November is the middle of football season and International Games Month, so there are great opportunities for having fun and building community this month. November is also traditionally a time to gather together and think about what we are grateful for as we honor our veterans and prepare for Thanksgiving.
Gratitude Cornucopia
Set up a table for the month of November to celebrate gratitude. Put out pencils, small pieces of paper (in fall colors if you can), and a cornucopia, vase, or basket to hold the papers once finished. Create a sign with instructions on how to fill the cornucopia with gratitude:
- Write one thing you are grateful for on a piece of paper.
- Fold it in half and place it in the container.
Encourage staff, your community, and family members visiting your community to add something they are grateful for. Set up a “Gratefulness Hour” at the end of each week and read each of the submissions from your community. Ask attendees if there is anything else they were grateful for this week that they wish to share aloud.
Celebrate National Authors’ Day: November 1
Celebrate National Authors’ Day by learning about bestselling mystery author Dame Agatha Christie. Learn about her life (her official website has a lot of great information and photos: About Agatha Christie – Official Website) and put together a presentation about her. You can listen to excerpts from one of her novels or stream a movie based on one of her most famous murder mysteries, for example, Murder on the Orient Express.
Celebrate Sally Field’s Birthday: November 6
Sally Field portrayed Sister Bertrille in The Flying Nun. Stream an episode or two (free on Tubi) and discuss your community’s thoughts about the show.
- Sister Bertrille frequently bends or breaks convent rules with good intentions. Is her brand of rule-breaking an expression of true compassion, or is it a form of youthful rebellion against institutional order?
- How does the convent balance its commitment to poverty and charity with the chaotic, often material problems they get pulled into by the local townspeople?
- Compare Sister Bertrille to Maria (from The Sound of Music) or the sisters from Sister Act. Which representation feels closest to nuns today? What is different about portrayals of nuns on screen versus in real life?
Reminisce: Do your group members have any memories of nuns they wish to share? Can they imagine the nuns they’ve known getting into situations like the ones in the show?
Thank Our Country’s Heroes
November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States. Thank those who have served our country with a special ceremony. Invite family members of your community’s veterans to come for a ceremony on or near Veterans Day. Plan to have some light refreshments for the community to share after the ceremony, like cookies, cake, lemonade, and tea.
Ask your community members who served in one of our military branches to provide a photo of themselves in uniform. Set the photos in a prominent place for Veterans Day (return the photos after the ceremony). Ask each veteran to share their proudest moment from their time serving in the military.
Open with a thank-you for their service from one of the directors of your community. See if a local high school ROTC group can come to present the colors as part of the ceremony, and then follow with everyone reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Sing or play the anthems of the military branches and have veterans stand during their branch’s anthem:
- U.S. Army: “The Army Goes Rolling Along”
- U.S. Marine Corps: “The Marines’ Hymn”
- U.S. Navy: “Anchors Aweigh”
- U.S. Air Force: “The U.S. Air Force”
- U.S. Space Force: “Semper Supra”
- U.S. Coast Guard: “Semper Paratus”
Have a Gratefulness Conversation
Plan a group activity to encourage your community to talk about gratefulness. Here are some discussion questions to engage your community:
- Who is one person who makes your life better, and how?
- Name someone who helped you recently. How did that make you feel?
- Name something about the community that you are thankful for, and why.
- Who is grateful for you, and why?
5 Senses Walk
When weather permits (so likely plan for earlier in November), hold a 5 Senses Walk: Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, Taste. Plan your route and divide it into 4 equal sections.
- In the first section, have your community use sight: look for things they find interesting, or pick a color and have everyone look for things in that color along the walk.
- In the second section, have your community listen to the sounds outside: animals, gardening, crunchy leaves, etc.
- For the third section, have your community focus on the smells outside: cut grass, dry leaves, wet dirt.
- In the fourth section, have your community focus on how things outdoors feel to the touch. Pick up a leaf: is it soft or crunchy? Brush a hand along a bush: are there leaves or just branches?
- At the end of your walk, have some beverages for your community to taste: water, coffee, and tea. How do they taste? Bitter or sweet? Hot or cold?
Which sense did each person connect with most during the walk? What was the most memorable thing they sensed?
Mason Jar Tea Light Craft
Supplies: 1 Mason jar and 1 electric tea light per person, ribbons in fall colors to tie at the rim, glue or Mod Podge, paintbrushes for the glue, a mix of fall leaves (artificial or real are fine, or you can use fall-colored tissue paper squares), and a permanent marker.
Directions: Write each person’s name on the underside of the jar. Paint glue on an area of the jar or on a leaf, then press the leaf or tissue paper onto the jar. Repeat this process until the jar is covered as each person wishes. Allow the glue to dry. Tie a ribbon around the neck of the jar. Turn on the tea light and place it in the jar.
International Games Month
Set up some different board game options in a community room in your facility for your community to play during this month. Host a few “learn to play” sessions if you choose games your community members are not familiar with. Some games are most fun in a large group. Host a Pictionary, Taboo, or Apples to Apples game for the whole community to have some fun celebrating International Games Month.
