Engaging Today

Activities built from one resident's own life.

Fill in what you know about them, pick the pages you want, and you'll get a printable large-print packet using their hometown, their family's names, their work, and the things they loved.

Start Free Trial — 25 Free Activity Generations Tablet Activities Free Trial: 25 / 25 Generations Remaining

No credit card required. Pure high-contrast B&W printables & interactive tablet games.

COGNICOPIA™ Activity Builder

0.75″ Binder Margin Print PDF

Target Resident

Margaret “Peggy”

Born 1938 · Cedar Falls, IA
Music Teacher (32 yrs)

Daughter: SARAH Primary Care Contact · Visits Sundays

Son: David (Architect)
Favorites: Piano, Roses, Choir

18pt+ Large Print Standard

Words from Margaret’s Life Page 1 of 5

Circle words from family, hometown & music:

S	A	R	A	H	M
F	O	R	T	U	N
A	P	I	A	N	O
M	C	E	D	A	R

Primary Word Bank (Family First):

✓ SARAH (Daughter) ✓ FAMILY ✓ PIANO ✓ CEDAR

Finish the Thought: Peggy’s loving daughter is named SARAH

✓ High-Contrast Vector SVG ✓ 100% Offline Generation ✓ Adult Dignity Standard

Personalized with “SARAH”Daughter & family relationship metadata

What Cognicopia gives you

Quick, personal packetsBuilt from what you know about them: hometown, work and music.
Decades of nostalgiaMusic, films and sayings from the 1940s through the 1980s.
Low vision & toner savingsPure black on white, large print, no color ink needed.
Interactive tablet modeTouch activities made for a tablet, with no wrong answers.
Private on this computerNo resident data leaves the device.

Informed by the research

The activities draw on published research on reminiscence, cognitive stimulation and print for older eyes. The Research Center sums up each study, with its sources and its limits.

Cognicopia is developed and published with dedication to providing dignified, personalized reminiscence and cognitive engagement resources for memory care.

CognicopiaBarronCrafts

Get Full Access Request Corporate Invoice

The packet tool

Make a packet

Nothing you type here is sent anywhere. The packet is made on this computer and saved straight to your downloads. No resident information ever reaches us.

Two residents working through activity pages together

A member of staff helping a resident with a word search

Active resident

No resident selected

Select active resident

New Profile Edit Active Profile

Choose a saved resident to fill in the packet below from their profile, or make a new profile. Profiles stay on this computer.

Instant Soothe opens two quick choices, a care level and a theme, then prints a fresh one-to-three page calming packet made for that moment. It uses the active resident's level and name when one is chosen, and needs no profile when none is.

Enterprise Feature: Plan your entire facility's monthly activities in 1 click.

Data Backup & Restore

All exports/imports occur 100% locally on your machine.

Backup passphrase Full backups are locked with this passphrase (AES-256 encryption); restoring one needs the same passphrase. A forgotten passphrase cannot be recovered.

Or drag a backup file (.cognicopia, .json or .csv) onto this box. A census spreadsheet exported from your EHR works too: a First Name or Resident Name column, with Date of Birth and Room if you have them.

Backup files hold resident details. Keep them in a safe place on this computer or a facility drive, not in email or a shared folder.

Profile Packet Builder

No resident selected

Quick printable pages made from the active resident's profile: their work, hobbies, people and favorite years, in large high-contrast print. Topics to avoid are always left out.

Pages to include Personalized Word SearchWords from their work, hobbies and decades Reminiscence CardsLarge conversation cards, two to a page Tailored Trivia / CompletionFinish the thought, with no wrong answers Custom Cover Sheet“Activity Packet for” with their first name

Download PDF Packet saves a ready-to-print file straight to your Downloads folder, made entirely on this computer. If you use Print instead, choose Save as PDF as the printer and keep the scale at 100% (Default), not "Fit to page".

Today's Packet

Type a first name below

Five pages made fresh each morning from the resident form below: a word search, a conversation page, a puzzle, a bold-line color page, and action prompts for staff. Print it at 8 AM or 2 PM and it is the same packet. Tomorrow's is new.

Type a first name, a birth year and a few interests in the form below, and today's packet appears here.

Add a topic for today (optional, separate with commas)

The PDF is five pages, made entirely on this computer: the word search is always Page 1 and the color page is always Page 4. Page 5 is for staff, so take it off before handing the packet over.

