Stanley Wilson Lodge guess the weight of a giant turnip

The people living at Stanley Wilson Lodge Care Home in Essex recently enjoyed some friendly competition by guessing the weight of a large turnip, which was found by the husband of an activities team member!

The turnip was huge, and it reminded one of the activities coordinators of a Russian folklore story called ‘The Enormous Turnip’. The story tells of a Farmer trying to pull an enormous turnip out of the field, which he was unable to do on his own, so he enlisted the help of his wife, his family and various animals, until eventually a mouse at the end of the chain tipped the balance and they were able to pull it out!

The team decided to put on a short play based on this story for the residents, before asking them to guess the weight of it. The story made everyone laugh, amused by the team trying to pull an imaginary turnip out of the carpet!

Then came the serious business of guessing the weight, which both residents and team members had a go at! The turnip was then weighed in both pounds and kilos as everyone had stuck to the measurements they were most familiar with. Winners were chosen both from residents and team members; May was proud to be the closest estimate from the group of residents, and Home Manager, Sue Clayden was named the winner out of the Team members who had guessed. Sue was only 1lb away, and May just 3lbs away; the turnip weighed 3 lbs 9ozs!

Sue and May were presented with their prizes. While neither of them wanted to take away the turnip, it was given to another member of staff to take home and enjoy for tea!