Fun, easy-to-learn board game options for this month: Apples to Apples, Bananagrams, checkers, chess, Codenames, Jenga, Monopoly, Scattergories, Sorry!, Scrabble, Taboo, Ticket to Ride, Yahtzee.
Celebrate Guinness World Records Day: November 19
Showcase various world record holders featured on the Guinness World Records Instagram page. Then, hold your community’s own Guinness Community Record Competition! Get some small trophies or candy for the competitors and winners. Games you can try with your community:
- Penny-stacking competition: See who can stack the tallest tower of pennies before it falls over.
- Staring contest: Who can go the longest without blinking?
- Balancing a spoon on your nose: The person who can balance it the longest wins!
- Get staff members in on the action, especially for some more physical challenges, such as seeing which staff member can remain standing the longest on one leg or which staff member can hold a teddy bear or pillow out in front of them the longest before dropping it.
Thanksgiving Cards or Letters
Some members of your community may not have all of their family nearby. Purchase bulk Thanksgiving cards from an online retailer, as well as some postage stamps and pens. Help your community members send Thanksgiving greetings to their faraway family members to wish them well for the holiday.
Thanksgiving: Guess the Price
Print photos of the common Thanksgiving dishes and foods listed below. Check the prices using a local grocery shopping app. Using The Price Is Right-style rules (closest guess without going over), have your community members guess the price of each of these common Thanksgiving foods: turkey (per pound), stuffing mix, 5 pounds of potatoes (or prepared mashed potatoes), sweet potatoes/yams, gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans, Brussels sprouts, dinner rolls/cornbread, butter, apple pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and whipped cream.
Guess the Tree from the Leaf
The website Footsteps in the Forest has a very good leaf identification page. Create a presentation or display the gallery images from the website and see if your community can identify the trees that grow the various leaves pictured. You may not have time to do all the trees, so here is a recommended selection: White Pine, Red Cedar, Black Walnut, Eastern Redbud, Flowering Dogwood, Southern Magnolia, Mountain Laurel, American Holly, Red Maple, Sugar Maple, Pin Oak, White Oak, Ginkgo, Red Mulberry.
What are your community members’ favorite trees? Do any of these trees grow on or near your community’s property? If so, which ones? Let your community know to keep an eye out for these trees on your next walk or outdoor activity.
SPECIAL NOVEMBER DAYS
All Month
- International Games Month
- National Family Caregivers Month: This year’s theme is “Care Connects Us.”
- National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month
- Native American Heritage Month
Dates
- November 1: National Authors’ Day
- November 1: Daylight Saving Time Ends
- November 2: Día de los Muertos/All Souls’ Day
- November 3: U.S. Election Day
- November 3: National Sandwich Day
- November 6: Sally Field’s 80th Birthday
- November 6: National Nachos Day
- November 8: Diwali (The Hindu Festival of Lights)
- November 10: U.S. Marine Corps Birthday (founded in 1775)
- November 11: Veterans Day
- November 12: Grace Kelly’s Birthday
- November 13: World Kindness Day
- November 14: National Pickle Day
- November 15: America Recycles Day
- November 17: National Homemade Bread Day
- November 18: Mickey Mouse’s Birthday
- November 19: Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address
- November 26: Thanksgiving Day (U.S.)
- November 26: Charles Schulz’s Birthday, creator of Peanuts and Snoopy
- November 27: Native American Heritage Day
- November 29: First Sunday of Advent
- November 29: Louisa May Alcott’s Birthday
- November 30: Mark Twain’s Birthday
NOVEMBER TRIVIA
1. Which of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels features a famous train trapped in a snowdrift?
Answer: Murder on the Orient Express.
2. What is the title of Agatha Christie’s long-running mystery play in London, which is the longest-running West End show in history?
Answer: The Mousetrap.
3. Besides Hercule Poirot, what elderly village spinster did Agatha Christie make famous for solving murders?
Answer: Miss Marple (Jane Marple).
4. Sally Field won an Academy Award for her role in which 1979 union drama movie about a factory worker?
Answer: Norma Rae.
5. Sally Field played the devoted mother of Tom Hanks’ title character in which hit 1994 film?
Answer: Forrest Gump.
6. What is the official motto of the U.S. Marine Corps, meaning “Always Faithful” in Latin?
Answer: Semper Fidelis (often shortened to Semper Fi).
7. Veterans Day was originally established to commemorate the end of which major international conflict?
Answer: World War I (originally celebrated as Armistice Day).
8. Which U.S. President proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863 during the Civil War?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln.
9. Cranberries, a traditional Thanksgiving staple, grow in wet fields that are flooded at harvest time. What are these fields called?
Answer: Bogs (or cranberry bogs).
10. The world-famous Guinness Book of World Records was originally created in the 1950s by the managing director of what type of company?
Answer: A brewery (the Guinness Brewery).
THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” —Cicero
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” —John F. Kennedy
“Just to be alive is a grand thing.” —Agatha Christie
“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” —Henry James
“A Month of Gratitude and Gathering” was written by Emily Wang. Copyright 2026 Emerald Workshop LLC. All rights reserved. Visit us at www.eldersong.com
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