[For Seniors] Handmade Game Ideas You Can Enjoy
Games and recreational activities are essential in senior facilities like day-care centers.
In this article, we introduce handmade games you can enjoy.
Some are made using recycled materials like milk cartons and newspapers, while others use items you can get at 100-yen shops, such as paper cups and disposable chopsticks.
All of them involve thinking, competing, and playing, so they serve as brain training—and best of all, they foster communication.
In team competitions, everyone might get fired up, focus on the game, and end up in a frenzy!
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[For Seniors] Handmade Game Ideas You Can Enjoy (11–20)
Handmade spinning top
Let’s play with spinning tops made from origami.
Are you familiar with tops crafted from origami? There are types that look like flowers with a cross-shaped handle in the center for spinning, and ones where a toothpick is inserted into the center of a square top.
Some folding methods are complex, but older adults who enjoy origami will likely have fun making them.
Let’s spin the origami tops everyone has folded.
Both making the origami and spinning the tops use the fingertips, making it good training.
With the nostalgic game of spinning tops, older adults can relive their childhood and enjoy a pleasant time.
Milk carton shooting game
Let’s make a target-shooting game with a milk carton.
Open the carton, cut it into strips, attach a rubber band, and fold it in half lengthwise to complete the launcher! Draw your favorite pictures on paper, attach them to pieces of the milk carton to make targets, then launch balls made by crumpling aluminum foil and have fun.
It may bring back nostalgic memories for those who enjoyed target-shooting games at festival stalls in the past.
Please be very careful when using box cutters or scissors to avoid injury.
Ehomaki Game
Let’s turn the ehomaki we eat on Setsubun into a game.
Ehomaki are filled with lots of ingredients, right? On top of paper “nori” and “rice,” place ingredients made from long, thin strips of construction paper or fabric.
The key is to prepare colors that look like real ehomaki fillings, such as red and green.
Then, using both hands, roll it up as if you were making a real sushi roll.
When it’s finished, face the lucky direction for that year and take a big bite.
This idea of making ehomaki from paper or fabric seems like something older adults would also enjoy.
It’s a perfect game to do in February.
Strikeout
A handmade strikeout game using cardboard! Combine pieces of cardboard to create a base with nine framed openings, and attach numbers or pictures to the target sections.
If you attach short pieces of straw to the back, it will help prevent the targets from flipping over on their own.
The exhilarating feeling of throwing a ball at a large target is something you can hardly experience at home.
That’s why it’s a perfect activity for places like day-service centers where you can secure a slightly larger space, don’t you think?
Fukuwarai with a rabbit
Let me introduce a rabbit-themed fukuwarai.
The idea is to print a rabbit illustration separated into the face and body, plus the facial parts, then mount them on thin cardboard.
If printing is difficult, you can draw them by hand or buy a coloring sheet of a stylized rabbit character and use that instead.
It’s a very simple fukuwarai, but just changing the orientation of the parts a little creates expressions that make everyone laugh.
Be sure to prepare a correct reference face for comparison!
Giant Fukuwarai
How about enjoying a giant, room-filling Fukuwarai as a recreation activity? You’ll play blindfolded, but since the “face” area is large, people around should guide the player with their voices to help them reach the right spots for the parts.
For older adults, walking blindfolded can be dangerous, so please have a helper stay close to prevent falls.
Because the parts and backing sheet will be quite large, it’s best to make them from lightweight materials, such as tear-resistant paper.
[For Seniors] DIY Game Ideas You Can Enjoy (21–30)
Picture matching cards
It’s a simple card game where the goal is to match the illustrations drawn on the backs of the cards.
To keep players from guessing what’s on the back, make sure the fronts are the same color and shape.
Any illustrations are fine as long as they form pairs, but having a theme—like “Fruits”—adds excitement as players anticipate what kinds of images might be included.
Increasing the number of cards raises the difficulty, so it’s best to adjust the deck size to suit the number of participants.
