[For Seniors] Enjoy May! Recommended Recreational Activities and Games
May is full of events, isn’t it?
Did you know that in addition to Children’s Day and Mother’s Day, there are also days like Makeup Day and Hyakunin Isshu Day?
In this article, we’ll introduce May-themed recreational activities and games for seniors.
It’s perfect for those thinking, “What should we do for May activities?”
With the warm weather, why not enjoy recreation not only indoors but also outdoors?
These activities will enrich the minds and bodies of older adults.
Let’s savor the feeling of the season in May through these recreational ideas.
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- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
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- [For Seniors] Haiku for March: Enjoying a Spring Moment with Famous Verses
- [For Seniors] May-Themed Wall Decoration Ideas Full of Seasonal Flair
[For Seniors] Enjoy May! Recommended Recreational Activities and Games (21–30)
May calendar
Let’s make a May calendar that gets you excited about what plans to add! Try drawing koi-shaped streamers for Children’s Day on the calendar, or flowers that bloom in May like roses and irises.
You could also make them with origami, not just by drawing! Sensing the seasons in this way is very important for older adults.
It’s easy to print the date grid from the internet, but you could also have older adults write the numbers themselves as a kind of brain training.
Add some color to the holidays and create a bright, cheerful calendar!
Fingerplay “Chatsubo”
How about trying a little hand game called “Chatsubo” during tea-picking season? You alternately make a tea jar and its lid with your hands, and if you manage to put the lid on the jar right when the song ends, you succeed—but it’s trickier than it sounds.
Just doing the hand motions might be easy, but once you try it to the “Chatsubo” song, anyone will end up flustered! Still, that slightly challenging movement is great for helping prevent dementia.
Gather a bunch of people, sing along, and have fun cheering each other on—“I did it!” “I didn’t!”—and get the party going!
[For Seniors] Enjoy May! Recommended Recreational Activities and Games (31–40)
Seasonal ingredients quiz for early May
There are plenty of ingredients that are in season in May, such as potatoes, Japanese pepper (sansho), and mantis shrimp (shako).
Let’s do a brain-training quiz using these seasonal May ingredients! In this brain teaser, the names of ingredients that are in season in May are scrambled, and you rearrange the letters to form the correct ingredient names.
Ingredients with fewer letters might be easy, but as the letter count increases and smaller characters are included, it can feel a bit challenging.
When scrambling the words, use hiragana or katakana instead of kanji.
It may look simple, but it actually gives your brain a solid workout, so it’s highly recommended!
Healthy Chanbara
Have you heard of Kenko-Chambara (Healthy Chambara)? It’s a chambara exercise that uses a sword by combining slashing, blocking, striking a pose, and vocalization, adapting the stage fighting techniques seen in period dramas.
It’s like a natural extension of how little boys often play with toy swords.
Shouting loudly and swinging a sword around sounds like a great way to feel refreshed, doesn’t it? It might even help relieve stiff shoulders!
Let’s take a bath with iris leaves
May 5th is Tango no Sekku, also known as the Iris Festival.
How about trying a shobu-yu (iris leaf bath)? Iris leaves have long been regarded as an herb that wards off evil.
A shobu-yu is said to have many benefits, including promoting circulation and easing pain.
Warm your body while enjoying the pleasant fragrance of the iris leaves, and stay healthy as the seasons change!
Fly, carp streamer!
Throwing carp streamers? It’s “Fly, carp streamer!” You stuff paper or something similar into a small fabric carp streamer to add a bit of weight, then take turns launching the carp streamer.
You can compete to see who can throw it the farthest, toss it into a target zone with point values to compete on score, or make it a team competition.
It’s an easy recreation activity you can even do while seated.
Handmade Carnations
You can make carnations using flower paper and wire.
With a simple process—crease, stack and cut, then gather and attach to a wire stem—you can create cute carnations.
It’s easy because you can get the materials at 100-yen shops.
Making many and arranging them like a bouquet looks lovely.