[For Seniors] Enjoyment at Day Care: A Roundup of Games and Recreational Activities
We’ve put together a collection of games and recreational activities that can be enjoyed at day care.
We introduce plenty of options, including simple games you can play while seated, brain-training games, and activities that help with hand and finger rehabilitation—so please use them as a reference.
Some activities require props, but they’re simple to make using recycled materials or items from 100-yen shops, making them easy for older adults to recreate.
Give them a try with everyone during recreation time or in small breaks.
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- For Seniors: Effective Recreation for Preventing Care Needs—Have Fun While Staying Healthy
- [For Seniors] Simple Tabletop Games: Fun and Engaging Recreational Activities
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- [Elderly Day Service] Let’s all have fun! Games and recreational activities
- [For Seniors] Fun! Games and Ideas to Boost Memory
- [For Seniors] Have Fun! A Collection of Group Game Recreation Ideas
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Easy to try. Fun, crowd-pleasing recreation
- [For Seniors] Fun Small-Group Recreation
- [For Seniors] Recreational Activities Enjoyable in Large Groups
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Indoor Activities! Recreations and Games That Engage the Mind and Body
[For Seniors] Enjoying Daycare: A Collection of Games and Recreational Activities (161–170)
10-second continuous Pa-Ta-Ka-La game
This is a variation where participants challenge themselves to see how quickly they can pronounce each character.
Because these characters require large mouth movements, focusing on speed still leads to solid oral motor training.
Have them try each character in order and pay attention to which ones are easier to pronounce—this is also recommended.
The 10-second time setting is a key point: ask them to decide whether to say it all in one breath or to take a breath in the middle.
If you carefully count and report the number of repetitions, it can motivate them to pronounce more, which may lead to even more physical activity.
2-beat 3-beat game
This exercise involves moving your arms in large motions with different rhythms for each hand to thoroughly engage your arm muscles and brain.
Use a 3-beat rhythm for one hand and a 2-beat rhythm for the other, and focus on keeping each movement from slipping out of sync.
Because concentrating on the motions can disrupt your focus on rhythm, it’s also recommended to perform the exercise along with a children’s song or similar music.
Once you get used to it, try switching which arm does which rhythm or adding leg movements—these variations can further stimulate your brain.
Strawberry Picking Game
The bright red fruit, strawberries, are one of the foods that evoke the feeling of spring, and strawberry picking is also an event that brings a sense of the season.
This game is inspired by the scene of strawberry picking, where players compete to collect as many strawberry mascots as possible within a time limit.
A string is stretched out in front of you, and clothespins attached to it hold strawberry motifs.
You remove them and place them into a basket.
It’s a game that values the pinching motion used to remove the strawberries from the clothespins, as well as the speed and concentration needed to aim for a higher count within the time limit.
Onigiri Concentration
This is a concentration/memory game where you flip over onigiri cards and try to match the same fillings.
Since there are many cards for each filling—like “12 umeboshi” and “6 cod roe”—you have a relatively high chance of getting a match even when drawing at random, which is part of the appeal.
While it’s important to engage your memory—such as recalling where cards were—be sure to celebrate correct matches so everyone feels good and stays enthusiastic about the game.
If matching proves difficult, it’s also recommended to reveal all the cards and give players time to memorize their locations.
In the end, compare everyone’s hands and get excited about how each set of fillings came together.
beanbags
Beanbags used in various games can feel subtly different depending on the fabric and the filling.
How about testing whether you can accurately identify them under such varying conditions? Because it’s something we casually use, you might find yourself picturing it but unable to recall its name.
It’s also fun to mix beanbags of different weights and textures on purpose, so the differences in feel make people hesitate over their answers.