Run Your Own Olympic Games
The summer Olympics are being held in Paris this year. Starting on July 26th more than 10,000 athletes from 206 different countries will participate in the games. With over 300 medal events including archery, fencing, rhythmic gymnastics, basketball, karate, tennis, and even race walking there is something for every sports fan to enjoy and maybe even discover a new sport to love.
Watching the Olympics can be a very emotional activity (and even physical depending on how passionately you gesture at the screen). But why would we only watch the Olympics when we can create our own versions for our loved ones to enjoy?
Presenting…the Senior (adjust for your own name) Olympics! We’ve got an activity for every day of the week that you can use to celebrate the Olympics with your residents.
Now we’re going to preface this by saying that a lot of the sports that happen at the Olympics aren’t necessarily feasible. Many require swimming pools, bicycles, or other equipment that you might not have access to. So, we’re going to focus on activities that you can do in a general-purpose room or on a patio and with limited supplies (with the exception of Day 7). We’re also going to focus on a different domain of wellness for each day. Reminder: have a hydration station available so everyone can stay hydrated while participating in these games. And now that’s out of the way, let’s get started.
Day 1- Vocational
The Olympic Torch is such an iconic part of the Games that it would not feel right without it. However, we know that having real fire is not always an option. So do we give up before we’ve even started? Of course not! This is the perfect opportunity for some arts and crafts! EYR has a simple tutorial on their Youtube page for a torch that uses only four items: black paper/cardstock, colored tissue paper, sticky tape and scissors. You could even add a battery operated tea light to make a torch that really glows. If you want a DIY that is not as delicate, Hoosier Homemade has a great instructions for how to make one with craft foam.
If you wanted a flameless Olympic cauldron to go with your torch, we like this one from Meaningful Mama. They call it a torch, but it looks more like a cauldron. We love the idea of using one of the other DIY torches to “light” it during the opening ceremony of the games.
Day 2- Emotional
Now that we have our Olympic Torch its time for the Opening Ceremony! The Olympic Opening Ceremony consists of 10 main segments:
National Anthem of Host Country
Parade of Nations (Athletes)
Release of Doves (symbolic)
Laurel Award
Speeches
Opening of the Games
Olympic flag and hymn
Olympic Oath
Torch
Artistic Program
There are a lot of different aspects to the Opening Ceremony. No wonder they’re hours long! Be sure to give your group a chance to watch it either live or a replay. The Opening Ceremony will be broadcast live on NBC and Peacock at Noon E.T. / 9am P.T. on Friday, July 26th. You can view NBC’s full schedule for the games here along with which network it will be broadcast on. All events are streamable on Peacock, but that does require a subscription.
You can also create your own opening ceremony that focuses on the aspects that appeal more to your group. Here is a template to get you started.
Day 3- Physical
Okay, time for something sporty or athletic! This one is by far the easiest domain to focus on. You could play darts, volleyball, wii bowling, or… well, you get the idea. We think this domain is the one most tailored to the Olympics so it will be mentioned twice this week. Here we will focus on a team game- Balloon Volleyball.
Balloon Volleyball requires only two things- participants and a blown-up balloon. The aim of the game is to not let the balloon hit the floor. Participants can be standing or seated on across from each other, or in a circle. Any body part can be used to stop the balloon from hitting the floor, and participants are allowed to shift around as long as they stay in the general vicinity of their “spot”. You can choose to make it more challenging by requiring seated participants to always keep at least one body part on the chair, or by only allowing them to hit the balloon with their hands.
Scoring the game is up to you. One way could be to create an “out of bounds” area and give points to the last player to touch the balloon before it hits the ground but remained “in bounds”. But remember- the goal of the game is to keep the balloon from hitting the ground, so keep an eye out for bad sportsmanship. Our preferred scoring is to award participant points for hitting the balloon before it reaches the ground. You could even give points based on which body part they used, such as: hands and feet: 1 point, knees and elbows: 2 and head: 3.
