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[November Health Topic] Indoor Recreation Ideas for Older Adults
November brings more cold days, and it’s a time when many older adults spend more days indoors.
People tend to move their bodies less, but it’s best to stay as active as possible and promote circulation.
Improved circulation can be expected to have certain benefits, such as helping prevent illness, relieving stress, and stabilizing mental well-being.
Moreover, November is also a time when interactions with others tend to decrease.
When social contact declines, many older adults experience cognitive decline and feelings of loneliness.
With that in mind, this time we’re introducing health ideas for seniors that are recommended for November.
We’ve gathered plenty of easy indoor exercises and games, as well as crafts themed around November.
Please use these as a reference and give them a try.
[November Health Topic] Indoor Recreation Ideas for Older Adults (1–10)
Persimmon Ball Toss Game
While enjoying the autumn atmosphere and stimulating the brain, how about trying a recreational activity called the “Persimmon Toss Game”? Making the persimmons is simple: crumple up some newspaper into a ball, wrap it all around with orange vinyl tape, and draw a leaf with a permanent marker—that’s it.
The persimmons are light and soft, so even if they hit someone, it won’t hurt, and you can throw them while seated—so enjoy the “persimmon toss” to your heart’s content.
Prepare a net like the ones used for fishing, and compete to see how many persimmons you can get into it, just like a ball-toss game at a sports day—it’s sure to be a hit!
Occupation Sorting Quiz
November 23 is Labor Thanksgiving Day.
To mark this occasion and express our gratitude to everyone who works, let’s try a job title rearrangement quiz! It’s also a great idea to include it in November events at senior facilities or as a recreation activity in day services.
The rules are simple: rearrange the randomly ordered hiragana to form the name of an occupation.
At first, try the ones with fewer characters, then gradually increase the number of characters to raise the difficulty—also GOOD! This quiz is effective for brain training and dementia prevention, so be sure to enjoy it together with older adults.
Chestnut Picking Game
How about enjoying a chestnut-picking game that evokes the feeling of autumn together with older adults? Prepare plastic bottle caps with drawings of acorns and chestnuts, along with small tongs you can buy at a 100-yen shop, and see how many chestnuts each person can pick up within a time limit.
You can make the game even more exciting by adding small challenges, such as some caps being flipped over or mixing in acorn caps.
Competing by table or with the person next to you will let everyone share in a simple, pure kind of fun that’s hard to experience in everyday life.
Onigiri lottery game
Here’s an introduction to an event inspired by the Niiname-sai festival on November 23.
During Niiname-sai, it is customary to eat the year’s new rice, so let’s enjoy an onigiri lottery game themed around fresh rice! You can even have older participants start by making paper onigiri.
Also, decide on several onigiri fillings in advance and assign points to each.
The rules are simple: participants draw an onigiri lottery slip, and the person whose slip shows a filling with the highest point value wins.
Having participants calculate the points themselves can turn it into a fun brain-training activity that livens up the event.
Exercises to prevent sensitivity to cold
When it gets cold, people with poor circulation often suffer from cold feet and toes.
This cold-sensitivity remedy helps prevent symptoms through exercise.
While seated, slowly lift your toes up 10 times on each side, and also try lifting one leg at a time to each side 10 times, counting slowly as you go.
Besides exercise, you can also improve cold sensitivity through diet when you feel chilled.
Ingredients like garlic chives and pumpkin contain elements that warm the body.
If you’re prone to feeling cold, try to eat warm foods as much as possible.
Handwashing exercises for infectious disease prevention
When COVID-19 first spread widely, it felt like utter chaos—as if the world were ending.
Even now, with vaccines and medications available, the coronavirus is still something to be wary of, so daily infection prevention remains essential.
The number one measure against influenza and COVID-19 is handwashing.
Let’s make it fun by using antibacterial soap and doing a handwashing exercise.
A parody song set to the familiar children’s tune “Usagi to Kame” (The Hare and the Tortoise) makes it even more enjoyable.
I think people of any age, including older adults, can easily enjoy handwashing this way.
Origami Chrysanthemum Wall Hanging
The time spent making origami creations also becomes a fun opportunity to communicate.
Having several steps in the process adds stimulation and is recommended.
For a chrysanthemum wall decoration using origami, cut origami sheets of large, medium, and small sizes into flower shapes, and glue two layers of each size together.
Use a bamboo skewer to curl the petals to create a three-dimensional look, then crumple tissue paper into a ball, glue it in the center, and finally attach the finished flowers to a backing sheet in any arrangement you like.
Using scissors and crumpling tissue paper are hand movements that can help prevent dementia and improve motor function.