Share On Demand content includes a number of games that work well for group and individual activities. To access the Games area, first switch into On Demand mode, then choose Play a Game or use the arrows to scroll manually to the Games menu.
For a printable Games guide, scroll to the bottom of this article.
This article lists all of the available games and highlights those that are especially useful for:
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Group Teamwork |
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Group Turn-taking |
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Solo or 1-to-1 |
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Memory Care |
Name That Croon
How to Play
Choose a genre of music. Listen to the song played, and select the artist or song from the choices provided. Make sure the volume on your TV is turned up!
Skills Used
Memory recall, attention, auditory processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Use verbal cues to help narrow down the answers to the questions. Most of the time, the chorus of the song gives you a clue. You can also use the "Hint" button for a clue - it will tell you the artist's name if you are guessing the song title, or vice versa.
Activity Extensions
- Listen to the whole song after you guess the answer.
- Encourage players to sing along.
- Have a conversation and reminisce about the song, artist, or memories it triggers.
- For extra difficulty, you can use the Hint as a bonus question to have players try to guess both the artist and the song.
Chess
How to Play
Play classic chess against the character Mumble von Grumble. Choose your desired difficultly level (easy, medium, or hard). Use the arrows on the remote to navigate to the piece you would like to move, then press OK to select it. Then, use the arrows to navigate to the square where you want to move the piece and press OK to select it.
Skills Used
Attention, memory, sequencing, perception, problem-solving, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
- Choose an appropriate difficulty level from Easy, Medium, or Hard.
- Review how each of the pieces move and their roles before beginning a game.
Cosmic Patterns
How to Play
At the start of each level, the board will reveal where the stars are hidden for several seconds before hiding them. Memorize where the stars are quickly, and then select the cards where the stars are hidden. Choose carefully - each level allows only a few "strikes."
Choose your difficulty from:
- Easy - 1 - 4 stars are hidden in a grid of nine cards. Three strikes are allowed in each level.
- Medium - 2 - 5 stars are hidden in a grid of 25 cards. Five strikes are allowed in each level.
- Hard - 4 or more numbered stars are hidden in a grid of 25 cards. You must find these stars in order! Five strikes are allowed in each level.
Skills Used
Attention, memory, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Choose an appropriate difficulty level from Easy, Medium, and Hard. The Easy boards work their way from one star to four stars on a 3 x 3 grid. There is no time limit, but the stars are revealed to you for five seconds only. While the stars are showing, talk through the positioning of the stars. Before you begin making selections, have residents point to where they think the stars are.
Activity Extensions
- After each level, a Secrets of the Cosmos fact is revealed. Take time to read the facts and have a conversation about them.
Math Monsters
How to Play
Protect the school from the monsters by solving math problems. Each correct answer takes away one of the monster's health hearts - take away all five hearts before the time runs out.
Choose your difficulty from:
- Easy - single-digit addition and subtraction. 90 second timer per monster.
- Medium - double-digit addition and subtraction. 60 second timer per monster.
- Hard - triple-digit addition and subtraction. 60 second timer per monster.
Skills Used
Memory, language, sequencing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Choose an appropriate difficulty level from Easy, Medium, and Hard. The Easy difficulty level has single-digit addition and subtraction problems. The game keeps the same problem on screen until you correctly solve it. There is a 90-second time limit to solve five problems correctly. If residents need assistance, give them two choices of answers for the question.
Activity Extensions
- If not concerned with the time limit, work with residents on additional number sense. For example, Our answer is 7. What number comes before? What number comes after 7? What number does it make when I put a 1 in front of the 7?
Word Search
How to Play
Locate the words hidden in the board. New boards are added frequently, and the game chooses your board at random.
Choose your difficulty from:
- Easy - words are spelled left-to-right or up-to-down.
- Medium - words can be spelled up, down, left, or right.
- Hard - words are spelled in any direction, including diagonal.
Skills Used
Attention, perception, language, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Choose an appropriate difficulty level from Easy, Medium, and Hard. The Easy difficulty level has words on an 8 x 8 grid, and they are spelled left-to-right or up-to-down. There are fewer letters in the puzzle, so the letters are larger and easier to read. Assist residents by focusing on a specific word and the first letter in the word. Go row by row looking for the first letter and see if it touches the second letter in the word.
Activity Extensions
- Point out the name of the board on the right-hand side of the screen. Read the list of words and have a conversation as to why the words fit the category.
- Ask what other words might go in the same category.
- Take time to reminisce if any words spark a memory. For example, the Camping board might lead to conversations about past camping trips.
Reversi
How to Play
Try to flip as many game pieces on the board as you can over to your color. On each turn, you can place one of your pieces on the board, and any pieces trapped between two pieces of your color will also flip to your color. Whichever player has more pieces flipped to their color at the end of the game wins.
The game assists by highlighting the squares where you can place a piece in green. Use the arrows on the remote to select the square you want, then press OK to place your piece there.
Skills Used
Attention, perception, problem-solving, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Support residents by prompting them to look for the longest strings of the opponent's color, and then seeing if they can place a piece to reverse them.
Solitaire
How to Play
Play the classic one- or three-card draw sequencing game. Use the arrow buttons on the remote to highlight a card or pile, then press OK to select it. Then, use the arrow buttons to navigate to the location where you want to place the card(s), and press OK again. If you change your mind about moving a card or pile after you selected it, just use the arrows to navigate back to the selected card(s), and press OK to release it.
Skills Used
Attention, memory, sequencing, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Choose one-card draw for lower difficulty.
Activity Extensions
- Work on possible card patterns using red and black suits.
