Nursery rhymes, folk songs, and children's songs about animals
We’ve put together a collection of children’s songs that almost everyone has heard at least once, like “Elephant,” “The Policeman Dog,” and “Aye-Aye.” Because they’re made for little kids, looking at the lyrics again really shows their pleasing sound, easy-to-follow stories, and skillful word choices.
Famous nursery rhymes that have been sung for generations are perfect for parents and children to sing together.
This time, we’ve also selected many songs that you can do hand motions with, so be sure to enjoy singing along together!
Animals in Nursery Rhymes, Folk Songs, and Children's Songs (1–10)
Sparrows Samba
It sings about three sparrows dancing in various places.
You can just picture the adorable scene.
As the title suggests, it’s an upbeat, samba-style song.
The lyrics and music are by Tetsu Kashiwa, who is active as a singer-songwriter and novelist.
Tanuki of Fist Mountain
“Genkotsuyama no Tanukisan” is well known not only as a Japanese children’s song but also as a hand-play song.
Since the hand motions are simple, you can do it with small children, and it’s an easy tune to remember.
It’s also sung as a game for playing rock–paper–scissors.
Elephant’s hat
It’s a song about a baby kitten, a piglet, and a raccoon dog pup one after another climbing into an elephant’s forgotten hat.
It starts with just one, but more and more keep joining in, and just imagining the animals packed tightly inside the hat is funny.
Not only that, singing each animal’s cry the same number of times as the number of animals helps children learn numbers.
By using animals kids love and their sounds, it makes learning numbers fun.
But in the end, there are even five raccoon dog pups inside the elephant’s hat.
Just how big is it? After singing with the children, it might be fun to expand on the image and talk about it together.
Song of a little bird
It’s a cute children’s song about a little bird calling its father and mother with its chirps.
It was released in 1954.
The lyrics were written by Jun’ichi Yoda, a children’s author from Fukuoka Prefecture.
The composer, Yasushi Akutagawa, also wrote music for films such as Hakkōda-san and Village of Eight Gravestones.
Crocodile family
What kind of family are crocodiles, anyway? This song features a crocodile family.
The crocodile father is shaving his beard, the mother is putting on makeup, and the older brother seems to be doing some strength training.
They don’t seem all that different from a human family, do they? With this song, you can pretend to be the crocodile family and have fun adding hand motions.
If you move your body energetically and express things humorously, it’s even more enjoyable.
Grown-ups, be sure to try the hand-play along with the children!
Seagull Sailor
It’s a children’s song released in 1937.
Its easy-to-follow melody really feels made for kids.
It compares white seagulls to sailors in the lyrics.
With translations of the lyrics, it’s a piece loved around the world.
It was also included in music textbooks.
Old MacDonald Had a Farm
The original title is “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” which is an American folk song in its Japanese version.
Many of you probably sang it as children, didn’t you? There’s also a parody version called “Osaka Umaimon no Uta” (Song of Osaka’s Tasty Foods).