[Children’s Day Hand-Play Songs] A Collection of Nursery Rhymes & Traditional Children’s Songs for Parents and Kids to Enjoy Together
May 5th is Tango no Sekku, known as Children’s Day, a time to celebrate kids’ healthy growth!
Many families display carp streamers and samurai dolls and enjoy special meals.
In this article, we’ve gathered recommended fingerplay songs perfect for Children’s Day.
Why not try them together with your family after the celebration?
These fingerplays are ideal for children in daycare or kindergarten, so have fun adding Children’s Day–themed twists as you play!
- Nursery rhymes and fingerplay songs to enjoy in May! Songs perfect for the fresh green season
- [Hand Play] Popular with kids! A collection of trendy hand-play songs and nostalgic traditional children’s songs
- Songs to Listen to on Children’s Day | A Curated Selection of Music for Tango no Sekku!
- [Warabe-uta] Beloved Classic Songs Passed Down Through Generations
- [Childcare] Games and performances that liven up Children's Day
- [Music Play] Children’s Recreational Music: Rec Songs You Can Sing and Play
- [For 1-year-olds] Fun Together! Recommended Songs and Hand Play Collection
- [Childcare] Summer songs: Full of fun! Summer nursery rhymes & finger-play songs
- Nursery rhymes to sing in spring: a collection of classic songs you'll want to sing with your children
- Get pumped with kids’ favorite songs! A memorable collection of classics that will make you want to sing along
- Hand-play songs to sing for Hinamatsuri. Songs everyone can enjoy.
- [Parenting] Parent-child bonding! Hand-play songs and traditional nursery rhymes collection
- Children’s songs for Hinamatsuri: A collection of songs everyone can sing together for the Doll Festival
[Children's Day Fingerplay Songs] A Collection of Nursery Rhymes & Traditional Play Songs for Parents and Kids (11–20)
a big drumSakushi: Kobayashi Junichi / Sakkyoku: Nakada Yoshinao
This is a hand play song you can enjoy with rhythmic choreography that mimics drumming.
Created by Junichi Kobayashi and Yoshinao Nakata in January 1955 for NHK Radio’s preschool program “Rhythm Play,” it features an appealing, easy-to-follow melody that expresses the sounds of a big drum and a small drum.
There are also cover versions by Shoko Haida and characters from “Inai Inai Baa!,” and it’s loved across generations.
The structure alternates between the sounds of the big drum and the small drum, packed with ideas that help children naturally grow familiar with music through hand play.
If you sing it while making drumming motions, you’re sure to have a great time.
soap bubbleSakushi: Noguchi Ujō / Sakkyoku: Nakayama Shinpei
A classic adorned with a gentle melody that resonates in children’s hearts and lyrics that are fragile yet beautiful.
Created hand in hand by Ujo Noguchi and Shinpei Nakayama, this work left a profound mark on the history of Japanese children’s songs and continues to be loved by many today.
In a 2003 survey conducted by the NPO “Japan Doyo Association,” it was ranked ninth among favorite children’s songs and was also selected for the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ “100 Best Songs of Japan.” At Yumoto Station in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, it is even used as the departure melody.
Why not enjoy a hand-play game while singing it with your child on Children’s Day? You’re sure to have a heartwarming time.
Obento-bako no Uta
When it comes to hand-play songs, the first one that comes to mind is the ultimate classic: “Obentōbako no Uta” (The Bento Box Song).
With its rhythmic melody, more and more vegetables and fillings appear and get packed into the lunchbox, making you feel as if you’re actually cooking.
What’s fun about this song is that from the second round on, you can speed up the tempo and make the gestures smaller for “a little person’s bento,” or do the opposite for “an elephant’s bento box,” and enjoy many variations! Get creative and try making your own original bento box version!
carp streamer
Feeling tired of the same old fingerplay songs? How about a tango-style fingerplay song! The lyrics include essential Children’s Day words and dates like “kabuto” (samurai helmet), “kashiwa-mochi” (oak-leaf rice cake), and “koinobori” (carp streamers), so kids can learn while they play—two birds with one stone! The top recommendation for children is definitely the rolled “r” when saying “koinobori.” They’ll surely repeat it over and over! And don’t forget the pose matching.
You can imagine how exciting it gets when the poses line up perfectly!
Koinoborin
When it comes to Children’s Day, it’s all about koinobori carp streamers! “Koinoborin” is a hand-play song that lets you pretend to be a koinobori and have fun.
It’s by Katsuriki, a duo of active childcare workers, and you can use not just your hands but your whole body to play.
If parents and kids play together, you’ll match the family of koinobori swimming in the sky! Feel like you’re swimming through the air just like the streamers, move your arms wide, and whirl around.
Don’t forget to flap your hands like the koinobori’s body fluttering in the wind! Of course, it’s also fine to stay seated and just move your hands while you sing.
magic hand
This is a hand-play song that uses the idea of hands stuck together and not coming apart.
You can represent a tengu by interlocking fists vertically, or make glasses by interlocking scissors (two-finger) hands left and right.
It also sounds fun for parents and children to think up animals and vehicles using the shapes of rock, scissors, and paper.
By expressing hand gestures after the hands have “stuck together,” you can enjoy it even more.
Why not try it with a Children’s Day theme, such as carp streamers or kashiwa mochi?
Children’s Day Hand-Play Songs: A Collection of Nursery Rhymes and Traditional Children’s Songs for Parents and Kids (21–30)
Carp streamer hand play song
These are hand-play songs themed around koinobori, the carp streamers displayed on May 5 for Children’s Day (Tango no Sekku).
The first game imagines the carp streamer opening its big mouth; kids move their hands while guessing what it “swallowed.” Try incorporating all sorts of things—animals, vehicles, and more.
The second is a unique game that playfully combines Tango no Sekku with the dance tango.
While expressing kashiwa mochi, samurai helmets, and koinobori with your hands, keep a lively tempo as you play.
Just thinking, “What’s the next move?” is exciting—give these Children’s Day–special hand-play activities a try!