Author: Samuel Bobak

On September 13th the Primary students visited our senior friends in the Long Life Kurakuen Facility. Children were excited to visit the residents again after our last outing, to talk, interact and play with them. We want our students to grow up to be kind and compassionate young adults by interacting and being nice and warm towards the people that are not related to them, but still deserve our attention and kindness.

We started by gathering in the main hall of the facility and helped the residents to settle down at their seats, make teams, set up the games we prepared and make sure everyone is relaxed and ready to have fun.

Each student prepared a handmade card with some nice words for all the residents living in the retirement home. The first activity was giving each resident their own card. There were some seniors that were staying in their room, so some students went room by room to personally deliver the cards.

We separated into different groups and started our games! The main game in the center was a game of precise coordination. The seniors had to pass the balls to each other and the students on the big desk with holes in the middle. The goal was to pass the ball as many times as possible without it falling down. We got some helpers under the desk with their hands sticking out to make the game longer!

In the other corner we had a really fun game of passing the balls to each other without looking! Students and seniors had to work together to pass as many balls to each other over their heads without spilling them on the floor. There was so much laughter when the balls came falling down on our heads and laps!

We also brought our school’s darts game with us. This version uses magnet darts, so there was no fear of getting hurt. We took turns throwing and holding the target and students needed to do some quick additions to figure out who scored the most. Even the nurses joined the fun!

The last game was about using our feet. We needed to be quick to push the correct colored ball to the correct corner. As the students rolled the balls faster and faster, the game also got more difficult.

At the end of the day we got a beautiful surprise in the form of the hand crafted flowers from the residents! Everybody felt energized and happy after this visit and we will be back again for another day filled with warmth and laughter!