[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!
- [For Seniors] Let’s Have Fun While Training the Brain! Handmade Card Game Ideas
- [For Seniors] From Games to Crafts: A Complete Guide to Paper Cup Recreational Activities
- [For Seniors] Enjoy safely even during the COVID-19 pandemic: Seated activities
- [For Seniors] Recommended Handmade Activities! Simple Ideas
- [For Seniors] Simple Tabletop Games: Fun and Engaging Recreational Activities
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- Fun Recreational Activities for Seniors Using Newspapers!
- [For Seniors] Handmade Sugoroku Ideas: Enjoy Exercise and Brain Training While Playing!
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Indoor Activities! Recreations and Games That Engage the Mind and Body
- [For Seniors] Recreational activities and games that let you have fun while strengthening your legs
- [For Seniors] Recreational Activities Enjoyable in Large Groups
[For Seniors] Handmade Game Ideas You Can Enjoy (41–50)
Rolling Curling Game
Curling is a sport where you slide round stones with handles, called “stones,” across the ice.
A few years ago, curling even became a boom in Japan.
Here’s an idea for a casual game that’s like real curling.
Use a paper fan to roll toilet paper tubes and compete for points.
If you paint the toilet paper tubes or decorate them with origami paper to make them colorful, you can create a game that looks great, too.
It’s easy to make, so it seems like something you could enjoy together with older adults from the crafting stage.
Since it can be played while seated at a table, many seniors are likely to be able to participate.
A game where you flip over plastic bottle caps placed in an egg carton
Place a plastic bottle cap inside an egg carton and flip it using just one chopstick.
If you’re skillful, it can look like you’re cooking takoyaki.
The key is where you insert the chopstick and how you move it.
By rubbing the chopstick against the cap, the pressure makes the cap spin around.
Because you’re using a tool and making fine, precise movements, the stimulation from your hand reaches your brain, so it can also serve as brain training.
If you time it, it becomes competitive, making it enjoyable both individually and in small groups.
Milk Carton Craft: Rock-Paper-Scissors Bingo
In this game, whoever wins rock-paper-scissors places their own marker—made from a milk carton—on a grid, and the first to complete three lines wins.
Because placement depends on the outcome of rock-paper-scissors, you get a different kind of mind game than the usual take-turns format.
Not only is placement strategy important, but figuring out how to win at rock-paper-scissors also becomes a key factor.
If there’s a big skill gap in rock-paper-scissors, it’s a good idea to add handicaps, such as changing the number of lines needed to win.
Ball Drop Game
It’s a ball-drop game you can make by combining items you can get at a home improvement store! All you need are a wire grid, gardening poles, and the balls that go inside.
Stand the wire grid upright in a triangular tube shape, then insert the poles so that they crisscross.
Once you place the balls on top, you’re ready to play! Take turns pulling out the poles; whoever causes the last ball to drop loses.
Some people pull carefully, while others intentionally drop a bunch to put pressure on the next player! Seeing everyone’s strategies peek through might just be one of the most fun parts of this game.
Rehabilitation Sugoroku
Let’s enjoy a game while exercising with a handmade sugoroku packed with rehab elements! On each square, write movement prompts like “10 high knee lifts” or “20 marching steps.” Make the die easy to see and throw by wrapping paper or fabric around a lightweight material like Styrofoam.
Even those who find it bothersome to do exercises on their own may be more willing to follow sugoroku instructions.
With these kinds of tweaks, even table games can be transformed into activities that combine both brain training and physical exercise!
Fish fishing game
Let me introduce a fishing game that’s fun to make and fun to play, where you can wind the thread like a reel.
Get some chopsticks, a straw, a paper cup, twine, and a magnet, and let’s get started.
Poke one hole on each side near the top of the paper cup.
Cut and attach the straw pieces to create the reel part of the fishing rod.
Make sure it rotates smoothly.
Thread the twine through and check the rotation so that it winds up as you turn it and can reel in the fish.
Secure the magnet firmly so it won’t come off.
See how many fish you can catch and have fun!
A puzzle made of cardboard with 3 to 4 layers
Let’s make a bento box! Here’s an idea for a 3–4 layer puzzle made from cardboard.
Most puzzles usually end up being just 1 or 2 layers, right? This time, let’s stack cardboard to create a 3–4 layer puzzle.
You’ll need materials like cardboard, construction paper, glue, a utility knife, and a permanent marker.
It sounds fun to think about what side dishes to put in the bento as you make it.
Try incorporating cute ideas with a touch of humor!