[Nursing Home] Recommended for Sports Day! Lively Recreational Activities

Sports day activity

[Senior Recreation] Four Effective Activities for a Facility Sports Day [Preventive Care]

With autumn being the season for sports, many facilities may be planning to hold sports days.

Even if you don’t go as far as a full sports day, how about incorporating common athletic-meet-style games as recreational activities to get people moving? For example, a baton relay where each team lines up in a single file, passes the baton backward down the line, and once it reaches the last person, passes it forward using the opposite hand; or tamaire, where participants sit in a circle with a box in the center and toss balls into it.

Let’s capture the spirit of a sports day with these lively activities and get everyone excited!

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

utatane

Report a problem

obstacle course

Sports Day at the day-care service: obstacle race

We adapted the highlight event of school sports days, the obstacle race, for seniors.

Instead of the seniors competing themselves, cardboard daruma dolls race! Attach casters to the cardboard daruma so they glide easily across the floor, and add a string so seniors can control them with ease.

For obstacles blocking the daruma’s path, slightly raised pieces of cardboard work well.

Avoid making the steps too high, or the daruma won’t be able to get over them.

Keeping the daruma balanced is tricky, and figuring out how to do it is also effective for helping prevent cognitive decline in older adults.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

miyabi

Report a problem

Balloon basket

Senior Recreation: Build responsiveness to unexpected movements! Balloon-based activities for day services and elder care

This activity has participants gently hit a balloon and try to land it in the basket in front of them.

Encourage them to pay close attention to the direction they hit the balloon and how much force they use.

In addition to aiming to get it into the basket in a single hit, it’s also recommended to add a variation where they bounce it upward a few times before aiming for the basket to develop their sense of balance.

By thinking about the direction to bounce the balloon and moving to retrieve it, they can train not only their bodies but also their reflexes and decision-making skills.

It would also be exciting to turn it into a cooperative game where everyone stands in a large circle and targets a basket placed in the center.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

kappamaki

Report a problem

Balloon Ring Relay

[Top 5 Balloon Activities 🏀] The ultimate new collection of balloon games! Guaranteed fun—want to try them all!

Balloons that move a lot with just a small amount of force can behave unpredictably even when you’re just carrying them sideways.

This game uses that awkwardness in a relay-style challenge where balloons are passed along in order.

Prepare ring-shaped balloons, and give each person a stick made from newspaper or a sponge.

At the starting signal, players use the sticks to pass the balloon to the next person, aiming to get all the balloons to the goal.

You can increase the difficulty—and the excitement once everyone gets used to it—by making the balloon rings smaller and the sticks longer.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

kappamaki

Report a problem

Balloon kick

Recreation for seniors: fun and engaging, easy for those with moderate to severe conditions to join—let’s kick the balloon into the goal!

This is a balloon kick game where you kick balloons into a target frame! Attach the cut-off bottom of a milk carton to the balloon’s knot as a weight so the balloon doesn’t drift around.

Then just kick the balloon so it fits neatly into a frame made from twisted newspapers or similar! Because balloons are light, they travel far even with a small amount of force, so older adults can kick them while seated and still send them flying nicely.

You can also prepare multiple frames and set rules to score the total points of the frames the balloon lands in, or try other variations to enjoy the game in different ways.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

yuri

Report a problem

Balloon basket

Senior Activity: Balloon Basketball!

Let’s enjoy playing basketball using balloons.

Basketball is often covered on TV and in newspapers, isn’t it? Many older adults are probably familiar with it as well.

Have the seniors sit on chairs in a circle and try to put balloons into a hoop suspended in the center.

You can also split them into left and right sides and play as teams.

Some seniors may have enjoyed basketball in the past.

Reminiscing about those days will likely make it even more exciting.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Nakajima Junko

Report a problem

Balloon volleyball box-in

Balloon Relay #Recreation #DayServiceRecreation #DayService #Nichinan #Miyazaki

This is a game where you use a handheld uchiwa fan to hit a balloon upward and try to get it into a box placed in the center of the table.

Because the box is positioned out of arm’s reach, your control over how you launch the balloon is really put to the test.

People closer to the box end up moving their hands more, so it’s best to have everyone try multiple rounds, changing the starting positions and the box’s position to keep the balloon circulating evenly.

You can also adjust the box’s size and height to change the difficulty and help players focus even more.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

kappamaki

Report a problem