For Seniors: Enjoy Every Day! A Collection of Senior Recreation Ideas

Take as many clothespins as you like

At-home Indoor Recreation for Seniors (Day Service/Nursing Home): Unlimited Clothespin Grab Using Clothespins and a Spoon

Let me introduce a recreation activity you can do using only items you already have at home: the Clothespin Scoop.

All you need are clothespins, spoons, and a container to put the clothespins in.

You can use a bowl as a substitute for the container.

Place the clothespins on a table and hold a spoon in each hand.

Using only the spoons, transfer the clothespins into the container.

It’s fine to use both hands.

It may look simple, but using both hands simultaneously increases stimulation to the brain, turning it into enjoyable brain training.

You can also do it on the floor instead of the table to change the working height; doing it in a squat adds balance training and lower-body exercise at the same time.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

kojifumi

Report a problem

Darts with magnets

Introducing a whiteboard activity! A darts game with magnets! #Recreation #SeniorRecreation #KidsPlay

Have you ever played darts? Basically, you just throw darts at a target, but it’s said there are more than 100 different game types.

Alongside karting and e-sports, it’s even being talked about as a potential new Olympic event.

Why not enjoy a casual version of darts using a whiteboard and magnets? All you need is a magnet-friendly whiteboard, a target that will serve for scoring, and darts with magnets attached to their tips.

Adjust the difficulty by changing the size of the target and the distance to it.

This might even inspire you to try real darts in earnest!

Kanji Quiz: Flowers

Surprisingly Unknown? 20 Tricky Flower Kanji Quiz Questions [Elderly Care • Senior Brain Training • Whiteboard Recreation • Preventive Care]

Every time I see flowers blooming with the changing seasons, I think, “I’m so glad I was born in Japan, a country with four seasons.” How about you? Thanks to advances in cultivation techniques, you can now buy popular flowers at florists year-round.

But when those flower names are written in kanji, they can be surprisingly hard to read.

A “Flower Kanji Quiz” is great for a quick activity and works well as the main entertainment at a party.

Strangely enough, it gets lively even if no one gets the right answers.

It’s a brain-training game that makes everyone smile—I highly recommend it!

Collecting Words

Get excited by speaking together! Voice Brain Training [Recreation for Older Adults]

Introducing a word-gathering activity called “Kotoba Atsume Rec.” It’s most fun with about 4 to 6 people.

First is onomatopoeia—everyone names lots of sound-symbolic words like “gaku-gaku,” “peta-peta,” “waku-waku,” and so on.

It gets livelier if you go around in order and say them to a rhythm, like in the Yamanote Line Game.

Next is the “three-letter word with a circle (a specified character) in the middle” game.

For example, words with “na” in the middle—kanai, shinai, tonai—there seem to be infinite possibilities, but in practice you won’t think of that many.

In word-related games, the facilitator is key, so please use a whiteboard to keep things running smoothly!

A Quiz on Difficult Kanji Related to Food

[Difficult Kanji] Food Edition! Introducing 20 tricky kanji reading questions that are hard to read when written in kanji

When you go into a Chinese restaurant, of course there’s a menu, but many items like ramen and gyoza are written in katakana, right? It’s the same with sushi toppings—things like aji or sanma aren’t written in kanji.

Even for foods we eat often and see all the time, when they’re suddenly written in kanji, we often can’t read them.

So how about everyone trying their hand at difficult-to-read kanji? Even graduates of famous universities or former teachers might struggle quite a bit! There are lots of quizzes uploaded on video sites, so be sure to make good use of them.

butterfly

[Craft Idea] Butterfly Paper Crafts (April/May Spring) (Wall Decorations) (Senior Recreation/OT/Day Service) (Early Childhood/Edutainment) (DIY) (Origami) (Easy) (Decorating on Poster Board)

Here’s an easy “butterfly” craft you can prepare quickly with just a few simple steps.

First, prepare three sheets of origami paper: two for the wings and one for the body.

On the two sheets for the wings, draw lines freely with colored pencils.

This will make the finished piece much more vibrant.

After drawing the lines, fold the origami paper into an accordion, then fold it into a V shape.

Next, cut the remaining sheet into the shape of a butterfly’s body.

Attach the wings to the body symmetrically, and you’re done.

If you make butterflies in various colors and display them, they can become a fantastical wall decoration.

Because this craft uses fine motor skills, it also provides good stimulation for the brain and is recommended as a recreational activity in senior facilities.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

kojifumi

Report a problem

Rice Planting Game

[Seasonal Care Activity] Rice Planting Game!!

Around May, it’s the season when rice planting becomes more common.

If you live near rice paddies, you can enjoy the sight of fields turning green with newly planted rice.

Let’s bring that scenery to life with a rice-planting game designed for seniors.

These days, rice planting is usually done with machines.

However, in this game, players “plant” felt pieces instead of rice seedlings by hand.

Prepare a cardboard board with round holes cut out to represent the rice field.

The person who plants the most felt “rice” into the holes wins.

Playing this rice-planting game may help some seniors recall their memories of planting rice in the past.

expand_lessRaise the rankingexpand_morelower

Nakajima Junko

Report a problem