[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 Compilation of Games and Recreational Activities (281–290)
card battle game
A simple “card battle game” you can play right at the table.
This game stimulates the brain and can help prevent dementia! Prepare two sets of cards numbered 1 to 10 and lay them out at random.
Players then arrange the cards in order from 1 to 10; whoever completes the sequence first wins.
Because there are many cards, players naturally move quickly to prevent their opponent from taking the numbers they find, which helps train reaction speed and concentration.
You can also enjoy variations, like starting with the cards face down or matching identical kanji characters.
Finger exercises with rock, scissors, paper
When deciding something, people sometimes use rock-paper-scissors, right? Older adults, too, have probably made decisions that way at some point.
In rock-paper-scissors, you make rock, scissors, and paper with your hands.
These rock, scissors, and paper shapes are actually effective for hand and finger training.
What’s more, moving your fingers can also provide brain-training benefits.
Many senior and welfare facilities likely include finger exercises in their daily routines.
Once you get used to it, try gradually increasing the speed or doing rock-paper-scissors to the tune of a nursery rhyme.
Find the theme words
Find answers that match a given theme from jumbled letters.
The themes include fruits, flower names, vegetable names, animal names, food names, Japanese events, and greetings, and both the number of answers and how many you need to find gradually increase.
In the latter half, the number of letters grows, and combined with the time limit, the difficulty rises.
It’s important to stay calm and read the questions carefully.
Watching as a video works well, and turning it into a whiteboard or printed activity makes it fun for both small groups and larger groups.
It’s also recommended for recreational activities at senior facilities.
Old Maid
I’d like to introduce “Baba Mekuri,” a simple yet exciting game.
You shuffle and lay out the cards at random, then flip them over in turn; the player who flips a Joker first loses.
Using oversized playing cards instead of a standard deck can make the game run more smoothly.
You can also play with three or more players using the same rules, or even try a team format for extra fun.
By the way, you can buy oversized playing cards at 100-yen shops.
Flappy Paper Cup Sumo Game
Many people probably feel nostalgic about games related to sumo, like Tonton Sumo.
Here’s one to try: the Flappy Paper Cup Sumo Game.
First, set up a table and draw a line down the middle to make a ring.
Place a paper cup in the center, then have two players fan from left and right using uchiwa fans.
The rule is simple: if the paper cup falls off on your opponent’s side, you lose.
Sometimes the cup may fall off the side of the table—when that happens, reset and rematch.
It would likely be exciting to run it as a tournament, too!
Ping-Pong Ball Cup-In Game
Here’s an easy, fun table game.
Place paper or plastic cups on a table.
Then have the older adults who are seated try to get a ping-pong ball into the cups.
They can throw the ball or bounce it—either is fine.
It’s also nice to think about different ways to get the ball into the cup and approach it like a game.
Grasping the ping-pong ball may help train finger strength as well.
It’s a simple game, but it’s delightful when the ball lands in a cup, and it can be refreshing, too.
Please give it a try!
Ping-Pong Ball Picking Game
A fun game you can easily enjoy at the table is the “Ping-Pong Ball Pick-Up Game.” Two people sit facing each other with a ping-pong ball placed in the center of the table.
The goal is to scoop up the ball with a spoon and carry it back to your own side.
Because ping-pong balls are light and spherical, they’re unstable on a spoon, so balance is key! This helps older adults develop their sense of balance and can also improve concentration.
Once everyone gets used to using the spoon, you can make it more challenging—and even more exciting—by switching to chopsticks.