Recommended children's songs and hand play songs for October! Music time in childcare that feels like autumn.

Moon

Tsuki (♪ Deta deta tsuki ga~) by Himawari 🌻 With Lyrics | Full Moon

September is when we celebrate the moon-viewing festival, Tsukimi, to admire the full harvest moon.

This piece, “Tsuki” (“Moon”), is perfect to listen to while gazing at the beautiful moon.

It depicts a large, round moon floating beautifully in the pitch-black night sky.

The gentle melody matches the moon’s soft light.

As mornings and evenings grow cooler this season, it’s lovely on the night of the harvest moon to listen to this piece, sing along, and take your time admiring the moon.

And of course, no moon-viewing is complete without tsukimi dango!

Autumn Eurhythmics: Pretend-and-Play Music Time

[Eurhythmics] A Big Hit at Daycare Too! Autumn Role-Play Music Activities | Acorns, The Big Chestnut Tree, Dragonflies, and Ghosts | Demonstrated by a Nursery Teacher

Let’s play with eurhythmics, moving our bodies to music! We’ll move along to classic autumn children’s songs like ‘Under the Big Chestnut Tree,’ ‘Danguri Korokoro (Acorns Rolling),’ and ‘Dragonfly’s Glasses,’ as well as the perfect-for-Halloween ‘There’s No Such Thing as Ghosts.

‘ We’ll roll around like acorns, fly like dragonflies, and pretend to be ghosts.

There are tons of movements kids will love.

It’s a great way to get plenty of exercise indoors, so if you’re looking for indoor activities for October, give it a try!

Here you go, sweet potato!Lyrics by Katsumasa Mine / Music by Rikio Okada

[Childcare] Katsuriki sing-and-play 'Hore Hore Satsumaimo' ♪ [Featured in PriPri November 2017 issue]

The play song “Hore Hore Satsumaimo,” featured in the childcare magazine PriPri, is a tune that lets you fully enjoy the flavors of autumn—digging up sweet potatoes, pretending to be sweet potatoes, and eating sweet potatoes.

Many preschools and kindergartens hold sweet potato digging events in the fall, so children will probably pick up this song quickly and have fun with it.

The days are cold, but if you move your body energetically, you’ll warm up in no time!

Bright Red AutumnLyrics by Tada Satsuma / Music by Hideo Kobayashi

Bright Red Autumn - It's so red, so very red. The ivy leaves are bright red. ~♪ (with gestures)

This song, vividly depicting the colors of autumn, expresses the season’s beauty through the eyes of children.

Scenes of nature turning red—ivy, maple leaves, and snake gourds—appear one after another, conveying the pure joy of children who discover them.

First introduced in October 1963 on NHK’s “Tanoshii Uta,” it has since remained beloved through “Minna no Uta.” The lyrics, which fully embody Tadashi Satsuma’s poetic worldview, allow children to feel the beauty and vitality of autumn’s nature.

It’s a perfect piece for autumn events at nurseries and kindergartens, or for family strolls.

Why not sing it together and joyfully welcome the arrival of autumn?

Dango, dango, they stuck together.

Dango Dango Stuck Together [Hand Play] Great hand game for even infants! Recommended hand play for childcare practicum

Autumn is the season of hearty appetites—so many foods taste great right now, don’t they? The song “Dango, Dango Stuck Together” is a fingerplay tune about delicious dango sticking to your head, shoulders, cheeks, and chin and not coming off easily! You use your hand in a fist to pretend it’s a dango, sticking it to different parts of your body as part of the fingerplay.

It’s a fun song where you can even add your own original lyrics.

When you strain with an “Uuun!” trying to pull the dango off, your whole body can’t help but get moving.

Sing it, and you might just find yourself craving some dango!

The Forest Recital

[The Forest Recital] [Recommended Ages: 1–5] Former Nursery School Teacher: Teacher Risa

It seems a rabbit, a raccoon dog, a monkey, and a turtle are supposed to take part in a recital held in the forest, but they’re all too nervous or end up quarreling and can’t go on! As each animal appears, let’s sing while moving in a way that matches that animal.

In the end, all the animals come together and put on the recital.

We finish on a warm note, feeling that a showcase where every animal’s individuality shines is wonderful! It’s the perfect song for autumn, the season when art—and recitals—abound!

Village Festival

Village Festival (Japanese Children's Song)

Here is a children’s song that perfectly captures the feel of “classic old Japan.” It’s a piece included in the 1912 publication Standard Elementary School Songs, and it depicts an autumn harvest festival.

The festival music sounds described in the lyrics evoke scenes of traditional Japanese festivals.

It’s also interesting that about half of the lyrics are filled with onomatopoeic festival chants.

Since the scenes in the lyrics reflect older times, many children today might find them hard to understand.

It’s a good idea to sing it together while explaining the traditions of old festivals.