[For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreation
We’ve put together a collection of brain-training puzzles and simple exercises that you’ll want to actively incorporate into recreational activities.
It’s easy to get bored with the same types of puzzles and games, right?
Let’s liven up your recreation time with puzzles you haven’t tried before, or some quirky and fun challenges and exercises!
If it’s difficult, try allowing more time to think or offering hints so everyone can enjoy it as they go.
We’re also introducing plenty of activities that can make people laugh and lighten the mood, even if they don’t know the answer.
Feel free to use these as a reference and put them to good use!
- [For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mind Exercises
- [For Seniors] Fun and Lively! Recommended Quiz Questions
- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- [For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! A Collection of Tricky Quizzes You’ll Definitely Get Stumped By
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- [For Seniors] Find daily brain training. Today’s recommended brain workout.
- [For Seniors] A Brain-Training, Crowd-Pleasing Word Search Game
- Fun Brain Training! Memory Games for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Lively Wordplay Game: Fun Recreation for Elderly Care
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- [Brain Training for Seniors] Recommended Hand-Play Recreation for Dementia Prevention
[For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreational Activities (31–40)
Turtle scooping
Here’s a turtle scooping activity that also helps practice finger and wrist movements.
Prepare turtles made from construction paper, protected with lamination, and attach a plastic bottle cap to the back of each one.
Using a ladle to scoop the turtles is recommended.
Try scooping the turtles placed inside a box.
The bottle cap on the back makes them a bit unstable, which is part of the fun.
If using a ladle is too difficult, feel free to scoop with your hands—be flexible so everyone can enjoy it.
It might get lively, just like goldfish scooping at a festival.
clothespin tree
Let me introduce the Clothespin Tree.
Gather some beanbags and secure them to a pair of chopsticks, then clip clothespins onto the chopsticks in alternating positions.
If the structure topples or the chopsticks break when adding a clothespin, you lose.
The action of opening and closing clothespins also stimulates the brain.
For gameplay, preparing clothespins in various colors is recommended—you’ll end up with a colorful tree that’s visually enjoyable.
It’s a fun activity using familiar materials, and once your Clothespin Tree is complete, displaying it as a decoration can also spark conversation.
Treasure Hunt Game
It’s a “treasure hunt game” where you hide a beanbag under a paper cup and guess where it is.
The rules are simple, so it seems likely that many older adults would be able to join.
Preparation is easy too—just get some paper cups and a beanbag.
Remembering which cups don’t have the beanbag helps stimulate the brain.
Lifting the cups also serves as hand and arm training.
This time it’s a game to guess the hidden beanbag, but you can enjoy it with variations.
Draw pictures, such as fruits or fish, on the bottoms of the paper cups.
You can devise games where you try to find the picture that matches a given theme from among the cups.
It’s fun to play solo, and it’s also an engaging game to compete in pairs.
Reminiscence Session: Nostalgic Tools from Early Showa Era
Reminiscence therapy is a type of psychotherapy in which you choose a theme, recall past memories, and reflect on the scenery, environment, and your own self from that time.
To help you remember, it’s good to prepare photos or videos of tools you used in the past—or the actual items if possible.
By recalling details such as how the tool was used (“I used it like this”), when and under what circumstances (“I used it at night after finishing farm work”), or specific experiences (“I was scolded because I couldn’t use it well”), you can evoke a wide range of memories.
You may learn related episodes and even remember things the person themselves had forgotten.
When continued, this approach is considered to have beneficial effects on improving cognitive function.
Brain training with gojūon (Japanese syllabary) cards
As we age, it seems we may sometimes forget words.
So let’s use a set of kana cards to stimulate the brain.
First, arrange the cards in order starting from the A-row together with the older adult.
The act of arranging itself is said to help activate the brain.
Use the cards to form words—the more letters a word has, the higher the points.
Additionally, once a card has been used to make a word, it cannot be used again.
Treat voiced and semi-voiced marks (dakuten and handakuten) as a single card and make them count for points as well.
If someone can’t think of a word, it’s helpful for those around to offer hints like, “Let’s think of a word that starts with A.”
[For Seniors] Fun and Lively Brain-Training Recreational Activities (41–50)
Shiritori Card Game
Haven’t many older adults played shiritori at least once? Here’s a familiar shiritori-style card game for seniors.
Prepare cards with each of the 50 Japanese syllables written on them, and deal five cards to each player.
Place the remaining cards in the center and draw one card to start.
Think of a word that begins with the syllable of the drawn card, so that the last letter of your chosen word matches one of the cards in your hand.
Adding a rule like “use three-letter words” makes it even more fun and can help stimulate the brain.
The first person to use up all their cards wins.
Let’s all enjoy thinking of words together while we play.
Finger exercises with plastic bottle caps
Here’s a recreational activity you can make using the many plastic bottle caps that tend to pile up.
Place the caps on a base sheet, matching each cap with the same kanji written on the sheet, making sure not to make mistakes.
Kanji sets that are hard to distinguish—like the fish or tree radicals series—are recommended.
Because players identify the characters while pinching the caps with their fingers, it trains both the brain and fine motor skills.
Give it a try—make it and play with it! You could also turn it into a game by pairing addition problems with their answers.
