![[For Seniors] Fun Autumn Activities: Recreation Games](https://i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/R9E6fX_D7vs/maxresdefault.webp)
[For Seniors] Fun Autumn Activities: Recreation Games
We’d like to introduce autumn-themed activities and recreation games for seniors.
Autumn brings pleasant weather that makes you want to go out.
It’s great if you can just decide, “Alright, let’s go!” and head out, but some people find it difficult to go out as they’d like.
So in this article, we’ll introduce enjoyable recreation games you can play indoors.
There are plenty of crafts and team-competition games that are useful in settings like day service centers, so please make good use of them.
Let’s play and feel the autumn season!
[For Seniors] Fun Autumn Activities: Recreation Games (1–10)
Autumn Association Game
In an association game, you instantly imagine various things based on a prompt from the quizmaster, which helps train memory and thinking skills.
Themes are endless—like “What comes to mind with autumn?” or “What comes to mind with the color red?”—ranging from seasonal and natural imagery to everyday items.
It’s great because you don’t need any special preparation and you can play anytime, anywhere.
Set rules like “30-second time limit,” turn it into a team buzzer competition, and enjoy different ways to play.
It’s also fun to write down the associated words on a whiteboard for everyone to see.
Halloween Curling
When you hear the word “recreation,” you might picture physical activities, but the great thing about sit-down activities is that people of all ages—from young children to older adults—can enjoy them together.
This is a curling-style game you play on a large table such as a dining table.
What you’ll need: a table with lines drawn for different point values, paper cups, and golf balls.
Place a golf ball inside a paper cup and slide it straight across the tabletop without tipping it over.
Aim for a high score!
Chestnut Picking Game
For anyone who’s gone chestnut gathering, how about a nostalgic, autumn-themed recreation? First, prepare plenty of plastic bottle caps with pictures of chestnuts and acorns attached.
Using small tongs and baskets you can buy at a dollar store, compete to see how many chestnuts you can collect within a time limit.
Overcome obstacles like some caps being face down or confusing acorns mixed in, and try to gather as many chestnuts as you can.
You can enjoy it in different formats, such as competing by table or against the person sitting across from you.
Ring Relay
How about this when you’re looking for a team-based recreation activity? First, roll up a newspaper to make a stick.
Participants can make them together, or you can prepare them in advance.
Once the sticks are ready, everyone forms a circle, hooks a ring onto the stick, and passes it to the person next to them.
Teams compete to see how quickly they can pass it all the way around to everyone.
It’s the kind of game that doesn’t go well if you rush—perfect for lively fun.
Ghost-hunting game
When you think of shooting games, you might imagine launching pellets or rubber bands as pretend bullets, which can seem a bit dangerous—but with an air cannon, it’s safe.
You can easily make one using a plastic bottle and a balloon, so it’s fun right from the crafting stage! For the targets, let’s make ghost targets in the spirit of Halloween, an autumn event, and have fun shooting at them.
Using the air cannon is simple: just pull back the balloon attached to the plastic bottle.
It requires just the right amount of force, making it great for fine motor practice!
Boccia with beanbags
Let’s try playing “Boccia,” a parasport that’s been getting lots of attention, using simple beanbags! In boccia, teams compete to see how close they can get their balls to a white target ball called the jack.
In official play there are psychological tactics, like moving the white ball itself, but here we’ll keep it simple with just the rule of getting your ball as close as possible.
Use beanbags in about three colors and throw or roll them toward a target object that stands in for the white ball.
You can even play while seated, so it’s nice and easy.
After everyone has thrown all their beanbags, measure how far each one ended up from the target, and declare as the winner the person who placed one closest to the target or got the most beanbags close to it.
Dish guessing game
Speaking of autumn, it’s definitely the season of hearty appetites! Let’s fire up your brain with a brain-training quiz perfect for this tasty time of year—and work up an appetite while we’re at it! The quiz is simple: guess the dish you can make from a combination of ingredients.
For example, we might ask what dish uses carrots, potatoes, onions, beef, and spices.
Your task is to name the dish those ingredients point to.
If you’ve been cooking for your family for years, you might find it easy, but if you’ve always left the cooking to someone else, you might struggle a bit.
Either way, the act of thinking about what you can make is great stimulation for your brain.