.

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How to host your own

c i p m y l O opening ceremony

The Olympics will take place from 23 July – 8 August this year and they are being hosted in Tokyo, Japan.

The opening ceremony marks the beginning of the Olympics and there’s no other party quite like it!

Here are some tips on how you can bring the Olympics to you, and host your own opening ceremony.

Hold a mini sports day Have an egg and spoon race, bean bag throwing competition, hula hoop challenge or maybe even a mini football shoot out!

Bring out the healthy competition and have fun with it, you could even crown the winner with a medal that you’ve made yourself.

Have Olympic-themed snacks As Japan are the hosts this year, why not try some sushi or make your own edible medals made out of OREOs? You can find these recipes on the next page.

JULY

13 Send pictures and videos of your opening ceremony to

communications@voyagecare.com

Decorate with flags

Flags are an important part of the opening ceremony because they represent each country and show that those people belong to a community.

We’ve created some outlines on Hive that you can download and colour in to hang up at your ceremony.

hive

Olympic ring toss Bring the celebrations to life and create your own ring toss game, inspired by the colours of the Olympic rings!

What

you

ed will ne

Method

✔ Five paper plates ✔ Long cardboard tube (from cling film or ✔ Paint kitchen towel) ✔ Scissors ✔ Sellotape

1. Cut out the centre of the paper plates to use as your rings 2. Paint your rings using the Olympic colours – red, blue, green, yellow and black 3. Cut slits in the bottom of the cardboard tube and flatten the ends so that you can tape this to the back of a paper plate so that it can stand up 4. Take it in turns to throw your five rings and see who can get the most rings on the tube!

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c i p m y l MEDAL O

OREO

It wouldn’t be the Olympics without the medals, but what makes them even better is that they’re edible! Win your medal and enjoy a tasty treat at the same time.

Ingredients: ✔ OREOs (golden OREOs if you can get them)

✔ Fruit winders

Method: 1. Unwind the fruit winders and measure out the desired length so that it fits over your head 2. Twist the OREOs apart (or use a knife) and place the ends of the fruit winder on the icing and press in gently 3. Replace the top of the OREO and press firmly, but evenly, over the whole cookie 4. Celebrate, eat and enjoy!

JULY

Send pictures and videos of your OREO Olympic Medal to

communications@voyagecare.com

We have some other Olympic-themed recipes for you to try so head over to Hive to see what else you can make!

hive

Japan

15

A TASTE OF

Sushi is a traditional Japanese dish that is popular across the world! If you’ve never tried it then have a go following this simple recipe…

Ingredients

✔ 1 1/2 cups sushi rice

(normal rice can be used)

✔ Whole cucumber, cut into matchsticks

✔ 2 tbsps rice wine vinegar

✔ 1 medium avocado, thinly sliced

✔ 1 tbsp caster sugar

✔ 1 medium carrot, grated

✔ Nori sheets

✔ Salt-reduced soy sauce, to serve

✔ 2 tbsps whole-egg mayonnaise

Method 1 2

3

Rinse and drain rice three times or until water runs clear. Place in a sieve over a bowl. Leave it to one side for 10 minutes to drain Place the rice and 1 1/2 cups of cold water in a saucepan over medium heat and cover. Bring the rice to the boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer while covered for 12 minutes, or until water has absorbed. Remove from heat and leave it to stand, covered, for 10 minutes Place the vinegar and sugar in a microwave-safe jug and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir to dissolve the sugar

Top Tip:

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6

Transfer the rice into a large ceramic dish. Use a spatula to stir and break up lumps. Slowly add the vinegar mixture to the rice and keep turning it until the rice has cooled Place one nori sheet, shiny side down on a tea towel (or sushi mat). Using damp fingers, spread 3/4 cup of rice over the nori sheet, leaving a 2cm strip at one short end. Spread two teaspoons of mayonnaise over the centre of the rice. Place some of the cucumber, avocado and carrot over the mayonnaise Using the tea towel, roll up firmly to form a roll and cut into six slices.

Repeat with remaining nori sheets, rice, mayonnaise, cucumber, avocado and carrot to make 24 pieces. Serve with soy sauce

You don’t have to use the veg in this recipe, you can include what you want!

Nominations open 1 June!

Start your nomination by visiting vea.awardsplatform.com

Voyage Excellence Awards 2021

It’s almost time to nominate your shining stars!

We’re preparing for a bigger and better Voyage Excellence Awards this year, are you ready to nominate?

From 1-30 June, nominations will be open for this year’s Voyage Excellence Awards (VEAs) on 21 October. It’s time to start thinking about who you can nominate and how to make your entries stand out.

We had to make some changes last year which meant that we had to take the VEAs virtual, but we are coming back this year fiercer than ever before and we’re so excited to celebrate with you in person for a night you will remember.

A new handy guide will be available soon on the VEA area on Hive that will give you hints and tips from our judges on how to make each nomination shine, so keep your eyes peeled.

We can’t wait to hear all the inspiring stories about our amazing staff, and you never know, it could be you on that stage in October.

Good luck to each and every one of you!

If you have any questions about this year’s Voyage Excellence Awards, email communications@voyagecare.com