[For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Recreational Activities in Nursing Homes

beanbags

The kind you often see on variety shows #shorts

Beanbags used in various games can feel subtly different depending on the fabric and the filling.

How about testing whether you can accurately identify them under such varying conditions? Because it’s something we casually use, you might find yourself picturing it but unable to recall its name.

It’s also fun to mix beanbags of different weights and textures on purpose, so the differences in feel make people hesitate over their answers.

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kappamaki

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Beanbag Tower

Senior recreation! Everyone’s hooked! Beanbag tower!! #shorts #seniorRecreation #dayService #recreation #heartwarming #hilarious #beanbag

Many older adults may have played with beanbags when they were young.

Some may have also played beanbag games with their own children or grandchildren.

Here’s a game that uses those beanbags to build a tower.

The rules are simple: compete to see how many beanbags you can stack on top of an upside-down paper cup.

By holding and stacking the beanbags, you can expect to improve or maintain fine motor balance and concentration.

You can focus and play on your own, or make it a team competition for extra excitement.

If you like, please give it a try.

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Nakajima Junko

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Casual Ball Curling

[Easy-to-prepare and exciting recreation] [Day service activity] Simple circle-style ball curling

Curling became well-known through the Winter Olympics, so many of you may already be familiar with it.

It’s a team game where you compete to see which team can get their balls closer to the center ball.

Preparing this recreation is as simple as getting a few balls ready.

That’s all it takes to create a fun activity that helps participants interact more with each other.

Since it can be played while seated, it’s also appealing because it can be enjoyed in a way that suits the physical and mental conditions of older adults.

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Nanaka

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Recipe card

Cooking Card Game

This is a card game where you pick two words from the lined-up cards and combine them to complete the name of a dish.

The key is how many dish names you can recall from memory based on the letters in front of you.

It’s also recommended to shuffle in a dummy card that forms a complete dish name on its own—it can mislead players, spark ideas, or serve as a hint for a similar dish.

It should be fun not only to come up with correct dish names, but also to invent plausible-sounding ones that don’t actually exist.

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kappamaki

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karuta (traditional Japanese playing cards)

[Senior Recreation] Rec Craftsman Series Part 195: 'Song Karuta' [Songs/Lyrics/Intros/Quiz/Karaoke/Brain Training]

Karuta is a game where you listen to the reading cards and compete to grab the picture cards.

It’s recommended for people with dementia because it stimulates hearing and sight.

When playing with a large group, commercially available karuta sets may be a bit small, so it could be fun to make your own sets together, such as a “Popular Songs Karuta” or a “National Travel Karuta.” Karuta used to be a classic New Year’s pastime, and many older adults likely have one or two memories connected to it.

It would be wonderful to enjoy karuta along with those memories and the conversations they bring.

Goldfish Game

Goldfish game #nursingCare #nursingHome #careFacility #recreation #rec #elderly #game #KitasunaHome #dayService

At festival stalls, there’s usually a goldfish scooping game, right? Besides scooping, here’s a fun game that uses goldfish as the theme.

Two people hold the ends of a face towel, and place a goldfish plushie or a crafted goldfish on the towel.

While shaking the towel, they toss the goldfish into a basket that’s been set up in advance.

Assign points based on the size of the basket and the distance to the basket.

This innovative goldfish game should be enjoyable for older adults as well.

It also seems like it would be exciting to play as teams.

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Nakajima Junko

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fruit

What's inside the box?

Because fruit is sometimes sold as cut pieces and people tend to focus on flavor, we may not pay much attention to appearance or how it feels to the touch.

But can we tell what fruit it is just from the sensation of touching it? Since the texture varies greatly by type of fruit, the choice of which ones to use will likely affect both the accuracy rate and the reactions.

Most fruits basically feel smooth, so to introduce contrast, adding something like pineapple is recommended.

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kappamaki

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