With National Pumpkin Day approaching on Saturday, October 26, be sure to have a few fun pumpkin-related activities for the senior residents of your senior facility. Here are 6 pumpkin-themed crafts or games to have on hand.
Pumpkin Seed Flip
Get your residents up and moving with a fun pumpkin seed flipping game, in which residents try to flip “pumpkin seeds” so that they land in an inflatable pumpkin. Add some friendly competition by dividing residents into teams to see which team has the best aim as they try to flip the most seeds into the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Knock-Down
See how many pumpkins your residents can knock down in a fun pumpkin tossing game. To play, set up pumpkin cups in a pyramid shape on a table by inverting the cups and stacking them into a pyramid. Then provide residents with any toss item to see how many pumpkins (pumpkin cups) they can knock down.
Pumpkin Punch Balls
If you have residents who don’t enjoy your daily Exercise Class, then try passing out pumpkin punch balls for residents to hit back and forth as they get a good hand and arm workout. During the exercise, create a complete workout by encouraging residents to alternate hands and to try punching the balls while their hands are over their heads.
Pumpkin Painting
While your residents may feel that their carving days are over, help them still have fun during this pumpkin season by using acrylic paints to create pumpkin faces on your facility’s pumpkins. In fact, make a contest out of it. For the activity, provide each resident with a pumpkin, paint, and fifteen minutes to try to create the “Scariest Pumpkin”, the “Funniest Pumpkin”, or a “Self-Portrait Pumpkin” for the contest. Encourage your facility’s administrators to be the judges, and then award Halloween candy or Halloween pencilsas prizes to the participants as prizes to the participants.
Pumpkin Pom-Poms
Show residents how to use orange yarn to make their very own pumpkin pom-poms. Simply download a quick tutorial online that shows how to wrap the yarn around your fingers to create the pom-poms that can be used as yarn pumpkins. Then encourage residents to decorate their rooms with the finished pumpkins.
Chipboard Pumpkins
Pass out chipboard pumpkins for residents to decorate with orange markers to use as Halloween decorations throughout your facility. Simply color the pumpkins before assembling.
Find more ideas from Notjustbingo on the S&S blog here.
About Not Just Bingo:
Not Just Bingo is an online resource of fun, senior activity ideas for activity professionals of assisted living facilities. They have been providing fun activity ideas online since 2009, and continue to assist activity professionals across the country by creating meaningful and engaging activity ideas for their residents that go “beyond bingo.” Not Just Bingo feels privileged 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 senior facility!
Want even more ideas each month? Visit www.notjustbingo.com for how-to activity ideas, monthly newsletters, and daily holiday ideas. You can also sign up for the Notjustbingo Membership to receive specialized activity ideas to keep your residents and staff engaged, active, and having fun!
