For Seniors: Simple and Fun! November Recreation Ideas
Here are some November activities and recreations we recommend for older adults.
As November arrives, the scenery begins to shift from autumn to winter, and the temperatures drop quite a bit.
It’s a season where you can enjoy a different kind of seasonal beauty than in the height of autumn, but many older adults may find it hard to move as they’d like due to the cold and end up staying indoors.
With that in mind, this article gathers seasonal games and recreational activities that can be enjoyed indoors.
These ideas are also great for community gatherings and day service settings.
We hope everyone has fun together!
[For Seniors] Simple & Fun! November Recreation Ideas (1–10)
Color matching game
One type of recreation that uses both fine motor skills and cognition is a color-matching card game.
First, prepare pieces of cardboard painted in various colors such as red, blue, and green.
Start the game with the colored sides facing down.
The winner is the person who manages to arrange the specified colors in the correct order.
You begin by searching for the colors, and once you find them, you line them up in sequence.
It also has elements similar to Concentration, so it engages the mind.
The activity of flipping over the cardboard uses the hands, while searching and arranging in order uses the head.
It’s ideal for recreational activities for older adults.
Give it a try.
mural
When it comes to things that evoke autumn, colorful foliage definitely comes to mind.
The leaves in shades of red and orange are so beautiful.
Did you know you can enjoy that autumn foliage indoors, too? Let’s all have fun making paper foliage to decorate! Here’s how: download free illustrations available online, enlarge and print them, and paste the prints together to create a large template.
Using that template, cut out branches and leaves in any colors you like.
Stick them on a wall, and your original fall foliage is complete! Give it a try.
Ping-Pong Shooting Rec
A ping-pong shooting game that’s sure to be a hit when added to recreation time.
Players flick a set ping-pong ball and earn points by landing it in a basket or box placed at a distance.
It’s the kind of game you can’t help but get absorbed in.
If you make it a team competition, even those cheering will have a great time.
Everything you need—like disposable chopsticks, clothespins, paper cups, and zip ties—can be bought at a 100-yen shop, so give it a try and make one yourself!
Cat Tail Hook
Handcraft-based recreational activities help stimulate the brain.
Here is a simple cat hook you can make using felt.
Place your cardboard template on the felt and cut along the outline with scissors.
The key is to staple the pieces together first to prevent them from slipping.
This activity includes a variety of tasks—cutting with scissors, attaching ribbons, and bending wire—so you can enjoy using your hands in different ways.
You can also add unique touches, such as giving the cat a pattern or wrapping it with yarn, which is part of the fun of creating a one-of-a-kind cat.
Decorations of cosmos flowers and red dragonflies made with origami, construction paper, and paper tape
What do you associate with autumn? For me, it’s dragonflies.
When I spot red dragonflies as the weather turns chilly, it really feels like autumn.
Here, I’m sharing how to make dragonflies and cosmos flowers that are perfect for the season.
All you need is paper tape and glue.
For the cosmos, cut four strips of paper tape to the same length.
Lay them in a radial pattern, glue them at the center, then fold and glue each end toward the center.
Add a yellow circle in the middle to finish.
For the dragonfly, make the body and four wings from paper tape in the same way and glue them together—done! Using a variety of colors would make lovely wall decorations like a cosmos field or even a seasonal calendar.
Fallen leaf art
How about a recreation activity that uses autumn leaves, a hallmark of the season? The beautifully colored leaves gradually become fallen leaves, but you can collect them and turn them into art by gluing them onto construction paper! You can simply arrange and glue them to form shapes like animals or flowers, or draw pictures around the glued leaves.
If you use scissors to cut the leaves into your favorite shapes before attaching them, you can create even more polished pieces.
It’s an activity that lets both dexterous and not-so-dexterous people enjoy themselves while savoring the seasonal atmosphere.
Craft: Making an owl with paper cups
How about a simple, easy-to-make paper cup owl craft activity? This recreation involves lots of fine-motor tasks like tearing paper, cutting with scissors, and gluing, so participants can really get absorbed in it.
Tear softened paper and glue it onto a paper cup.
Then attach the owl’s face and wing parts cut from origami or construction paper to finish.
The key point is to make the owl’s beak three-dimensional.
Since this part can be a bit tricky, have staff assist and create together.
Also, if you let each person draw the eyes freely, you’ll end up with owls showing a variety of expressions.
Lining up many of them for display would look really fun.