Who is this for?

Only the first name appears on the pages they'll see.

First name

Last name

What they like to be called Leave blank to use their first name

Year of birth Sets the era on the memories page

Words to use for them

How is their vision?

Visual accessibility

High Contrast ModeAlways on: every printed page is pure black on white, with no grey and no hairlines. Extra-Large PrintBoosted text and controls. Simplified LayoutReduced visual clutter.

How much of a challenge?

This sets puzzle size and difficulty. If you're unsure, pick the easier one — a page that's too hard gets abandoned, a page that's too easy still gets finished.

EarlyTier 1 · Mild · GDS 3–4 (FAST 3–4). Still enjoys working at something. MiddleTier 2 · Moderate · GDS 5 (FAST 5). Shorter puzzles, larger letters, fewer words. LateTier 3 · Advanced · GDS 6–7 (FAST 6–7). Very simple pages, mostly conversation.

Sundowning / De-escalation mode For restless, anxious or end-of-day hours. Uses the late level, turns off timed, dense and competing pages, and leaves calm reminiscence pages: one subject, big bold type, nothing to get wrong.

Their life

This is the part that does the work. The more you fill in, the more the packet sounds like them instead of a worksheet.

Town they grew up in

State or country

What they did for work Farmer, schoolteacher, nurse, homemaker, mechanic…

Spouse's first name

Children's first names Separate with commas

Names of pets they had Separate with commas

Things they enjoyed doing Separate with commas

Favorite things Separate with commas

Military branch, if they served

Their faith, if it matters to them

A first language often outlasts a second one. If they grew up speaking something other than English — even if they have not used it in fifty years — put it here.

First language

Another language they spoke

Everything below is optional. It only feeds the “About you” page, so skip it if you are in a hurry or you simply don't know. Use first names rather than maiden names — a maiden name is a common bank security question and this sheet gets carried around a building.

Their mother's first name

School they went to

Their first car

Their first job

Anything to keep off the page Separate with commas. A war, a person, a year — anything that would land badly. Nothing containing these words will be printed.

Brothers and sisters Separate with commas

The people who care for them

First names only. These go on a page they can keep by the bed, with their picture beside each one if you add one, and the names also turn up in the word search so they come around again and again.

Which pages do you want?

Tick as many as you like. Every page you pick is built from the details above and printed in large type.

Any holidays coming up?

Each holiday you tick adds two pages: memories to talk about with the words of the season, then a holiday picture to color. Leave them all blank for an everyday packet.

Major holidays

Smaller occasions

For the cover

Facility name

Month Leave blank for this month

Facility wing or unit Printed at the top of every page, with the date

Save this resident to your own computer so you do not have to type it all again next month. The file stays on your machine — it is never sent anywhere.

Passphrase to lock the file

The saved file is locked with this passphrase (AES-256 encryption), so only someone who knows it can open the file. Keep it somewhere safe: a forgotten passphrase cannot be recovered. Opening a locked file needs the same passphrase here.

Facility Presets

Save a complete configuration on this computer for repeated pilot packets.

Preset name

Saved presets

Your printer must be set to 100% or Actual size. "Fit to page" shrinks the large print.

Packet saved to your downloads.

Privacy, licence and refunds

Resident information never leaves this computer. There is no account, no upload and no database. We hold no Protected Health Information and are not a business associate under HIPAA, so no BAA is needed.

That does not mean HIPAA is satisfied. Your facility remains the covered entity. A resident's name typed into this page is Protected Health Information on your computer, governed by your own policies — the same as any document on your desktop. Saved resident files and printed packets should be handled accordingly, and saved files should not be emailed.

The licence is $39 a month or $349 a year (about 25% less) for one building, unlimited residents and packets. Several buildings are a custom quote. Cancel any time: the licence stays on through the period you paid for and keeps working with no internet for 90 days after it. Printed packets stay yours whatever happens to the licence.

The free trial is 25 packets. The count lives in this browser, so clearing site data or using another computer starts it again. We would rather say so than have you find out.

Refunds: full refund within 30 days of the first payment, no forms.

What we claim: the pages follow published guidance for reminiscence therapy, cognitive stimulation and person-centred dementia care. The packets themselves have not been through a clinical trial, and we do not describe this as evidence-based, clinically proven or as making your program compliant.

Full terms on request: Cognicopia@Outlook.com