Memory games and puzzles are great ways to boost your brain power and keep you mentally sharp and active.
According to a 2014 study by NIH, brain games and exercises that stimulate the brain help older adults maintain reasoning skills and result in improved cognitive abilities for 10 years.
One of the common complaints among older adults is that retirement life is boring and unproductive. Once you lose the structure and routine of your work life, boredom can set in due to social isolation.
Puzzles and brain games are fun activities to keep you mentally sharp and active and avoid depression and anxiety.
Here is the list of 10 free printable games for seniors to make their free time fun.
1. Word Search
Word search puzzles help grow the vocabulary of players as they discover new words and their meanings.
Completing a word search puzzle requires attention to details and patterns resulting in improving problem-solving attitudes among seniors.
The Word Search website offers hundreds of puzzles that are available to download and print as PDFs or images.
Follow the below procedure to download and print puzzles from The Word Search.
- Go to The Word Search Printable section and click on the Print This Puzzle option under any of the puzzles
- Next, you can download the puzzle as an image or PDF. I recommend going for the PDF options. You can also download the puzzle with solution by clicking on the third download button
Once the puzzle file is downloaded to your computer, open it in any PDF software and print as many copies as you want.
2. Sudoku Puzzles
Sudoku is one of the world’s most popular puzzle games to test your attention and focus and is based on logic.
Sudoku puzzles are played in 9×9 grids and you are required to fill in the empty boxes. Each row, column and region must contain numbers 1 to 9 one time.
Reader’s Digest has a variety of printable sudoku puzzles with different levels of difficulty (easy, medium, hard and extra hard) that are available for free.
- Go to Reader’s Digest website and click on the red Download Puzzle+answer button under each puzzle.
- You will get a PDF file with a puzzle and a solution (in the bottom right corner of the page). Print as many copies as you want.
You can start with easy ones (first 5) and progress to more challenging options.
3. Maze
The next Printable brain game that senior citizens love is Maze where the player starts from a starting point and chooses different paths to find the exit. One wrong turn results in a dead end.
Here are two great resources that provide Mazes of different difficulty levels.
1) Yo Free Samples
This website has one of the largest collections of 20,000+ printable mazes of different difficulty levels (from Easy to Insane).
- Go to the Yo Free Samples Mazes page. They have categories based on difficulty levels including too easy, easy, medium, hard, very hard, and insanity.
- Each category has hundreds of books and each book has 20 mazes to solve. Click on a book to download the PDF files with 20 mazes.
This is one of the best collections of printable brain games for seniors with a massive list of 20,000+ free maze puzzles. Each page has one maze puzzle, making it large and easy to solve for older adults.
2) Printablee
Printablee has a variety of hard maze puzzles that you can download in PDF format and print to to solve.
Go to Printablee Maze collection and click on the PDF logo under each puzzle to download it.
Solving Maze puzzles is one of the best brain teasers for seniors to keep them sharp.
4. Trivia
The next entry in printable activities for senior adults is Trivia questions. This game is excellent for jogging the memory and testing your knowledge of the past in a fun way.
If seniors find some questions challenging, family or caregivers can make them easier by offering hints.
I have shared different resources to get printable trivia questions for seniors for free, here are the best printable Trivia questions for older adults.
Trivia questions are an ideal group activity for seniors and older adults and do not require a lot of planning.
5. Word Scramble
Word Scramble is another fun word game that seniors love to play. This game makes you think, recall, and pay attention to solve or unscramble the words.
Unscrambling random letters to create different words is a great brainstorming exercise and a fun group activity.
Here are two resources that offer printable word scrambles on a variety of topics.
1) Printable Paradise
- Go to Printable Paradise and click on a puzzle of your choice and
- You will have an option (at the bottom of the puzzle) to save and print the puzzle and the answer sheet in PDF format (as below)
2) Printable Creative
is another online platform with a large collection of word scramble puzzles divided into different categories like food and drinks, health and fitness, sports, countries, animals etc.
- Go to the Printable Creative Word Scramble page and click on any puzzle you want to download and print
- Next, you have options to directly print the puzzle or download (in PDF) format. Each puzzle has two pages; one page has scrambled letters and the other page has solution.
If you want to download the puzzle, make sure to change the page size to A4 for standard size printing.
6. Cryptogram Puzzles
A cryptogram is basically a quote that is encrypted by taking each letter in a quote to substitute it with another letter.
Your task is to decrypt the hidden quote using pattern recognition and your grammar and vocabulary abilities.
You can download and print the cryptogram puzzles from the following website.
1) Learn with Puzzles
Learn with Puzzles offers free cryptogram puzzles in different categories in PDF format with solutions.
From US presidential quotes to Father’s Day cryptic quotes, you will find a variety of options.
2) Easy Teacher Worksheets
ETW has a large collection of cryptogram puzzles in different categories.
Click on Get Worksheet to print the puzzle and Answer Key to print the solution.
7. Anagram Puzzles
Anagram is one of the printable brain games for seniors where an anagram is a result of rearranging letters of a word, phrase or sentence to form a new word or sentence.
Here are some of the Anagram puzzles in PDF format to get you started.
1) ESL Vault anagram puzzles
Click on the Download PDF under the puzzle that you want to print.
2) 15 Worksheets anagram puzzles
Click on the anagram puzzle that you want to print. On the puzzle page, you have options to print the puzzle by clicking on View Worksheet and print the answer by clicking on View Answer sheet.
8. Rebus Puzzles
Rebus Puzzles get you thinking and help stretch your mind and stimulate creativity. It is a game where you guess the words that are hidden behind letters, symbols and random pictures.
Here are two websites to get free Rebus puzzles in PDF format.
- Go to Printablee Rebus puzzles section and click on the PDF icon under a puzzle to download the file
- Go to the Puzzles to Print website for free printable Rebus puzzles worksheets with solutions. Click on a puzzle to print and print it simply by clicking on Print
Rebus puzzles require a problem-solving attitude and vocabulary. It’s a brainteaser game that digs into your memory and is very beneficial for seniors and the elderly alike.
9. Battle Ship
The objective of this game is to try and sink your opponent’s ships before they sink yours. This game is a solitaire version of a classic Battleship game in which you must hunt down a fleet of enemy ships.
KrazyDad has a collection of hundreds of Battleship puzzles with answers in PDF format to print and play. The puzzle books are ordered by difficulty levels so you can start with Book 1 and work your way up.
10. Dots and Boxes
The last of free printable senior brain games is Dots and Boxes which is a great indoor or road trip activity for seniors.
This game needs a sheet covered in a dotted grid allowing the players to connect the dots and try to complete the boxes.
You can download and print the template for this game from Printable Paradise, Madison’s or Paper Trail Design and start playing right away.
This is a list of 10 free printable games for seniors. These puzzles help to improve memory and make life enjoyable for senior citizens. Perfect for seniors living alone and keeping their brains stimulated.
So, print and enjoy.
Sohail Ahmed
I love helping seniors with technology. This blog features apps, games, gadgets, technology tips, and tutorials for older adults … Know More