Nursery rhymes and play songs to enjoy with your baby. Gentle children's songs.
We’d like to introduce some nursery songs to enjoy with your baby.
These days, many babies are exposed to music from the time they’re in the womb through prenatal education.
Some families sing nursery rhymes as lullabies to help put their babies to sleep.
In this article, we’ve gathered gentle nursery songs and lullabies you’ll want to listen to with your baby, along with playful songs great for childcare and popular anime tunes.
They’re all fun songs that even babies who don’t understand words yet can enjoy.
Please try listening together as a parent and child.
Also perfect for baby massage!
- Nursery rhymes to sing to your baby! Recommended songs enjoyable from 0 months
- [Children's Songs] Cute songs recommended for childcare. List of popular nursery rhymes.
- [Lullabies] Gentle songs to help babies sleep — soothing lullabies for your little one
- Baby massage song. A touch-and-play song that parents and children can enjoy together.
- [Hand Play] Popular with kids! A collection of trendy hand-play songs and nostalgic traditional children’s songs
- [For 0-year-olds] Recommended songs for babies: A special feature on bonding play and traditional nursery rhymes
- [Childcare] Summer songs: Full of fun! Summer nursery rhymes & finger-play songs
- Lullabies: children's songs, folk songs, and nursery rhymes. Nostalgic songs for putting children to sleep.
- [Parenting] Parent-child bonding! Hand-play songs and traditional nursery rhymes collection
- Lullaby Rankings [2026]
- Music you want your baby to listen to: classical, sleep music, nursery rhymes, and BGM.
- [Childcare] Play and games for 0-year-old babies: Fun developmental and educational activities
- Ranking of Popular Children's Songs [2026]
Nursery rhymes and play songs to enjoy with your baby. Gentle children's songs (21–30)
What shall we make with rock, scissors, paper?
“What Shall We Make with Rock, Scissors, Paper?” is a hand game that uses the rock–paper–scissors shapes: rock (gu), scissors (choki), and paper (pa).
You form each shape with your hands and combine them to make different things appear.
For example, make a rock with one hand and a paper with the other, place the paper on top of the rock, and you’ve got a helicopter.
You can stick to well-known shapes, but creating your own originals is also recommended! Try bringing out lots of fun things that will delight your baby.
TulipSakushi sakkyoku: Kondō Miyako Inoue Takeshi
The children’s song “Tulip” features tulips in a variety of colors.
Its lyrics say that tulips blooming in different colors are all wonderful.
For babies who haven’t seen a tulip yet, it might spark excitement as they wonder what the flower looks like.
Beyond the colors mentioned in the song, tulips also come in pink, orange, and purple, as well as colorful varieties with multiple hues blended together.
When spring arrives and you start going out for walks, remember this song and try looking for tulips in many different colors!
Close It, Open It
The children’s song “Musunde Hiraite,” which is also loved as a hand-play song.
In time with the lyrics, you make your hands into fists and open palms, clap, and at the end move both hands to the top of your head or onto your knees.
The melody is based on one composed by the French philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and in Japan the lyrics were revised multiple times before becoming the current “Musunde Hiraite.” It’s of course fine for moms and dads to sing while doing the hand motions, but babies who can do it themselves can try on their own, and for babies who might find it difficult, gently hold their hands and guide them through the motions—they’re sure to enjoy it!
Close It, Open Itsakushisha fushou
In dazzlingly fresh May greenery, don’t you feel like getting active and playing with the kids? That’s when the perfect choice is that familiar hand-play song with the motions of opening and closing your hands.
Simple yet irresistibly engaging for children, its melody is actually said to have its roots in an opera by the French thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
In Japan, it became widely loved in its current form as a play song after being included in the May 1947 elementary school textbook First-Grade Music.
Its easy-to-remember rhythm and movements are also great for interacting with very young children who can’t speak yet.
How about trying it outdoors on a picnic, sitting face-to-face and playing together as parent and child?
A Little Bear in the Rain
From NHK’s children’s program “Okaasan to Issho,” this is the song “Amefuri Kumanoko” cheerfully sung by the singing sister and brother.
With gentle piano accompaniment and clear, soothing vocals, this nursery rhyme can calm even fussy babies.
Under Yuuna’s treewarabeuta
A gentle lullaby with the charm of a melody that feels like the calm breeze of a southern island.
Wind chimes resonate pleasantly in the shade of the yuna tree, and the deep love of a parent soothing a sleeping baby is sung in an unhurried tune.
Even the sound of the words “rin-rira-rin” gently wraps listeners in a sense of comfort.
Cherished and passed down since long ago across the islands of Kagoshima, this piece continues to be valued as part of local culture—appearing, for example, as material in a community theater production by the Tokunoshima Mixed Chorus.
Why not try singing it during those moments of lulling a little one to sleep?
The Bear of the Forestamerika min’yō
This nursery song, depicting a charming encounter in the forest, spread nationwide in 1972 when Dark Ducks performed it on NHK’s “Minna no Uta.” With its humorous story and familiar melody, it warmly conveys the bear’s gentle thoughtfulness.
In October of the same year, a single was released by King Records, with a Russian folk song on the B-side.
Because it can be sung in an echo-song format, it’s perfect for campfires and kindergarten choruses! Its lively 4/4 rhythm makes it easy for everyone to have fun singing together while naturally learning the melody.