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)
rice plantingSakushi: Inoue Takeru / Sakkyoku: Nakayama Shinpei
This song is a Ministry of Education school song released in 1942 (Showa 17).
Nowadays we have bread, pasta, and other foods, so it may not feel as striking, but the lyrics evoke a time when rice was precious.
The opening lines are said to have been influenced by a Fukushima folk song that was sung as a “Honen Odori” (Good Harvest Dance) to thank the rice-field deity for a bountiful harvest.
KintaroSakushi: Ishihara Wasaburō / Sakkyoku: Tamura Torazō
This is a Japanese Ministry of Education song included in “Children’s Songs” in 1900.
The piece sings about the folktale Kintaro of the same name.
Kintaro, depicted as a lively boy carrying a hatchet, riding on a bear’s back, and wearing a diamond-shaped bib, became the model for Boys’ Festival dolls.
Song of MaySakkyoku: Mōtsaruto / Sakushi: Aoyagi Zengo
This is the piece known as “Longing for Spring,” which Mozart composed in January 1791 as an easy-to-understand song for children, based on the theme of his final Piano Concerto, K.
595, and to which Japanese lyrics were later added.
It has been sung as a Ministry of Education school song.
The content of the lyrics preserves the imagery of the original words, and the gentle triple meter seems to express the pleasant weather of May.
In conclusion
Songs and hand games for May in early childhood settings offer a precious time to experience the changing seasons together with children.
By gently incorporating May nursery rhymes and fingerplays into daily activities, you’ll likely see even more smiles from the children.
Find your favorite May songs and bring richer color to life at the nursery.