[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 (11–20)
Picture shiritori
This is a classic game everyone knows—Shiritori—with a drawing twist.
Players guess what’s drawn on the whiteboard and then connect it to the next drawing that starts with the last sound of the previous word.
After the game has progressed to some extent, pause and check whether the shiritori chain was valid.
The process of thinking of words, moving your hands, and drawing them helps stimulate the brain.
If someone lacks confidence in their drawing, offering hints is recommended—by getting creative with how hints are given, you can help develop their thinking skills.
Collecting Words
Introducing a word-gathering activity called “Kotoba Atsume Rec.” It’s most fun with about 4 to 6 people.
First is onomatopoeia—everyone names lots of sound-symbolic words like “gaku-gaku,” “peta-peta,” “waku-waku,” and so on.
It gets livelier if you go around in order and say them to a rhythm, like in the Yamanote Line Game.
Next is the “three-letter word with a circle (a specified character) in the middle” game.
For example, words with “na” in the middle—kanai, shinai, tonai—there seem to be infinite possibilities, but in practice you won’t think of that many.
In word-related games, the facilitator is key, so please use a whiteboard to keep things running smoothly!
Brain training with rock-paper-scissors
It’s a game where you create patterns that switch between rock, scissors, and paper hand shapes, then go through those various patterns in order.
The key is thinking about what the next shape will be.
Having players say the shapes out loud while making them with their hands is also important—thinking, moving the hands, and speaking together help activate the brain.
Start at a slow tempo at first, then gradually increase the speed to make it more challenging.
It may be easier if you write the patterns in words on a board so participants can refer to them while deciding the shapes.
Silver Senryu Fill-in-the-Blank Quiz
For older adults, vocabulary is a powerful tool honed over many years of life.
A fun recreation that makes use of that tool is the “Silver Senryu Fill-in-the-Blank Quiz.” In this quiz, parts of a 5-7-5 verse are omitted, and you’re asked to guess the missing words.
When you figure out the right answer or a surprising one comes up, it’s sure to spark laughter all around.
It’s great brain training for seniors.
Please enjoy giving it a try.
Arunashi quiz
It’s a game where you’re shown words divided into two groups—“has” and “doesn’t have”—and you have to figure out what they have in common.
The tricky part is that the shared feature can take many forms, such as something that appears when you add a word before or after, or a property hidden within the word itself.
The breadth of possible commonalities makes it challenging, but it also stimulates the brain by encouraging diverse approaches.
Since that same breadth can make it hard, let’s provide hints gradually to help guide the thinking process.
If you try reading the words out loud, you might notice something that brings you closer to the answer.
Reframing Game
Do you know about reframing? Reframing is a psychological term that refers to looking at things from a different perspective to see them in a more positive light.
The reframing game applies this idea.
First, pair up, and each person writes the other’s weaknesses on a whiteboard.
Next, when you’re done, swap whiteboards.
Then, turn the weaknesses written about you into strengths by rephrasing them.
After playing this game, you should find it easier to think positively and feel brighter.
[For Seniors] Long-lasting Fun! Whiteboard Activities with Brain Training Elements (21–30)
Evolutionary word-association game
This evolved word-association game, where you combine adjectives and nouns to come up with answers, is perfect as brain training for older adults because you have to visualize the answers in your head.
If you’re doing it on a whiteboard, write the adjectives and nouns separately, and then come up with answers based on combinations chosen from each word group.
Of course, depending on the combinations, some words can be hard to picture, but forcing yourself to think of something helps stimulate the brain.
There isn’t just one correct answer, so it’s a recreation activity you can enjoy over and over—hearing others’ answers can lead to new discoveries.
Give it a try!
