[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 (271–280)
Object Passing Game
It’s a game where you use a handheld fan to pass easily dropped items—like a ball—to the person next to you.
It serves as rehabilitation to help control the amount of force you use.
It’s a play activity that many people can enjoy.
Competing as a team can foster a sense of solidarity and unity.
You can also adjust the difficulty by changing the item being carried.
Cup stacking
This is a recreation activity where you use sticks to stack paper cups.
Unlike simple cup stacking where you quickly stack them by hand, using sticks requires you to control the strength of your arm movements.
You can adapt it as an individual competition, a team match, or set a time limit with the winner being the person who stacks the most cups.
Card Flipping Game
Prepare several cards that have different colors on the front and back.
Members of the green team will flip cards to make them all green, while members of the yellow team will flip cards to make them all yellow, taking turns flipping one after another.
Set a time limit, and the person who flips the most cards wins.
The flipping motion is said to be very important for eating and daily activities.
It also serves as good wrist rehabilitation.
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.
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.
