Indoor Games for Nursing Homes

Updated: May 4, 2026

Indoor games for nursing homes are useful when activities need to be safe, simple and weather-proof. A wheel spinner can add variety by choosing the next game, team, prompt, question or resident turn.

• Seated balloon tap: Use a soft balloon and gentle movements, with the wheel choosing teams or directions.
• Indoor bowls or target games: Spin to choose the next player, target colour or scoring challenge.
• Quiz wheel: Add categories such as music, food, animals, places, television, history or sport.
• Bingo: Use number bingo, picture bingo, song bingo or word bingo depending on the group.
• Guess the object: Spin to choose an item from a memory box and invite residents to describe or identify it.
• Music choice game: Add artists, songs, decades or genres and let the wheel choose what plays next.
• Word games: Try word association, alphabet categories, rhyming rounds or finish-the-phrase games.
• Picture prompt game: Use photos of holidays, old shops, pets, gardens, celebrations or familiar places.
• Gentle chair exercises: Add simple seated movements that can be adapted by staff.
• Storytelling game: Spin to choose a character, place, object or opening line for a group story.