Balloon tennis

Our residents really loved to play and participate. They really engage with the activity and with each other.

Staff gather 6 or 8 residents and arrange them into a round group or front to front. If you have a net to place between them that is really fun and residents feel that they can still do a sport (indoor).

Residents must be seated while playing this sport or activity and staff must supervise and assist them. 

What you need:
6 or 8 Rackets - $10 From KMart
1 or 2 Party Balloons

Balloon Tennis is very popular. We use fly swats as our bats and have a volley ball net. I love seeing the determination on the residents faces trying to hit the balloon over the net.

We play this quite often, definitely a favourite in our facility. We use table tennis bats and usually yellow balloons as our sight impaired see them easier.

Hi Susan, I am glad it worked for you. This game is very popular, even when residents cannot participate for some reason, you notice how they follow the balloons with their eyes with a delightful expression on their faces. Cheers.

Average age in the room well over 90, 2 virtually blind residents and half had dementia and we all had a ball! we had a great time with our fly swats and balloons such a cheap easy activity. I was very sceptical that all would be able to participate but every one thoroughly enjoyed it.

We cut our pool noodles into three so it was easier for our residents to manage. They loved hitting the balloons and there was plenty of laughter.

We played balloon volleyball and it was a hoot! One resident participated for the first time and loved it. To save myself from having to go chase balloons around on the floor, I tied a ribbon to the balloon and taped the ribbon on the middle of the table so it couldn't fall on the floor. High five for this activity!

To further spice up this motor activity. I tossed three balloons, at varying intervals, and all of the same colour, into the circle. Any balloon within reach was "fair game" the result was hilarious laughter and controlled 'chaos' - with balloons shooting everywhere.
At first, I threw in balloons of all different colours, but found our dementia patients could only focus on and track one coloured balloon.
Tossing in one then.. two, then... three of the same colour,
solved the problem fantastically.

Played this recently with my Dementia Residents round the table (8) and they all had such a fun time will definitely do it again. Lots of laughs from both the nurses and Residents playing and watching. Thanks for the ideas. Love Golden Carers. Cheers!

Yes, balloon games are always popular, thanks for sharing Janaya!