- Work on number sense using the cards (e.g. What card comes before or after?)
Chasm
How to Play
Help The Professor cross the bridge by using the up, down, left, and right arrows to choose the right stones to step on. Each step he takes must land on a stone with either the same color or the same shape as the stone he is currently standing on. If you linger too long on a stone, it will crumble, sending The Professor into the chasm. Watch out for vultures, which fly in circles and can knock The Professor off of the bridge.
Skills Used
Attention, perception, visual/spatial processing, sequencing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Players have time to map out a path before moving The Professor onto the bridge. Encourage and support players in visualizing their path before they start. Once The Professor has moved onto the bridge, he has ten seconds to move again before the stone he is standing on wiggles and falls into the chasm, ending the game. As you progress through the levels, the bridges become longer and it is even more important to plan out your path before you begin.
Activity Extensions
- Count the number of different types of shapes and colors on each game board.
- Identify places where there are two shapes or colors in a row. This may help residents recognize patterns and visualize their path.
- For extra difficulty, residents can try to avoid using certain shapes or colors. This is very tricky!
Pack Rat
How to Play
Help Lester the Rat push the boxes to the green spots on the floor in as few moves as possible. Use the arrows to move Lester into position. Each tap of the arrow buttons counts as one move. It gets tricky, so don't worry if you have to play a level multiple times to find a solution.
Skills Used
Perception, visual/spatial processing, problem solving, sequencing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Pack Rat allows the same level to be replayed. Simply press the OK button on the remote to bring up the menu, then select Restart Level. Challenge the group by seeing who can complete the level in the fewest moves.
Let the Beep Drop
How to Play
Observe the sequence of colors/notes. Use the arrow keys to repeat the same sequence. Each round builds on the previous round's sequence - keep going as long as you can.
Skills Used
Attention, memory, visual/spatial processing, sequencing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Because it uses both visual and sound cues, the Beep Drop is accessible to residents with either visual or auditory impairments. It may take additional time for visually-impaired residents to become familiar with the notes assigned to each arrow button.
Activity Extensions
The game automatically tracks the personal best record on the particular device. You can also track personal best records manually, if taking turns on the same device.
Guess What
How to Play
Choose a category, and you will be shown a series of pictures. Identify who or what is shown in the picture. There are two modes of play.
- Casual - You will see one dash for each letter of the word. Press the OK button to reveal each letter, one at a time.
- Scored - You will see a dash for each letter of the word and a pool of letters to select from. Use the arrows to navigate to the next letter, and press OK to select it. Use the Hint button to reveal the next letter if needed.
Skills Used
Memory, language, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Pick a category that is interesting to your residents. Choose to play in Casual mode for simpler game play.
Activity Extensions
- Talk about the category before you begin the game. Make guesses as to what might show up in the category.
- As you guess the answer, discuss the picture. What does this make you think of? How does it make you feel? What do you know about this?
Speedy Recall
How to Play
A card appears onscreen, then another card slides over the top of it. Is the new card the same as the old card? Use the left arrow to choose No and the right arrow to choose Yes. This game moves quickly and is timed - see how many correct answers you can give before the 60-second timer runs out.
Choose your difficulty from:
- Easy - three basic shapes (heart, square, star).
- Medium - four shapes (heart, square, umbrella, ice cream cone).
- Hard - four shapes (heart, square, umbrella, and ice cream cone) and two colors (red and black). Both shape and color must match.
Skills Used
Attention, memory, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Choose the appropriate difficulty level. The game reports on accuracy, speed, and a final overall score - challenge residents to improve their score each time.
Activity Extensions
Work on shape and color names, not just distinguishing if they are the same as the previous card.
Sudoku
How to Play
Fill the numbers 1 - 9 into the 3 x 3 grids so that each grid, row, and column in the puzzle board contains each number only once. Use the arrow keys to select a square, then press the OK button to increment the number in that square.
Each puzzle board contains 9 grids, and you can choose your difficulty from:
- Easy - 45 pre-filled numbers.
- Medium - 35 pre-filled numbers.
- Hard - 25 pre-filled numbers.
Skills Used
Perception, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Focus on one box at a time. Put in the answer you think is right - you can always go back and change your answers as more boxes are completed. The game does run a timer, but you can cover the timer if it is distracting. For additional help, use the Hint button to reveal one of the missing answers.
Activity Extensions
Discuss the life lessons Sudoku can teach:
- Try again.
- Take baby steps.
- You can't always win.
- Complete the easy tasks first.
- Get help when you need it.
Sliding Tiles
How to Play
Unscramble the pieces to restore the picture. You can only move pieces to the empty spot if they are right next to the empty spot. Use the arrow buttons to highlight the piece you want to move, then press OK to slide it into the empty spot.
Choose your difficulty from:
- Easy - 9 pieces.
- Medium - 16 pieces.
- Hard - 25 pieces.
Skills Used
Perception, problem solving, sequencing, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Choose the appropriate difficulty level.
Activity Extensions
Discuss and try this puzzle-solving technique:
- Arrange the top row.
- Arrange the left column.
Tic-Tac-Toe
How to Play
Play against the computer to be the first to get three in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Use the arrow buttons on the remote to navigate to an empty square in the grid, and press OK to place your X in the square.
Skills Used
Attention, perception, problem solving, sequencing, visual/spatial processing
Adjusting for Your Audience
Encourage multiple resident engagement by taking turns picking the square to place the X. Try starting with a square other than the center square.
Activity Extensions
Most everyone will have played Tic-Tac-Toe at some point in the past. Encourage reminiscence about who they used to play with and any memories it sparks.