[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.
- For Seniors: Simple and Fun! November Recreation Ideas
- For Seniors: December Health Topics — Winter Recreational Activities to Warm the Body and the Heart
- [For Seniors] Recommended Trivia Quizzes & Fun Facts for November
- [For Senior Facilities] Lively and Fun! November Quiz
- [October Health Topic] Introducing Recreational Activities for Seniors!
- [For Seniors] Enjoy the Cold Winter! Seated Activities You Can Do
- Recommended Indoor Exercises for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Recommended in December! Safe and Fun Indoor Recreation
- [For Seniors] Liven Up November Day Services! Fun Autumn Event Ideas
- [For seniors] January health topics: A roundup of popular recreational activities from exercises and crafts to New Year’s games
- September Health Topic: Introducing Recreational Activities That Capture the Feeling of Autumn’s Arrival
- [May Health Topic] Introducing recreational activities for seniors!
- [For Seniors] Fun Origami Ideas to Feel the Season in November
[November Health Topic] Indoor Recreation Ideas for Older Adults (21–30)
Pull with your feet! Snail race
Let’s try a foot-powered indoor exercise! Pull with your feet! Here’s the idea for a Snail Race.
Indoors, your movement range is limited, so your activity level can drop…
Does that sound familiar? That’s when you should try this: Pull with your feet! The Snail Race.
Spread a towel under a chair and place a plastic bottle on the towel with a snail motif attached.
The game is to use only the strength of your feet to pull the “snail” toward you as quickly as possible without knocking it over.
Give it a try!
Table hockey
Let us introduce a game that gets everyone excited with simple preparation: table hockey.
Once you have a table ready, build walls at both ends so the ball won’t fall off.
Make mallets out of cardboard, and when you have a ping-pong ball, the game begins.
Push the ball to make it fall onto the opponent’s side, and race to five points.
It’s a simple yet incredibly thrilling game.
It can also help with rehabilitation from the hands to the shoulders, so even those who don’t like rehab can enjoy getting exercise benefits.
Give it a try!
[November Health Topic] Indoor Recreation Ideas for Seniors (31–40)
Ping-pong ball catcher
Let me introduce a game called Pinball Catcher, which lets you do foot rehabilitation while having fun.
Prepare a table set at an angle, add walls on both sides, and place obstacles on the table using disposable containers or similar items.
Once the participants have nets attached to their feet, you’re ready to go.
Roll a ping-pong ball from the top of the table.
Predict the ball’s path as it bounces off obstacles, and catch it with the net attached to your foot.
Because you have to move your feet while watching where the ball will drop, it makes for great foot training.
Billiards Challenge
Here’s a billiards challenge that lets you train your hands and arms while having fun.
Attach paper cups to the edge of a table and put up a scoring chart with values like 10 points or 30 points.
Place the balls at the designated spot on the opposite side, and use a stick-made cue to strike the balls and aim for high scores.
Adding bonuses—such as doubling the points for balls of a specific color—makes it even more exciting.
It can be done standing or seated, so anyone can join and enjoy.
It’s also recommended as a recreational activity for senior care facilities.
Persimmon Picking Game
It may look like you’re just using your hands to pick persimmons, but in fact there are points written on the back.
You can’t see the points while you’re picking, and only find out afterward—that’s what makes this “Persimmon Picking Game” fun.
Since there’s a time limit, you can enjoy deciding whether to aim for persimmons you predict will be high-scoring or to pick as many as possible.
If you yank in a hurry, the persimmons get caught on the pins, so the key is to use your fingertips to unhook them from the pins.
Because there’s an element of luck, there are fewer issues of aptitude or skill differences between players, and anyone can enjoy it.
Giant Triangular Tower
It’s a very simple game, but actually tricky! Try the newspaper tower challenge! Lay a sheet of newspaper lengthwise and fold it so it becomes a quarter of its original width.
Next, fold it into a triangular prism shape and tuck in the end.
Because it stores flat once folded, you can make it once and play again and again, which is nice.
The rules for the newspaper tower are simple: stack the triangular pieces of newspaper on top of each other and compete to see how many you can pile up.
People watching should call out instructions like, “A little to the right, left, it’s leaning!” This also helps promote communication.
Hand-wrapping newspaper
Here’s a fun recreation activity using newspaper! The rules are simple: compete to see how fast you can roll up the newspaper using your hands.
You can make it more fun by setting different rules, like using both hands or only one hand.
Another exciting variation is to face each other and roll up the same sheet of newspaper from opposite ends to see who can roll up more.
The heated competition will get older adults watching to enjoy it together as well! This activity can be done while seated, so people who have difficulty standing or who use a wheelchair can also take part.