[For Seniors] Liven Up Your Day Service! Fun Beanbag Toss Activity
One of the items often used in day-service recreation is the beanbag (otedama).
Beanbags filled with adzuki beans or rice are soft balls that don’t hurt even if they hit you, making them a safe tool for everyone from children to older adults.
While many people picture juggling with two or three beanbags, it can be hard to come up with other ways to play.
In this article, we’ll introduce a variety of recommended beanbag games for day-service recreation!
Many of them are easy to play while seated, so older adults can enjoy them with confidence.
Give some new beanbag games a try!
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[For Seniors] Let's Have Fun at Day Service! Enjoyable Beanbag Toss Activities (11–20)
Tossing beanbags toward the swaying basket
Here’s a fun game using beanbags.
You throw beanbags into a hanging basket—much like the ball-toss game often played at school sports days.
Many older adults are familiar with this type of game, so it should be easy to get into.
Like the traditional ball toss, the rules are simple, but this version gets progressively more difficult.
The more beanbags you throw, the more the hanging basket swings, making it harder to land your throws.
You’ll also need to watch the basket and time your throws, so it engages the brain as well.
When the basket fills up with beanbags, older participants are likely to feel a real sense of accomplishment.
Foot Beanbag Bingo
One activity option for events and parties is a bingo game.
Many older adults are already familiar with bingo, aren’t they? While bingo is usually played on paper, this time we’ll introduce a version that uses the feet and beanbags.
Prepare nine paper plates or cups, and have the older adults use their feet to toss beanbags into them.
Use colored tape to group the plates or cups by color, and change the score based on where the beanbag lands.
For example, award 20 points if the beanbag lands in a plate or cup of the same color, and 10 points if it’s a different color.
Because they lift their legs to toss the beanbags, older adults can enjoy the game while also training their legs.
Beanbag Bowling
How about an easy bowling game using beanbags and plastic bottles? Set up plastic bottles of different sizes at the edge of a table, then toss a beanbag from the opposite side so it slides across the tabletop and knocks the bottles down.
Just like real bowling, you can play as individuals, or make it a team competition to amp up the excitement.
By the way, since it’s a good brain exercise, have participants calculate their own scores based on the bottles they knock down!
Juggling Balloon Reveal
It’s a game where a box is packed with inflated balloons, and you toss beanbags into it with the aim of knocking the balloons out of the box.
As you keep playing, you’ll get a feel for how the balloons and beanbags interact to send the balloons flying out.
By sharing the tips each person picks up, you can both improve at the game and strengthen your camaraderie.
It’s fun as a tabletop version using a box as the stage, but if you mark off a larger area with tape, you can move your body more and enjoy it in a healthier, more active way.
pole toppling
Stand a chopstick or another stick of a handy size upright, and place several beanbags around it so the stick stays standing on its own.
On their turn, each participant removes one beanbag.
If someone knocks the stick over, the game ends right there.
It takes the ability to judge which beanbags are safe to remove and fine motor control, making it a good workout for both mind and body.
It’s a simple game, but once you try it, it’s guaranteed to get exciting!
Beanbag darts
It’s a game where you throw beanbags at a target, aiming to land them in higher-scoring areas.
The large, clearly marked bullseye gives it a curling-like feel, letting you experience a sense of sport.
Using light beanbags reduces physical strain, and since the main objective is simply to raise your own score, the game proceeds peacefully.
By sharing tips on how to throw the beanbags and offering each other various advice on the spot, participants can also deepen their camaraderie.
[For Seniors] Let’s Have Fun at Day Service! Enjoyable Beanbag Toss Activities (21–30)
Beanbag game
It’s a game where you toss beanbags toward a board placed at a distance and try to see how many you can stack on it.
The board is set on a base like a stack of empty cans, so you need to balance the beanbags as you place them—your control is tested, too.
If you make it a head-to-head format to see who can keep throwing without collapsing the setup, it adds a mind game of predicting where the opponent will throw, which should heighten concentration.
Let’s adjust the sturdiness of the base to suit the participants and proceed with rules that many people can enjoy.