[For Seniors] January Activities and Recreation Games
January brings cold winds and a lingering chill in the air.
Here are some recommended recreational activities and games for older adults that are perfect for January.
We’ve gathered many options that can be enjoyed in a warm indoor setting!
As the weather gets colder, people tend to move less—so let’s get the body moving through games!
And of course, January means New Year’s.
New Year-themed activities and games might help older adults recall fond memories of the games they played in their childhood.
Enjoy a fun time with January-themed recreation while sparking lively conversations.
- [For Seniors] Enjoy the Cold Winter! Seated Activities You Can Do
- [For Seniors] Simple Tabletop Games: Fun and Engaging Recreational Activities
- [For Seniors] Brain-training quizzes for January: Let’s have fun with New Year and winter trivia
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- [For Seniors] January Craft Ideas: Boost Your Luck with New Year Decorations and Good-Luck Charms
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- Recreation Activities to Liven Up January Events for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Recreational Activities Enjoyable in Large Groups
- Snacks and activity ideas for seniors to enjoy in January
- [For Seniors] January Trivia Quiz & Fun Facts. Brain training with quizzes about New Year and winter.
- [For Seniors] Fun Winter Activities: Recreation and Games
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
[For Seniors] January Activities & Recreation Games (51–60)
Popcorn Game
Even if you know that moving your body is good for your health, you might still feel reluctant to get active.
So here’s a fun popcorn game that lets you exercise your feet while enjoying yourself.
Sit in a chair and place paper plates on both knees.
Fill the plates with lots of crumpled-up paper balls.
Think of the paper plates as frying pans and the crumpled paper as popcorn for the game.
When someone says, “Ready, start!”, flutter your legs and march your feet to shake the paper popcorn out of the plates.
Watching the crumpled paper fall from the plates looks just like popcorn popping in a heated frying pan.
Because it’s an exercise you can do like a game, it seems like older adults can enjoy participating too.
Winter Delicacies Quiz
It’s a great idea to hold a “Winter Flavors Quiz” at New Year’s, using ingredients that are special to the season! Show illustrations of winter foods like daikon radish, fugu (pufferfish), and kumquats, and have participants guess their names.
It can also be used as brain training by having people identify the ingredients from the pictures.
Some may find items they’ve eaten before without realizing they’re winter foods.
Adding a time limit could make the game even more exciting.
Be sure to try it as a recreational activity.
ball toss (traditional Japanese beanbag/ball-throwing game)
Tamaire, the ball-toss game often seen at school sports festivals.
Some older adults may have taken part in sports days and played tamaire in the past.
Here’s a perfect tamaire activity for a warm April day to get the body moving.
Because it’s a familiar game, it can help older adults refresh their mood and relieve stress.
Have participants sit in chairs and place a basket in the center.
Prepare red, white, and other colored balls, and have the participants throw them into the basket.
The person who gets the most balls in the basket wins.
Throwing with the arms and shoulders also provides upper-body exercise.
Ball Grabbing Game
Let’s play a game where you grab balls using newspaper.
All the tools used in the game are made from newspaper.
Make the balls by crumpling newspaper into a sphere, and make the grabbing sticks out of newspaper as well.
You can create everything you need for the game using everyday materials.
Place several balls inside a circle, grab them with the stick, and put them into a basket.
If you set a time limit, the game gets more exciting.
Forming teams and competing for the best time will make it even more fun.
[For Seniors] January Activities and Recreation Games (61–70)
Quick brain training, “Ready, set!” game
Here’s a simple brain-training game you can do while seated, with no prior preparation.
Pair up in twos.
When one person calls out a number—like “Ready, five!”—both of you raise your hands or feet.
If the total number of raised hands and feet matches the number that was called, you’re correct.
You can make it more game-like by intentionally raising more hands or feet to throw off your partner’s guess, and enjoy training your brain as you play.
It also helps to create a cheerful atmosphere where mistakes lead to laughter.
Since raising hands and feet doubles as light exercise, try it together with older adults.
Paper cup drop
Here’s a game using paper cups.
Line up the paper cups in a row.
Use the lined-up cups as targets and have older adults throw a ball at them from a short distance away.
Depending on where you set up the cups, the goal is to throw the ball so that the cups tip over or fall to the floor.
Even if they don’t hit the cups perfectly, it’s likely to spark laughter and provide a nice change of pace.
It can also encourage conversation with others and help expand social interaction among older adults.
Paper cups are sold at 100-yen shops, so preparation is easy.
Mnemonics! January Events Quiz
Even on ordinary days that we pass without much thought, various shops and industries may have established some kind of anniversary.
This is a quiz that encourages you to think about why those anniversaries were set on those particular dates and to deepen your understanding of them.
In addition to dates that are important to companies, some are chosen based on puns made from the numbers in the date, so pay attention to how the numbers sound.
After getting familiar with the wordplay-style quizzes, it could be fun to think of other dates that might work as puns as well.
