[For Seniors] Whiteboard Activities: Engaging and Energizing Older Adults

Arunashi quiz

[Whiteboard Brain Training] Arouse your brain with the “Aru-Nashi” quiz (1) [Recreation for Seniors]

The “Aru-Nashi” quiz is probably a familiar game for many older adults.

Write one word each under the “aru” (has) and “nashi” (doesn’t have) columns.

After listing a few words under both sides, ask the older adults to answer what the items in the “aru” group have and what the items in the “nashi” group don’t have.

As they think about the answer and have that moment of insight, they can feel the joy and fun of figuring it out.

This kind of feeling is also called an “Aha! experience,” and it’s said to increase blood flow in the brain.

It’s a recreational activity that gets lively even in groups, encouraging conversation and deepening interaction among participants.

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Nakajima Junko

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Word Search Game

Recreation for the elderly – A hit! Lively and exciting! Whiteboard activities roundup: 22 selections

Let’s connect the given characters to make words.

For example, with “せんすいかん,” first find any single character that can stand alone with meaning.

Once you have a one-character word, move on to two-character, then three-character words, and write them on the whiteboard.

It gets exciting if you decide the winner by the length (number of characters) of the words.

Older adults who know a wide variety of words might rack up high scores.

You can have one person focus on finding words and write them on the whiteboard, or have a group call out answers while someone writes them down—both approaches sound fun.

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Nakajima Junko

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Let’s write the same answer on the whiteboard.

Recreation for Seniors – Guaranteed to Get Everyone Excited! The “Write the Same Answer on the Whiteboard” Game

Here’s an introduction to a game where the questioner and the answerer try to come up with the same answer.

For example, the questioner asks, “What’s a green vegetable?” The goal is to match the questioner’s answer with the answers from the answerers—like bell peppers, cabbage, or cucumbers.

If the answerers’ guess matches, the questioner scores points; if it doesn’t, the answerers score points—an interesting twist.

When they hear the prompt, answerers will likely imagine various related items.

If you play in teams or groups, it gets more exciting if you choose prompts that are easy for the other side to picture, or make it a two-choice question to make matching easier.

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Nakajima Junko

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Word Fill-in-the-Blank Brain Training

[Whiteboard Rec] Word Fill-in Brain Training! For Activating Seniors’ Brains!

Whiteboard rec activities are perfect for recreations at large events and functions.

There are various types of whiteboard recs, but here we’ll introduce a word-fill version.

On the whiteboard, draw circles in rows—first 2, then 3, then 2—adjusting the number of circles up or down for each line.

In the circles, from the top row, insert the A-row of Japanese syllables: a, i, u, and so on.

The position where letters are inserted can be anywhere: at the beginning, the end, or elsewhere.

For example, for words that include the syllable “a,” ask seniors to think of a two-letter word that starts with “a” and have them answer.

The more letters there are, the higher the difficulty.

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Nakajima Junko

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Whiteboard lesson using dates and the Japanese syllabary (gojūon)

[Prevent Running Out of Ideas] Whiteboard Activity Using Dates and the Japanese Syllabary (A–I–U–E–O) [Cognitive Training for Seniors]

Many senior care facilities probably run recreational activities using a whiteboard.

They’re lively and can be done in groups—that’s the charm of whiteboard rec activities.

Here are some fun prompts that help prevent running out of ideas.

Have participants name holidays in Japan or commemorative days that aren’t official holidays.

For holidays, there are ones like New Year’s Day and National Foundation Day.

After seniors name a holiday, it’s even more fun if they can also give details like the date or which Monday of the month it falls on.

Another recommendation is to write the full Japanese syllabary on the whiteboard and have everyone create words using all the characters.

Since “ん” is used frequently, a good tip is to save it for the end.

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Nakajima Junko

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Picture shiritori

Recreation for the elderly – A hit! Lively and exciting! Whiteboard activities roundup: 22 selections

There’s a word shiritori activity using a whiteboard, but let’s try turning the words into drawings instead.

Ask the older adults to provide words that form a shiritori chain.

Convert each word into a picture and draw it on the whiteboard.

When the shiritori ends, you can play an even more fun game.

Cover the drawings on the whiteboard with paper and have the older adults recall them.

Show only the first drawing, and then have everyone think about what word comes next.

Please guide the activity by giving hints and incorporating episodes from the shiritori session as you go.

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Nakajima Junko

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mnemonic

[Almost No Prep!] Easy and Handy Whiteboard Activities [Brain Training & Recreational Activities for Seniors]

Let me introduce a fun idea that uses a whiteboard to match numbers to words based on how they’re read, known as “goroawase” (number puns).

For example, November 22 is read as “Good Couple’s Day,” and for 710, how would you read it? The answer is “natto.” In this way, you associate words with number readings.

Write “What day is it today?” on the whiteboard, then expand the topic like a word-association quiz; the conversation grows, and participants may even suggest new puns like, “Here’s another one!” It’s a lively recreation activity that feels like a word-association game, making it enjoyable while also promoting conversation and stimulating the brain.

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kojifumi

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