Day 4- Intellectual
Lets exercise the brain with some Trivia! There are so many ways you could do this. The first, of course, is just asking them questions. These questions could be left open-ended, or you could provide the participants with multiple choice answers or turn the questions into true or false statements (this last one is particularly good for those with cognitive issues, such as dementia). You could create a Jeopardy- style game board with different questions awarding different point values or phrase the questions as an incorrect statement and have the participants guess which part was wrong (à la “Um, Actually”). Or maybe your participants would prefer something more akin to Trivial Pursuit where they need to correctly answer questions from different categories to win (for this one we would have five categories and they would need to collect all of the Olympic rings- we love a good theme!)
While we’re on the topic of categories here are some of our ideas:
Olympic History
Sports/ Athletics
Host Countries
Olympic Medalists
Opening/Closing Ceremonies
Day 5- Physical
We’re back with another physical domain activity! This time we will focus solo competition. Paper Airplane Racing is a fun activity that combines the art of origami and healthy competition. First, participants will be provided with materials to create their own paper airplanes. Then, they will have to throw their paper airplane as far as they can. The participant whose plane goes the furthest- wins! One of the best aspects of this game is that it can be altered fairly easily to accommodate for different audiences. For example, it could be a timed trial where the focus is on speed rather than distance. Or you could turn it into a two person relay where one does the crafting and the other the throwing. This variation is particularly good for those who struggle with fine motor skills.
Day 6- Spiritual
Many people think of the spiritual domain of wellness as focusing solely on religion. But while religion is a large aspect of the domain, there are various other ways in which people can achieve their spiritual needs. For the Olympics we wanted to focus on spending time in nature. How do we combine the two? With a themed scavenger hunt! Now you could hide various objects that are related to the Olympics to make your hunt, but we want to find things that are related to the Olympics that already exist in nature. The ones we like are:
Find an item of each of these colors: Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, Black
Find an item of each of these colors: Gold, Silver, Bronze
Find something that is hot or related to fire
Find a bird
Find a Flag
Find something that is: related to sports or athletics
Day 7- Social
We’ve reached the end of the week! Hopefully your participants have had a great time and received lots of points for their assigned countries. Now is the time to close the games, hand out awards and party!
Make your party as simple or as complicated as you like. You could supply all the food or have a pot luck. You can make it so its all snack foods you can get at the grocery store or finger foods that require more prep work. Personally? We like the best of both worlds so here are some suggestions for various different items, starting with fruit and veggie platters. There are so many different ones you could do- you can even theme them to the colors of the Olympic rings!
Fruit example: blueberries, blackberries, grapes, pineapple and strawberries
Vegetable example: blue corn, black olives, edamame, yellow bell pepper, tomatoes
One of the great things about these platters is that they accommodate a wide range of people- vegetarians, vegans, gluten free, low salt, no processed food...you get the idea. They’re great! Platters also don’t have to be limited to fruits and vegetables or be laid out on a tray. My Stir Crazy Kitchen made adorable Olympic torches out of ice cream cones, yogurt and sliced fruit. The Bakermama has a fantastic themed snack board that includes colored M&Ms for the Olympic rings, medals made from sandwich cookies and fruit by the foot and foil wrapped candy for the medal colors.
Another way to go is appetizers from the different nations participating in the Olympics.
USA: mini corn dogs, sliders, chicken wings (boneless if bones are an issue for your group)
Greece: baklava, spanakopita
France: fresh bread and cheese (such as a brie), macarons
Mexico: chips with salsa or guacamole, tacos
India: samosas, onion bhajis, pakora
Ethiopia: sambossas, kolo
Portugal: pastéis de nata, rissóis de camarão, pastéis de bacalhau
It is always fun to have a signature drink at parties. Daily’s Cocktails has one that is sure to impress with its multicolored layers and Love to Know has a whole list of cocktail recipes to choose from. We think “Gold Medal” is particularly tasty.
What if your group can’t have alcohol? Well tough luck. Just kidding! If alcoholic or alcohol-removed drinks are not an option you could always serve a mocktail. Many cocktails can be altered for this purpose, with their alcoholic ingredients being switched for soda or juice. Our favorite idea, however, is Italian cream sodas! All you need is club soda, half and half, flavored syrups and a little whipped cream to top it off. You can even choose colors to match the Olympic rings such as: blackberry, blue raspberry, green apple, pineapple and strawberry.
We hope that this has helped you plan a fun and interactive Olympics week. All links provided in this blog post are not affiliated. We simply liked their suggestions!
