[For Seniors] Play Long and Have Fun! A Whiteboard Activity with Brain-Training Elements
Whiteboard recreation activities are popular in senior facilities.
Because everyone can get excited together, they help improve communication among seniors.
They don’t require physical exertion, so it’s easy to participate, which is a nice plus.
Among whiteboard activities, we’ve carefully selected popular brain-training games that you can enjoy without getting bored.
Even fun activities can become repetitive if they’re always the same, right? The whiteboard activities we’re introducing this time are designed to prevent boredom by changing and customizing the prompts.
They help stimulate seniors’ brains, so be sure to give them a try!
- [For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Whiteboard Activities
- [For Seniors] Brain-Training Recreation Using a Whiteboard
- [For Seniors] Test Your Memory!? Ideas for Whiteboard Games
- [For Seniors] Brain Training with a Whiteboard! Fill-in-the-Blank Exercises & Quizzes
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- [For Seniors] Brain Training Recommended for Dementia Prevention
- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- [For Seniors] A Brain-Training, Crowd-Pleasing Word Search Game
- For seniors: Fun shiritori—enjoyable and easy to play
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- [For Seniors] Recreational Activities Enjoyable in Large Groups
- [For Seniors] Enjoy the Cold Winter! Seated Activities You Can Do
[For Seniors] Long-Lasting, Fun Activities! Whiteboard Recreation with Brain-Training Elements (1–10)
AIUEO Puzzle
“Though colors are fragrant, they will fade and scatter; who in our world can remain forever…?”—that’s right, it’s the Iroha poem.
Isn’t it almost a miracle that such a beautiful poem could be composed using each of the 50 kana exactly once? Records say it was created around the 10th century, though the author is unknown.
They must have been extraordinarily brilliant.
Let’s enjoy a similar pastime: the ‘50-sound elimination game.’ Write the 50 kana on a whiteboard and make as many words as you can.
Each hiragana can be used only once, so erase it after using it.
The goal is to use all 50 sounds.
I’ve heard that few people actually manage to clear it, so work together and aim for the goal!
Darts with magnets
Have you ever played darts? Basically, you just throw darts at a target, but it’s said there are more than 100 different game types.
Alongside karting and e-sports, it’s even being talked about as a potential new Olympic event.
Why not enjoy a casual version of darts using a whiteboard and magnets? All you need is a magnet-friendly whiteboard, a target that will serve for scoring, and darts with magnets attached to their tips.
Adjust the difficulty by changing the size of the target and the distance to it.
This might even inspire you to try real darts in earnest!
Song guessing quiz
Many people and facilities use karaoke as a recreational activity.
Belting out songs can help relieve stress and is said to be good for your health.
However, you sometimes need audio equipment, and in some places you can’t make loud noises.
In such cases, this “Guess the Song” quiz comes in handy.
You list words that appear in the lyrics—like sleeping, octopus, spinning top, play, New Year—and have people guess the song’s title.
By the way, the song in this example is called “Oshogatsu” (New Year).
It’s a recommended activity when music lovers get together.
[For Seniors] Long-Lasting, Fun Activities! Whiteboard Recreation with Brain-Training Elements (11–20)
Let’s play the Same Answer game
It’s not about song lyrics, but since everyone grows up in different environments, the words “yellow food” will make different people think of different things—lemon, banana, grapefruit, and so on.
This game is all about enjoying those differences: “Let’s Write the Same Answer.” For each prompt, everyone tries to come up with matching answers.
Examples include “What’s a movie set in space?” or “What sport do Japanese people like?” The key to making it exciting is to choose prompts that feel like they should match but might not quite—right on the borderline.
A quiz to find the odd-one-out kanji
It’s a game where you look for the odd-one-out kanji whose shape is slightly different from the others that look the same on the board.
Tracing the lined-up characters with your eyes and spotting what feels off helps stimulate the brain.
The more characters there are, the longer it takes to find the odd one out, so it’s recommended to gradually increase the number to really get your brain working.
It could also be fun to aim for missed odd ones by using patterns like kanji with many strokes or subtle differences that are easy to overlook.
Collect words and make sentences
A recreation activity where you collect various words to build a sentence is great brain training because it requires memory and imagination.
First, choose one character from the Japanese syllabary, then write on a whiteboard as many words as you can that include that character, regardless of category—food, place names, anything.
Once you’ve filled the whiteboard with words, combine them to create a single sentence.
It’s fun to craft a sentence that paints a vivid picture, of course, but it’s also enjoyable to try to use as many of the collected words as possible.
This is a game we recommend not only for older adults but for people of all ages.
Three-letter shiritori
What’s the very first game you remember learning as a child? Tag, rock-paper-scissors, and of course some might say shiritori.
Let’s spice things up with a twist—not just regular shiritori, but “three-letter shiritori.” Writing answers on a whiteboard takes a bit more time, but seeing each person’s handwriting and simple doodles can spark all kinds of conversation.
Plus, using your hands makes it a nice brain workout.
If you have a whiteboard, you can also enjoy illustrated shiritori just as it is.