Recognize the athletes of the world that are gathering this year in Paris, France by hosting your own summer athletic games. Pick a week where your residents can participate in fun physical activities each day while appreciating the culture of Paris through fun Parisian-themed activities. Before the week begins, be sure to stock up on medals to pass out to the winners of your physical games. Here are a few ideas to help you with planning your facility’s Summer Athletic Games.
Monday
Athletic Game: Archery
Set up an archery target game to see how many points residents can accumulate by tossing a bean bag or shooting a rubber dart onto the target.
Parisian Activity: Eiffel Tower Assembly
Invite residents to assemble wooden Eiffel Tower statues that can be used as decoration throughout your facility. For the activity, simply punch out the wooden pieces and begin gluing together, as instructed. Once the landmarks are complete, encourage residents to paint or varnish their landmark before displaying.
Tuesday
Athletic Game: Discus
Take residents to the backyard and hang a hoop from a tree to determine which resident can toss the most flying discs through the hoop. If playing outdoors is not an option, simply use a fabric disc for residents to try to toss indoors into a target, like a box.
Parisian Activity: Dessert Decorating Class
Since Paris is known for its many tasty desserts, host your own dessert-decorating class. During the class, invite residents to help you mix a batter to bake cupcakes. Then once the cupcakes have baked and cooled, provide them with icing and piping bags to begin decorating their cupcakes. Award fun prizes for the “Most Creative Cupcake” and for “Best Piping Skills.”
Wednesday
Athletic Game: Javelin Throw
Pass out pool noodles and invite residents to compete to see who can throw their “javelin” the farthest in the backyard. Use sticks to mark the distance of each of the throws, and have the top two contenders compete in a best two-out-of-three showdown.
Parisian Activity: Fashionable Tie-Dye
With Paris being a world city known for fashion, invite residents to create their own fashionable t-shirts using tie-dye. Encourage residents to wear their finished shirts this summer.
Thursday
Athletic Game: Rhythmic Gymnastics
Hand out scarves for residents to hold onto as you lead them in a fun chair exercise. Encourage residents to move their scarves to the music.
Parisian Activity: Coffee Taste Test
Turn your Activity Room into a bistro café by playing Parisian music in the background and serving a variety of coffees for residents to taste test. Encourage residents to vote on their favorite. Be sure to pass out a few Pirouette cookies for residents to enjoy with their coffee.
Friday
Athletic Game: Beach Volleyball
Set up a volleyball net in your Activity Room, and seat residents on either side to try to hit a small beach ball back and forth over the net.
Parisian Activity:
Pay tribute to the “City of Love” by inviting residents to decorate wooden “love” frames that they can fill with a picture of their grandchild.
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!
