Nursery rhymes and fingerplay songs to enjoy in May! Songs perfect for the fresh green season
In dazzlingly green May, many of you are surely looking for children’s songs and hand-play tunes to sing with kids at daycare or at home.
Songs that evoke spring really capture children’s hearts and add color to everyday activities.
In this article, we’ll introduce plenty of nursery rhymes and hand-play songs perfect for May.
From familiar, easy-to-sing melodies to ones that get kids moving, we’ve got a wide range—so try incorporating them into your daily childcare and parent-child time!
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Nursery rhymes and hand-play songs to enjoy in May! Songs perfect for the fresh green season (91–100)
tea pickingbunkashō shōka
Published in 1912 (the 45th year of the Meiji era), this piece is a song that conveys Japan’s cherished traditional culture and the beauty of nature.
It gently depicts the early-summer scenery that arrives around the 88th night of spring and the scenes of tea picking, featuring a light, approachable melody.
Its rhythmical lyrics, aligned with the motions of tea picking, also carry elements of a work song.
In 2007, it was selected for the “100 Best Japanese Songs” by the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the National PTA Council of Japan, and it has been featured in various contexts such as children’s songs, anime, and TV dramas.
While tea picking may not be very familiar to people today, why not enjoy it with your children as an opportunity to experience traditional Japanese culture?
a big drumSakushi: Kobayashi Junichi / Sakkyoku: Nakada Yoshinao
The steadily resounding drumbeats can be a little startling, but they’re exciting, aren’t they? The children’s song “Big Drum” almost makes you feel like you can hear those fun drum sounds.
It sings about playing a big drum and a small drum, and you enjoy it with dynamics—singing loudly for the big drum parts and softly for the small drum parts.
It’s great as a hand-play song, pretending to beat the drums while you sing! In warm, energetic May, try singing it as if you’re joyfully playing the drums.
scarecrowMonbushō shōka
It seems that this song is actually a Ministry of Education school song published in 1911 (Meiji 44) in the Elementary School Songbook for the second grade.
The theme of the song is the scarecrow used to drive away pests like crows from rice fields and vegetable patches.
Thanks to this song, there are probably quite a few people named Yamada who ended up with the nickname “Scarecrow.” These days, there may even be children who don’t know what a scarecrow is.
shoulder tapSakushi: Saijō Yaso / Sakkyoku: Nakayama Shinpei
A song themed around a shoulder massage that will make your mom happy on Mother’s Day.
It describes gently tapping your mother’s shoulders to the rhythm.
The lyrics also notice the changes in your mother as you massage her, as well as the seasonal changes around the home.
While singing this warm, heartfelt song, why not actually give your mom a shoulder massage as a Mother’s Day gift to express your everyday gratitude? She’s sure to be delighted!
Me wearing armorSakushi/Sakkyoku: pasu
As the description on the video site says, “Since there wasn’t a song about armor and helmets, I tried making one,” this is a perfect Children’s Day song created and written/composed by Pasu.
Come to think of it, there are lots of children’s songs and nursery rhymes, but none that focus on armor and helmets.
The lyrics—something like, “If I put on armor and a helmet and time-traveled, I’d make Takeda Shingen and Oda Nobunaga my vassals and go to war!!”—are delightfully fun, and it’s a song I wish more people would get to know.
The melody has that classic nursery-rhyme feel, as if it’s been around for decades, and it’s pitch-perfect!