• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Illustrated Ministry

Progressive Faith Resources for the Church & Home

  • About
  • For Churches
  • For Families
  • Products
    • Complete Catalog
    • Advent
      • An Illustrated Advent for Families: Now in Flesh Appearing
      • Now in Flesh Appearing Advent Devotional
      • Now in Flesh Appearing Advent Worship Liturgy Set
      • Advent Themes ⇨
        • Now in Flesh Appearing
        • God With Us
        • Do Not Be Afraid
        • In Light and Darkness
      • Family Devotionals
      • Coloring Posters
    • Curriculum
      • Mini Revolutions Curriculum (based on the RCL)
      • Compassion Camp
      • The Beatitudes: An Illustrated Curriculum
      • The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum
      • An Illustrated Invitation: Joining God at Work in the World
      • An Illustrated Compassion: Learning to Love Like God
      • An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation
    • Illustrated Worship Resources
      • Fall 2022
      • Summer 2022
      • Spring 2022
      • Winter 2021-2022
    • Lent
      • New for 2023
        An Illustrated Lent for Families: This is My Body
      • New for 2023
        This is My Body Lenten Devotional
      • New for 2023
        This is My Body Lenten Worship Liturgy Set
      • Lent Resources
      • Family Lenten Devotionals
      • Lenten Devotionals
      • Lent & Easter Worship Videos
      • Virtual Easter Pageant
      • Coloring Posters
    • Pentecost
      • Pentecost Coloring Page & Poster
      • Pentecost Coloring Page & Poster – Spanish-language Version
    • Coloring Pages & Posters
    • Illustrated Cards & Stickers
      • Greeting Cards
      • Stickers
      • 1.25″ Pinback Buttons
    • Spanish-Language Resources
  • Blog
    • Coloring Posters
    • Community Spotlight
    • Curriculum
    • Faith Formation
    • Family Ministry
    • Outreach & Mission
    • Product Updates
    • Reviews
    • Sunday School
    • Tutorials
    • Worship
  • FB Group
  • Contact Us
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Licensing Terms
    • Multi-Entity License Request Form
    • Submit Product Ideas
    • We’re Hiring!
  • SHOP
You are here: Home / Archives for Alissa Ellett

Alissa Ellett

Community Spotlight: A Retirement Home Coloring Series

Alissa Ellett Leave a Comment

BONUS CONTENT: Do you like this post? Want to get some bonus content NOT included in this post? This week’s PDF includes our list of the 5 Takeaways from Lutheran Living’s experience of using our coloring posters with their retirement community. If you’re interested in this exclusive, bonus content, click here to get access to download the PDF

Hey, all! Recently, we got to catch up with The Rev. Susan Bantz, Chaplain at Lutheran Living Senior Campus, a retirement community in Iowa. She gave us the inside scoop on the fun they had doing a retirement home coloring series this past Spring. Read on to find out more about their experience. You may even gather ideas for your own retirement home coloring series or hosting an adult coloring event in your congregation.

Retirement Home Coloring Series


A Conversation with Lutheran Living Senior Campus

Alissa: So, what brought you to Illustrated Ministry?

Susan: I saw the Advent coloring posters mentioned in a post on Facebook and then looked up ICM. Poof! An idea was born: Why couldn’t we do a retirement home coloring series by using the posters during Lent? Many of our residents color independently. This seemed like a great opportunity to do that in community as one of our retirement home activities.

Alissa: How did you use your coloring posters?

Susan: Our goal was to finish our retirement home coloring series by Lent. That way, we’d display the posters on the chapel walls during worship. First, we held a couple adult coloring workshops. Then, we began bringing the posters out to fill time before Bingo every week. We also had them available when planned activities were cancelled. And slow Sunday afternoons were a great time to work on them, too. Additionally, we left them out in the chapel for anyone who wanted to color in a quiet, contemplative space.

Alissa: What was the make-up of the group that used the materials?

Susan: Most of those involved in our retirement home coloring series were residents. We also had staff, family members, and other visitors who lent a hand to the project, even just for a minute or two! It was a good bonding experience for staff and residents, especially. Even people who professed to not like coloring would often do a little corner.

Adult Coloring
Adults Coloring Posters
Older Man Coloring a Poster
Retirement Coloring Posters

Feedback and Reflection

Alissa: What was the feedback you received?

Susan: The residents loved having a retirement home coloring series! Many of them color in their rooms on their own already. So, this experience showed them that coloring can be a social activity as well. Our Activities Department is now offering regular adult coloring events for the residents!

Alissa: What was surprising about the experience?

Susan: Seeing how into the whole adult coloring thing so many people got! During the weeks of our retirement home coloring series, quite a few declared that certain sections were “theirs.” They made it clear that everyone else should keep their colored pencils elsewhere. It became a lesson in understanding that not everyone’s vision is the same, but somehow it all comes out right in the end when we compromise.

Alissa: How did it rate when compared with other activities you’ve done?

Susan: Many of our activities are more passive. But adult coloring was something almost everyone could do: those with dementia, those in wheelchairs, those who struggle with motor skills. Nothing had to be perfect—it just had to be theirs. And they really embraced it!

BONUS CONTENT: Download your exclusive bonus content here.

Adult Coloring Fosters Stories & Conversations

Alissa: Were there any fun stories?

