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[Enjoy Safely While Seated] Newspaper Activities Recommended for Seniors
In elderly care facilities and day service centers, many people may struggle with creating daily recreational activities.
When things get elaborate, preparation can take a lot of time.
In such cases, we recommend recreation using newspaper.
Newspapers are readily available and easy to prepare.
What’s more, the activities can be done while seated, allowing them to be tailored to the physical and mental conditions of older adults.
This time, we’ll introduce easy, newspaper-based recreational activities recommended for seniors.
[Sit and Enjoy Safely] Newspaper Activities Recommended for Seniors (1–10)
Newspaper Pull-Out Game
It’s a game where you quickly pull out a long, rolled-up strip of newspaper at a signal and compete on speed.
Making it a head-to-head match boosts the urge to move faster than your opponent, effectively training explosive power and large arm movements.
A key rule is that tearing the paper counts as a fail, which encourages players to focus not only on speed but also on delicate fingertip control.
It can also be fun to try repeatedly and think about arm movements and postures that make pulling smoother.
Boom with a rolled-up newspaper!
The recreation where you crumple up newspaper and toss it in looks like fun.
Since you can do it while seated, older adults can join in with confidence.
Tearing and crumpling the newspaper also seems like good exercise for the hands.
When you aim for your team’s box and throw, everyone can get lively and excited together.
It’s also nice that you can see the results right away, which gives a sense of accomplishment.
It seems like it could help stimulate the brain, too.
The time spent cooperating and having fun together will surely become a wonderful memory.
Newspaper Pull-In Game
It’s a game where you connect newspapers into a long strip, lay it on the floor, and have players reel it in using only their feet.
To help you brace and move your legs powerfully, it’s recommended to hold onto the armrests so your body doesn’t wobble.
You can do it with different rules—such as using only one foot to pull or using the toes of both feet—so the entire foot gets thoroughly trained.
Playing in a competitive format is also important; the desire to move your feet faster than your opponent helps improve smooth leg movement and concentration.
Character search
It’s a game where you search for specified characters among the many letters printed in a newspaper and mark them as you find them.
Since the number of characters varies by newspaper, it’s less about competition and more about enjoying the fun of finding letters.
Staring at tiny print can strain the eyes, so incorporate tools like magnifying glasses and encourage focus within a comfortable range.
You can also change the color of the markings depending on the character being searched for, and enjoy watching the newspaper gradually become more colorful.
Newspaper Ring Relay
This is a game where team members stand in a single line holding hands and pass a ring made from newspaper along the linked hands.
Because you hook the ring by moving your joined hands, teamwork and syncing your timing with the person next to you are important.
Since you can’t move your hands freely, you tend to tense your arms, so it not only trains focus and speed on the ring, but also works the upper body, especially the arms.
You can make it more challenging by using a smaller newspaper ring and other tweaks, which boosts concentration even further—highly recommended.
Bomb GO
This is a game where players kick crumpled newspaper balls in two colors, aiming to get their team’s balls into the opponent’s side.
Sit in two facing rows, and mark a white line in the middle with tape to divide the territory.
Through the game, encourage plenty of leg movement, such as moving the feet back and forth to kick and stretching the legs to reach distant balls.
If you draw the white line at a distance that the feet can’t reach and place some balls there as well, players will also focus on finely controlling their foot movements by bumping nearby balls to move others—this setup is highly recommended too.
Newspaper-ball rolling relay
This is a game where two people sit facing each other, hold a single sheet of newspaper together, and carry a ball on top of it.
The idea is to pass the ball to the next pair without dropping it, which makes not only the amount of force you use but also your cooperative attitude important.
The heavier the ball, the more firmly you need to support it with the newspaper, so try various adjustments such as changing the ball or the size of the newspaper.
If you split into teams and compete to see who can transport the ball faster, the game will heat up and you can also boost the sense of speed in movement.