For Seniors: Making a September Calendar — Recommended Motif Ideas
In many older adults with dementia, disorientation often appears, making it difficult for them to recognize the season or the date.
Creating calendars that incorporate seasonal elements is recommended as a recreational activity for seniors, as it allows them to feel the seasons while doing hand and finger rehabilitation.
When it comes to September, many people might think of moon-viewing, dragonflies, or cosmos flowers.
It could be lively to have participants share other things that come to mind as well.
Please create a lovely calendar with motifs themed around September.
[For Seniors] Making a September Calendar: Recommended Motifs Summary (1–10)
chestnut
Autumn is the season when chestnuts are at their best.
You might even come across large chestnuts still wrapped in their spiky burrs.
Some older adults may have fond memories of collecting chestnuts in the fall.
So, let’s try making a calendar decorated with origami chestnuts.
With a simple folding method that only takes a few steps, you can easily create a chestnut.
Once you’ve folded it, draw a cheerful face—like a big smile or a laughing expression—on the origami chestnut.
It will look even cuter, and you’ll have a charming calendar all finished.
Gentian
Gentians are one of the representative flowers of autumn.
The deep blue blossoms are well-known, but there are also pink and white varieties, as well as ones with white and blue along the petal edges.
Please try folding and decorating your calendar with origami gentians.
Since gentian flowers bloom in clusters along the stem, make plenty of them with origami and decorate generously.
If any steps are complicated, have people around you lend a hand.
Older adults who enjoy origami will likely have fun making these.
You’ll end up with a lovely calendar that looks as if the gentians are in full bloom.
Torn-paper collage: Moon-viewing rabbit
https://www.tiktok.com/@saisyouan/video/7405565247655841041Otsukimi (moon-viewing) is one of Japan’s long-standing traditions.
So, let’s make a moon-viewing scene with a rabbit for the September calendar using torn-paper collage.
Because you use your fingertips to tear and paste the paper onto a backing sheet, this kind of collage can also serve as brain training.
The September moon-viewing is known as Jūgoya or the Harvest Moon and is held on the full moon around September 15.
It became cherished as an autumn harvest festival, and because people offered taro as a prayer for a good harvest, it came to be called Imomeigetsu (“Taro Moon”).
Many older adults may also be very familiar with September’s moon-viewing.
Try making it while chatting about Otsukimi.
Cosmos and Dragonflies
https://www.tiktok.com/@karitasunosato/video/7295353076678954247It varies by variety, but cosmos flowers are at their best around September.
You’ve probably seen fields covered in colorful cosmos, haven’t you? Cosmos is a seasonal word for autumn in haiku, and it also has a commemorative day in September.
Incorporating cosmos— which evoke autumn and September— into a calendar can help older adults feel the season as well.
Cut origami or construction paper into cosmos shapes and paste them onto the calendar backing.
If you also make dragonflies, a quintessential autumn insect, and display them together, you’ll create a piece that conveys an even stronger autumn atmosphere.
Moon and Cosmos
https://www.tiktok.com/@hirose_ds/video/6872097458814504193For the September calendar, let’s use the moon and cosmos flowers as our theme.
The full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival and cosmos, one of the representative flowers of autumn—cut these two motifs out of origami or construction paper, or fold them with origami, and paste them onto the calendar base.
A calendar featuring graceful cosmos blooming under the harvest moon will help seniors feel the season as well.
It’s said that from September to October is the time when the moon looks most beautiful.
During this period, it rains regularly, washing dust out of the air, so the moon can be seen in clear, crisp skies.
raccoon dog
The moon and tanuki are said to be closely connected.
It’s believed that tanuki gather on moonlit nights, drumming on their bellies like taiko and dancing.
On the night of the harvest moon, when offerings like rice dumplings and taro are placed out, you might even hear their lively dance.
Try incorporating tanuki into your September calendar craft—fold a tanuki with origami and paste it onto the calendar as decoration.
As you work, some older adults may be reminded of the children’s song “Shōjōji no Tanukibayashi.”
Rabbit making mochi
As in the children’s song “Usagi,” which celebrates the night of the mid-autumn full moon in September, moon viewing is often associated with rabbits.
Indeed, the patterns on the full moon’s surface look like a rabbit pounding rice cakes.
Let’s try making a September calendar featuring an origami design of a rabbit pounding mochi.
Even older adults are likely to smile as they create these cute rabbit origami pieces.
You might also enjoy lively conversations about moon viewing while you work.
It’s also recommended to craft the full moon, pampas grass, and more with origami and paste them onto the calendar.