Susan: So many! Early on, we were using all kinds of bright colors and discovered later that we’d made Jesus’ hair a rainbow. And the fact that Jesus’ face ended up a different color on each poster surprised us, too. There was so much laughter and camaraderie shared around those tables. People often sat next to others they didn’t know as well, which formed new connections. The whole thing really built community and helped draw people out of their shells. (Read more on deepening relationships and creativity through coloring here!)

Adult Coloring Posters
Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters
Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters

Alissa: What kinds of conversations arose out of the activity?

Susan: We had a surprising number of theological discussions. Though, there was no formal instruction connected with the actual coloring. People talked about which verses or words resonated with them and how they tried to reflect that with their color choices. More formally, we used the posters during our Lenten midweek worship services. We hold those services in a dialogue format, so, we had the chance to discuss each of the posters in greater depth in a worshipful and contemplative context. After each service, we hung up the two we discussed. I invited people to come back at other times to contemplate the message of each station. (Learn an easy way to hang your completed posters here!)

Alissa: Would you recommend ICM coloring posters to other organizations like yours?

Susan: Absolutely! Their large size made coloring them a dream, especially for those with limited motor skills, eyesight issues, and other limitations. We are now in the process of trimming and laminating the posters so that we can use them in future years.

Alissa: What would you tell others considering ICM’s coloring posters for a retirement home coloring series?

Susan: Just do it! It doesn’t take much planning or prep. Be sure to have the supplies you want to use readily available. And the rewards your residents will get are totally worth it.

Adult Coloring Posters
Adult Coloring Posters
Adult Coloring Posters
Adult Coloring Posters
Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters
Adult Coloring Posters
Adult Coloring Posters
Adult Coloring Posters

Thanks a bunch, Susan! It’s always fun for all of us at ICM to hear how our materials are helping community and creativity thrive. To many more good memories and reflections, colored pencils in hand, for you all at Lutheran Living and the rest of us, too!

The folks at Lutheran Living were using our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters. If you’d like to take a look at all of our coloring posters (and coloring sheets) that we have available, you can find them here.

Have you used our coloring posters in a retirement/nursing home setting? Share your story below!

BONUS CONTENT: Did you like this post? Want to get some bonus content NOT included in this post? This week’s PDF includes our list of the 5 Takeaways from Lutheran Living’s experience of using our coloring posters with their retirement community. If you’re interested in this exclusive, bonus content, click here to get access to download the PDF

Coloring Invites Creativity, Deepens Relationships and Much More…

Alissa Ellett 1 Comment

Coloring
One of our Illustrated Earth Coloring Sheets • Courtesy of Ekklesia Church at Raleigh

Note from Adam: I’m excited to introduce you all to Alissa Ellett, who wrote the blog post below. Alissa has written for ICM (for An Illustrated Summer, our Illustrated Earth curriculum and is currently working on our Illustrated Children’s Moments) and is going to be helping us get our blog to be more consistently providing you with interesting and helpful posts, starting off with some reflecting about coloring.

Alissa EllettAlissa has worked in ministry for fifteen years, serving in churches across California. She earned her master’s in Christian education from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and is currently serving as the children’s and youth director at University Presbyterian Church in Fresno, California, where she lives with her husband, James, and daughter, June. What gets her going? Live music, spicy Thai food, cream Earl Grey tea, travel, and creating beauty and depth, no matter the medium, especially if it elicits uncovering one’s place in God’s ecology.


Here at Illustrated Children’s Ministry, we’re passionate about coloring. Does it involve putting crayon, pen, pastel, marker, colored pencil to paper? Tell us where and when, and we’re in! As a kid, I loved coloring. My dad’s an artist, and he set up a coloring table for me in family room. For a time, it was exclusively covered with Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtle renderings. My portfolio has since broadened, but coloring came to be a love of mine at that table. Maybe you’re super fans like we are at ICM. Share your thoughts below if you are! We think coloring is awesome because it…

Encourages fine motor skill development. As we color, placing color strategically on paper, the eye-brain-hand connection is conditioned. This development is then utilized in all the other routine things we do with our hands, skills which increase agency and independence in children’s lives.

Invites creativity. Coloring is that which allows us to place pigment wherever we decide. This can create a space in which children feel free, knowing there is no “right” answer. Color choice, placement and blending are all up to the creative agent, and the possibilities are endless!

Teaches color recognition. Particularly for younger children, learning colors is an imperative skill, one that helps them feel empowered as they can increasingly describe God’s creation. And not only that, but relationships deepen as children can express themselves more fully to those around them.

Relieves stress. When focusing on a project like coloring, anxiety is lowered in the brain and isn’t as easily expressed. As the hand and brain are busied with coloring, negative thoughts are replaced with ideas about the immediate task at hand.

Increases concentration. Coloring activates the frontal lobes in our brain, the portion responsible for focus and concentration. This area of the brain is also that which is responsible for critical thinking.

Curbs boredom. When children become rambunctious, they may need sleep or food. Or they may simply need to be engaged differently or more deeply. Coloring engages children intellectually and physically, staving off dreaded boredom.

Deepens relationships. In a group, negotiating where and how to color encourages conversation and compromise between children. Additionally, children work cooperatively to create beauty, an endeavor that brings people together regardless of age. Sitting together and slowing down opens space to share our lives together. Who knows what conversations will arise around that table as children put pigment to paper? That’s the most exciting part!

What do you think is super awesome about coloring? We’d love to hear and see how coloring has impacted your life and the lives of those around you!

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 27
  • Go to page 28
  • Go to page 29

Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Phone
  • Pinterest
  • TikTok
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 Illustrated Ministry, LLC. All rights reserved. Licensing Terms.