Recreation Activities for Use in Day Services
This article introduces recreation activities for day service centers.
There are plenty of activities where everyone can get their brains working, team up and compete, and share the thrill and excitement with all participants!
If you’re wondering, “What should we do today?” take a look.
These activities are actually used in care settings, so older adults can enjoy them with peace of mind.
Most of them are simple and require little preparation time.
Have fun and get lively together!
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- [For Seniors] Enjoy safely even during the COVID-19 pandemic: Seated activities
- Games and recreational activities enjoyable in a wheelchair
- [For Seniors] Have Fun! A Collection of Group Game Recreation Ideas
- [For Seniors] Recommended Handmade Activities! Simple Ideas
- Recreation Activities Effective for Long-Term Care Prevention for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Guaranteed to Be a Hit! Popular Day Service Recreational Activities
- [For Seniors] Enjoyment at Day Care: A Roundup of Games and Recreational Activities
- Enjoyable at day care! Tabletop games and recreation
- For Seniors: Effective Recreation for Preventing Care Needs—Have Fun While Staying Healthy
- [Evolving Daycare Services] A summary of engaging recreational initiatives that excite older adults
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Day Service: A Collection of Fun Event Ideas
Recreation Activities for Use in Day Service (51–60)
Quiz
Quizzes where participants think about the answers are a classic form of recreation that test one’s thinking and recall abilities.
A key point is that, with creative touches like setting themes for the questions, they can be enjoyed in any season.
By using season-themed questions to help participants picture outdoor scenery or history-themed questions to prompt them to search their memories, you can encourage them to engage fully with the problems and stimulate their brains.
If you want to prioritize ease of participation, it might be a good idea to use multiple-choice questions.
flutter kick ball
Fill a cardboard box with lots of lightweight rubber balls, then put your feet inside and flail them to kick the balls out of the box.
Compete to see how many balls you can get out within a set time.
Alternatively, you could race to see how many seconds it takes to get them all out.
You can do it while seated, but since you move your legs, it also serves as a bit of exercise.
It also seems like it would be exciting as a team competition.
rhythmic gymnastics
This is a rhythm exercise you can do while seated.
Since it’s done sitting down, you might think it only involves the upper body—especially the arms—but here we introduce movements that use the whole body.
It starts with arm swings, adds exercises that move the back and waist, and finishes by incorporating marching in place.
It’s simple, but it looks like a workout that will effectively engage your entire body.
If you find it easy, increase the number of repetitions!
blowgun
How about trying to play with blow darts? By blow darts, I mean ones made from copy paper.
You can use paper with mistakes or failed prints.
Roll a sheet of paper into a cylinder and tape it—that’s the part you blow into.
Then cut a small square of paper and roll it into a cone to make the dart.
Set the dart at the end of the tube and blow.
In this video, balloons are used as targets.
You can play by competing for points.
Recreation Activities for Use at Day Service Centers (61–70)
Newspaper Tug-of-War
This is “Newspaper Sumo,” a game you can play with just a sheet of newspaper.
It’s really easy and simple: open a newspaper, cut it in half, then fold it lengthwise twice.
That’s all the prep.
Next, make each strip into a loop, link the two loops together, and pull from both ends.
Whoever’s loop tears loses.
There’s also a variation where two people pull on the ends of a single strip, and the one left with the larger piece wins.
Set up a tournament and aim for the championship!
Finger rehabilitation with clothespins
This game is easy to play using familiar items—clothespins and an empty plastic bottle—and it also helps with finger rehabilitation.
Clip a clothespin onto the bottle’s mouth, then keep clipping more clothespins so they link together.
You can also clip them onto any open spot.
Continue linking them all so none of the clothespins fall off.
It gets even more exciting as a time trial or head-to-head competition.
Toss it into the neighbor’s yard!
“Toss It Into the Neighbor’s Yard!” is a tabletop ball-toss game you can easily play using newspaper and cardboard.
Crumple up sheets of newspaper into balls and throw them into the opposing team’s box.
Anything the opponents toss into your yard that misses your box can be thrown back and counted toward your own score.
The team that gets the most balls into the other team’s yard-box wins.