Intergenerational events bring young and old together to celebrate the value of all generations

This is the largest and most comprehensive online source of free ideas, tips, and activities for
a Grandparents Day event at any time of the year. It's part of
the Legacy Project's Across Generations program. Nearly a decade of intergenerational work, including contacts with dozens of schools across the country, has resulted in this easy-to-use guide. The Grandparents Day Planning & Activity Guide covers everything from the history of national Grandparents Day to different models for running a successful intergenerational event to over 200 activities, like Then & Now fill-in sheets, Storytelling ideas, Family Tree charts, a Fill-in-the-Blanks Life Story booklet and Generations Scrapbook, Greatest Grandparent/Grandfriend certificates, and much more. Use the quick links in the right-hand column, or continue reading.

Grandparents Day is an officially-recognized national holiday that falls each year on the first Sunday after Labor Day. But increasingly, schools and community groups
are also organizing Grandparents Day (or Intergenerational Day) events at any time during the year as a way to bring together families and build community. Children have an opportunity to show their appreciation and love toward their grandparents (and other special older adult friends), and grandparents feel valued as their role is validated. These events can also be a steppingstone for creating long-term intergenerational programs.

A Grandparents Day event can involve both biological grandparents and "grandfriends" or other older adult mentors. It's a celebration of the value of all generations and the special relationships between them. Your event can include both one-on-one and group activities.

This guide is directed primarily at schools, but the ideas can also be used by community and seniors groups.

Goals and Benefits

As you're planning your Grandparents Day event, keep these goals and benefits in mind:

• Give children an opportunity to show their appreciation and love for their grandparents (or other significant older people in their lives).
  
  
• Give grandparents an opportunity to show their love and caring for their grandchildren.
  
  
• Create "a memory" – an enjoyable, memorable experience for children and their grandparents.
  
  
• Honor older adults and give them validation in their role of grandparent (or "grandfriend" or mentor). Grandparents need to know that they are making a difference in the lives of younger generations.
  
  
• Give older adults a chance to share some of their life experiences with their own grandchildren and other children, and expose children to the information and guidance older people can offer. Older people want to make a difference in the lives of those that follow. A sense of legacy is a basic human need.
  
  
• Make children and adults – especially parents and teachers – aware of the strengths of older people, and confront some of the stereotypes we often hold toward aging and older adulthood.
  
  
• Encourage and support long-term, mutually-supportive, caring intergenerational relationships. Grandparents will appreciate any concrete ideas and resources you provide to help them build and maintain a connection with the young.
  
  
• Give grandparents an opportunity to see firsthand what children are doing in today's schools and meet the teachers. The education system has to be made real and relevant to older adults.
  
  
• Foster community relations and boost family involvement in schools. Children whose families – parents and grandparents – are involved in their education learn better. Schools get much needed additional support.
  
  
• Encourage older adults to fulfill a social role and responsibility by volunteering in schools and acting as mentors, which benefits children and can transform a beleaguered education system.
  
  
• By doing activities leading up to and then after the event, expose children to new ideas from a historical, multigenerational, and life course perspective.
  
  
• Create a community that remembers its history as it builds its future. Young and old can find wisdom and inspiration in each other.

Click here for all the planning information and activities you can use for your Grandparents Day event.