[For Seniors] Brimming with June’s seasonal charm: A roundup of fun craft ideas
June means rain—the start of the rainy season.
People tend to go out less, and in senior care facilities you may wonder what kind of indoor recreation to plan.
In times like these, we recommend crafts themed around June.
You might think crafts require a lot of prep and are hard to make, but this time we’ve gathered only easy projects.
They also make great gifts for your loved ones.
Crafts use fine motor skills and stimulate the brain, making them ideal for dementia prevention among seniors.
Enjoy doing craft activities together while having fun.
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[For Seniors] Brimming with June’s seasonal feel: A roundup of fun craft ideas (41–50)
Making teru teru bozu dolls with tissue paper
Here’s a perfect rainy-season craft: making a teru-teru bozu out of tissue paper.
Prepare a toy golf ball, tissue paper, wire, felt-tip pens, and round stickers.
Create the teru-teru bozu’s face using the golf ball, adding eyes and a nose with the round stickers and felt-tip pens.
Stack several sheets of tissue paper and open them one by one, then wrap wire around the center.
For the outfit, prepare three colors of tissue paper, cut them into squares, fold them like a napkin and then in half, trace a guide with a pencil, and cut along the line with scissors.
When you open it, it will be flower-shaped.
Make the remaining two tissue papers the same way.
Thread the three flower-shaped tissue papers onto the wire, glue them together, and then thread the pre-holed face onto the wire to finish.
Adding original decorations like ribbons or stickers would make it even cuter.
Three-dimensional water lilies
Water lilies blooming in ponds and marshes in parks and temples have a dreamy atmosphere.
During the flowering season, some older adults may go to view them as well.
Because they evoke an image of water, they’re a perfect flower for June origami projects.
Water lilies are known for their distinctive petals, which can be long and slender or rounded.
If you fold the origami first and then cut, you can create beautiful petals.
Layer the petal pieces to complete the water lily flower.
You can also make leaves out of origami and place them with the flower.
It’s also recommended to stick them on a June calendar.
Snails and hydrangeas
When you think of creatures associated with the rainy season in June, many people probably think of snails.
And for plants, it has to be hydrangeas.
If you decorate indoor walls with these two motifs, older adults may be able to enjoy a lifestyle that feels the season.
Let’s make wall decorations using construction paper and origami.
You can create a dynamic, three-dimensional look for the snail’s spiral shell by twisting origami paper.
For hydrangeas, crumple and roll up pieces of origami to make plump, rounded blossoms.
Since it involves plenty of finger and hand movement, it’s also a great project to make together with seniors.
Marigold
Marigolds bloom in bright yellows and oranges even in the rainy season.
Let’s make origami marigolds that can blow away the gloom of June.
By folding and cutting origami paper, you can create marigold petals.
First, roll the paper into a ball and crumple it to give the petals more texture.
Make several petals and layer them.
This will express the marigold’s characteristic multiple layers of petals.
Make some leaves as well and display them together with the marigold flowers.
A room with marigolds has a bright, cheerful atmosphere—perfect for lifting the spirits of older adults.
Making picture letters
Have you ever written an illustrated letter or picture postcard? Precisely because it’s a rainy season when it’s hard to go out, why not sit down and try handwriting one of these? June 15 is “Shōchū-mimai Day,” the day when summer greeting postcards were first released.
The period for sending shōchū-mimai is from Shōsho—the solar term that comes around when the rainy season ends, about July 7—until around August 7, when Risshū (the start of autumn) arrives.
But once the rainy season ends, you’ll want to head outside, right? So, let’s write postcards during the rainy season before then! How about sending one to someone dear to you, with colorful, seasonally themed drawings and a few warm words?
It spins so well! A morning-glory top.
This is a craft where you attach an axle to a morning glory shape made from origami so you can spin it and play.
When it’s not spinning, it has an angular form with a star pattern in the center, giving the impression that it could be seen as a morning glory, but the fun part is that when you rotate it, it clearly looks like one.
You combine five origami-made parts to create the morning glory shape, and by inserting each piece firmly, it becomes sturdy.
After that, just fix the parts in place, attach the axle, and it’s complete.
It ends up slightly concave toward the center, which also makes it easier to spin.
Morning-after frame
We all want seniors who find it difficult to go out to be able to enjoy beautiful flowers, don’t we? This time, we’re introducing a frame decorated with origami morning glories.
It’s a simple craft: just attach origami morning glories to an origami frame.
We hope this lovely piece will give viewers the feeling of having admired real flowers! Morning glories are often associated with “summer,” but they bloom from the rainy season through around November.
Through this activity, even seniors who find it hard to sense the changing seasons may be able to feel them—and the conversation about their blooming period is sure to be lively.