[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 Activity (31–40)
Lightly lifting the ball with the foot
Let me introduce “Foot-Toss Flick,” a game that doubles as lower-limb functional training.
Prepare a small inflatable pool or a box, and place an overturned trash bin inside it.
Add raised areas around it and assign each area a point value.
The harder the spot, the higher the points.
Once you have some beanbags ready, the game begins.
Place a beanbag on the top of your foot and flick it toward a scoring zone.
Do this 10 times and compete on total points.
Unlike simple stepping in place, doing it with a clear goal can be more effective for maintaining leg function.
Give it a try!
Keep tossing the beanbags!
Let’s take on the challenge of not knocking over the unsteady, wobbly piece of thick paper! We’ll introduce a game idea that uses beanbags you toss one after another.
Beanbags are familiar items to people in Japan, right? How about trying a game where you play using beanbags—tossing them one after another? Participants form a circle, and in the center you place a piece of thick paper or cardboard on top of a stand—then you’re ready to go! Players take turns throwing beanbags at the thick paper, aiming to land them on top.
It’s a thrilling game where the person who causes the thick paper to fall off the stand loses!
Baton relay
Competitive events are a big draw at sports festivals, but activities that everyone completes together are also popular.
The baton relay introduced here is one where older adults cooperate by threading a baton onto a string and passing it along.
Split into two teams, participants enjoy seeing how many times each team can pass the baton.
Through the act of passing it back and forth, a sense of unity develops and communication skills deepen.
Moreover, the feeling of accomplishment from successfully passing the baton leads to positive experiences and can help elevate mood.
Beanbag Bingo
A grid is drawn, and players toss beanbags into it, aiming to line up rows vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.
Because each square is only large enough for a single beanbag, it’s a game that demands concentration.
A key feature is that it can be customized to suit participants—for example, by changing the number of squares or the throwing position.
Using your whole body to toss softly helps keep the beanbag from bouncing out and makes it easier to reach the target, so it also works as a game that can help build physical fitness.
Beanbag relay
A beanbag relay where everyone passes beanbags around in rhythm.
Sit in a circle, and to the song or music, take the beanbag from your left hand with your right hand and place it onto the left hand of the person on your right.
Keep doing this until the music stops.
Can you keep the rhythm and place it onto your neighbor’s hand without dropping it? Try it several times, changing the difficulty by speeding up the tempo or going in the opposite direction.
It’s a game where you can also enjoy the sense of achievement of succeeding together.
[For Seniors] Let’s Have Fun at Day Service! Enjoyable Beanbag Toss Activities (41–50)
Beanbag exercise
This is an exercise that uses beanbags, incorporating various movements aimed at improving flexibility and maintaining health.
Even a simple action like lightly tossing a beanbag upward and catching it can promote health through posture and smooth, gentle movement.
A key point is that physically passing an object from hand to hand makes it easier to grasp the flow of the exercise.
Passing the beanbag around the body helps loosen the shoulders, and engaging the core naturally strengthens the lower body.
Tossing a beanbag lightly with one hand while making a different movement with the other not only trains the body but also serves as brain training, so it’s highly recommended.
beanbag pouch
A game like the beanbag toss at a school sports day—this is a beanbag-in-the-hole game.
The beanbags have a nice weight, are easy to grip, and are perfect for throwing.
For the target, you cut round holes in a cardboard box and aim to throw the beanbags through those holes.
You can play while seated or standing.
Team play gets exciting too: if the beanbags don’t reach the holes and gather around them, you can knock them in by hitting those beanbags.
You can compete between teams by counting how many beanbags land in the holes, or enjoy it as an individual event.