[For Seniors] Simple and Fun: Craft Ideas You Can Make with Everyday Items
What we introduce here are easy craft ideas for older adults.
They’re all easy to incorporate into recreational activities at senior facilities such as day service centers.
Using familiar, everyday materials, these crafts are simple to make, making it easy for seniors to give them a try.
We hope you’ll use craft-making to help stimulate both mind and body.
Since it involves using the hands, it also serves as brain training and can help prevent dementia.
Be sure to read this article and use it as a reference for craft activities.
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[For Seniors] Easy and Fun: Craft Ideas You Can Make with Everyday Items (51–60)
omikuji (a Japanese fortune slip typically drawn at Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples)
“Will it be great blessing or a small one?” Here’s a DIY omikuji (fortune draw) that might have seniors saying just that.
Use a cylindrical container like the kind that holds potato snacks for the fortunes.
If you wrap the cylinder with construction paper, it will look even more like a traditional omikuji container.
Make the fortune sticks—labeled with things like “Great Blessing” or “Blessing”—out of wooden chopsticks.
Write the fortunes on stickers, attach them to the chopsticks, put them in the container, and you’re done.
Try changing the sticker colors for each fortune type.
You can use the omikuji at events or recreational activities, and it would also be fun to take it home and draw fortunes with your grandchildren.
Kalimba
Are you familiar with an instrument called the kalimba? It’s an African instrument that you play by plucking thin metal tines with your fingers.
Other than the thin metal parts, the rest is made of wood.
Let’s try making the wooden part using disposable chopsticks.
Cut bamboo chopsticks to half their length and glue them together with wood glue.
Once the chopsticks are glued into a single board-like piece, attach chopsticks fitted with hairpins and secure them with rubber bands.
Adjust the position of the hairpins to tune the notes, and you’re done.
Once it’s finished, it can be fun for seniors to play together in a little concert along with music.
straw basket
Here’s an introduction to a basket made with drinking straws that also works well as a room decoration.
Cut the straws and tie them with twine to make a cross shape.
Add more straws to extend the length, then weave them.
Keep folding and adding straws repeatedly as you go.
Fold the bottom section and secure it with cellophane tape, then trim off any excess straws.
By changing the angle of the overlapping folds, you can also change the size of the basket.
Try getting creative with the design and make baskets in shapes that older adults will enjoy.
miniature car
Let’s cut disposable chopsticks short and try making a miniature car.
Place the cut chopsticks on top of a paper with the car’s side outlines drawn, and glue them down as you arrange them.
Once both sides are finished, stand them up and keep attaching chopsticks so they form the shape of a car.
Add the wheels, and your chopstick car is complete.
It’s a lifelike car made entirely from chopsticks.
When it’s finished, older adults are likely to feel a sense of accomplishment.
It’s also the kind of project they could take home and delight their grandchildren by giving as a gift.
[For Seniors] Simple and Fun: Craft Ideas You Can Make with Everyday Items (61–70)
accessory case
Disposable chopsticks transform into a lovely little organizer.
The method is simple and you’ll have fun making it.
Prepare 12 sets of disposable chopsticks, colored construction paper, and glue.
Cut the chopsticks in half.
Using glue, attach the chopsticks to a square piece of construction paper.
Apply glue where the chopsticks overlap.
As you stack them up, be careful to keep them straight so they don’t shift out of place.
You can also paint the chopsticks if you like for a cute touch.
Give it a try!
bow
Here’s how to make a large bow that boosts concentration and gives a strong sense of accomplishment.
Prepare chopsticks, rubber bands, baking soda powder, adhesive, a leather sheet, scissors, and a hole punch, and let’s get started.
When building the bow’s base with chopsticks, sprinkle baking soda powder over the glued areas to increase strength and help it harden faster.
The key is to assemble the base while carefully checking the angles.
Connect the rubber bands to create the part that hooks onto the bow.
When using it, make sure no one is around and try it out safely.
string instrument
We’d like to introduce a string instrument you can make from disposable chopsticks that produces tones like a guitar or koto when played.
First, cut the chopsticks to about half their length.
Glue the cut chopsticks together to form a cylinder.
As you do, leave gaps for the strings and glue them in place together.
Once the adhesive has dried, try plucking the strings with a chopstick to make sound.
This chopstick-made instrument might pleasantly surprise older adults as well.
If you can tune it, you can even play nursery rhymes and more, so there’s plenty of fun beyond just making it.