Whether you are planning activities for a group of seniors, scheduling play dates for your kids, or organizing school functions for students, our friends at notjustbingo.com have some ideas for you to celebrate the beauty of October with fun activities that represent the season.

Decorate Pumpkins

Instead of decorating traditional pumpkins with the use of knives and pumpkin utensils, keep the activity safe by jazzing up your gourds and pumpkins with paint. Use fun colors like metallic or even neon to add a unique twist to a traditional Halloween prop. In fact, go one step further by covering the pumpkin stalk with glue before sprinkling glitter to add even more sparkle. Finally, for your most creative pumpkin-decorators, supply them with painter’s tape to create interesting patterns with paint on the pumpkins.

But don’t worry…if large pumpkins are not an option, decorate Color-Me™ 3D Slot Fit Pumpkins with colorful paint instead. Use the finished pumpkins as decorative table centerpieces.

Host a Harvest Fair

Get your students, residents, and kids more active by participating in a fun harvest fair or fall festival at your facility. Set up a variety of games that can be altered for the season. For instance, use your ring toss rings to throw around the stems of pumpkins, use your bowling ball to knock down a set of gourds that are set up as bowling pins, or use your bean bags to toss into hollowed-out pumpkins. The point is to take everyday sporting games or jumbo games and alter them a bit for the season. Afterwards, be sure to reward your participants with hot apple cider and warm pumpkin cookies.

Organize a Flag Football Game

What says fall more than a game of football? Equip the kids with flag football equipment as they play a fun game in the yard. If you are planning activities for senior residents, simply invite the grandkids to play the game in the backyard on a Saturday morning, and seat residents along the back patio to watch the fun as they reminisce about their own childhood-playing days.

About notjustbingo.com

Notjustbingo.com is an online resource of fun, senior activity ideas for activity professionals of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They have been providing fun activity ideas online since 2009, and we continue to assist activity professionals across the country by creating meaningful and engaging activity ideas for their residents that go “beyond bingo.” Don’t get them wrong – bingo is fun, but we want to spread the word that there is more to life than just bingo. Overall, notjustbingo.com feels privilege to help activity directors better the living experiences of their residents while demonstrating that a senior’s quality of life can actually improve when they move to a nursing facility.