[Elderly Care Facilities] Let’s Have Fun Together! Exciting Sports Day Events
In senior facilities such as day-service centers, isn’t it common to hold sports days on a regular basis?
Along with everyday recreational activities, try incorporating events that feel like a traditional sports day!
In this article, we introduce familiar sports day events with ideas tailored to the physical and mental conditions of older adults.
Some ideas can even be enjoyed while seated, making them accessible to many seniors.
Use this article as a guide to create a sports day that everyone can enjoy together.
- [For Seniors] A Fun Sports Day! Recreational Activities You Can Do Safely
- [Nursing Home] Recommended for Sports Day! Lively Recreational Activities
- [For Seniors] Exciting Team-Based Recreational Activities
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- [For Seniors] Have Fun! A Collection of Group Game Recreation Ideas
- [For Seniors] Refresh Your Mood! Lively, Get-Moving Games
- [For Seniors] Liven Things Up With Different Left-Right Movements! Game and Exercise Ideas
- [For Seniors] Recreational Activities Enjoyable in Large Groups
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- Recommended Events for a Sports Day at Day Service Centers for the Elderly
- [For Seniors] Add Enjoyment to Everyday Life: A Compilation of Activity Care Plans
- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- Liven up the Respect-for-the-Aged gathering: A roundup of recreational activities everyone can enjoy.
[Elderly Care Facilities] Let’s Have Fun Together! Exciting Sports Day Events (41–50)
Onigiri Kororin Game
How about trying the sure-to-be-exciting “Rolling Rice Ball Game”? Attach yarn to a paper plate and make rice balls and obstacles.
Place the rice balls you made on the paper plate and start the game! Reel in the yarn, and if you can bring the rice ball all the way to you without dropping it, you succeed.
There are obstacles made from plastic wrap or construction paper along the way, so be careful not to let it fall! The winner is decided both by speed and by how many rice balls you can transport without dropping them.
It’s a recreation activity that gets not only the older adults pulling the string excited, but also everyone watching around them.
Please feel free to use this as a reference!
[Senior Care Facilities] Let’s Have Fun Together! Exciting Sports Day Events (51–60)
Free Throw Game
It’s a game where you throw balls toward baskets that have assigned point values and compete on the total score.
The higher the point value of a basket, the harder it is to land a ball in it, so controlling your throwing power is key to getting a high score.
Since the rules allow a ball to bounce before going in, unexpected points can happen, and awkward bounces that miss the basket can also add excitement.
Let’s encourage players to focus on controlling the force needed to reach the basket and on moving their bodies in ways that effectively transfer that force to the ball.
Recreation involving hitting with balls and sticks
This is a recreational activity for large groups using balls, sticks, and buckets.
First, split into two teams.
Each person connects their bucket and stick with the person next to them, and the teams compete to see who can strike the ball faster.
The appeal of this game is that it trains quick reaction time.
Since you lift the items during play, it also helps build muscle strength.
It could also be fun to pass to the person in front and connect in a random order.
Depending on the participants’ age or abilities, you might adjust the speed of connecting.
Competing as teams encourages everyone to help one another and fosters cooperation.
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.
Handmade watermelon-splitting
When you think of watermelon splitting, you imagine a fun activity where you blindfold yourself, rely on the voices around you to approach the watermelon, and swing a stick down at the spot you think is right.
However, having older adults do the same can pose a risk of falling, so this time we’re introducing a seated version of watermelon splitting.
Place a watermelon made of two hemispheres fastened together with hook-and-loop tape in the center of a circle of participants.
At the start signal, have them throw beanbags to split it open.
The watermelon is made by halving a papier-mâché ball formed from newspaper, attaching circular-cut cardboard pieces, and then layering copy paper over the top and coloring it.
Paper core feed
Games that everyone cooperates on really get people interacting and create a lively atmosphere.
This time, we’d like to introduce “Paper Core Relay,” a game with simple movements that anyone can enjoy.
Prepare a long table, and have both teams sit along the sides.
Stretch a strip of plastic ribbon (suzuran tape) from end to end, and have the first and last players hold each end of the tape.
At the start signal, the first player begins threading paper cores onto the tape one after another.
The team that sends even one more paper core than the opposing team within the time limit wins.
It’s also fun to plan strategies together!
Bell cracking
The real thrill of a sports day is everyone on the team doing their best and getting lively over wins and losses, right? This time, we’d like to introduce “Suzu-wari,” a team event that really gets the crowd going.
You’ll need two large colanders, red and white tissue paper flowers, and some balls.
Attach the red and white tissue paper to the large colanders, then face the openings of the colanders together and stick them to create a big kusudama (paper ball).
If you put small pieces of paper in various colors inside, it’ll look beautiful when it opens, like a shower of confetti.
Once you hang the kusudama, all that’s left is for the players to throw balls at it! It’s fun and also serves as training from the shoulder to the fingertips, so even those who aren’t fond of rehabilitation will be happy to participate with this activity.