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 fingerplay songs to enjoy in May! Perfect songs for the fresh green season (41–50)
Warm and leisurely strollingSakushi: Sakata Hiroo / Sakkyoku: Komori Akihiro
Warm, balmy May is the perfect season for a stroll, isn’t it? A song I recommend for such times is the children’s song “Poka Poka Teku Teku.” Its composer, Akihiro Komori, created many well-known children’s songs such as “Genkotsuyama no Tanuki-san” and “Obentō-bako no Uta.” This song describes marching along with friends on a sunny, beautiful day, swinging your arms and legs wide as you walk on and on.
Its poppy, lighthearted melody feels like it could keep your feet moving forever! It’s surprisingly fun to just wander endlessly with friends without deciding on a destination.
Be sure to sing this song and enjoy an unknown journey!
Nursery rhymes and hand-clapping songs to enjoy in May! Perfect songs for the season of fresh greenery (51–60)
soap bubbleSakushi: Noguchi Ujō / Sakkyoku: Nakayama Shinpei
It’s a classic children’s song that straightforwardly portrays the scene of playing with soap bubbles.
The bubbles, reflecting light and soaring beautifully, can also prompt us to notice the surrounding scenery.
In early summer, when the plants are a vivid green and the sky a deep blue—especially in May—soap bubbles look particularly beautiful.
The song expresses a pure wish for the bubbles to keep flying without ever popping, conveying the joy and excitement of engaging with them.
Because it evokes the image of children playing with soap bubbles, it seems perfectly suited as a song to represent Children’s Day as well.
On the busSakushi sakkyoku: Taniguchi Kunihiro
May is a month with more chances to go on field trips a little farther by bus.
This song, “On the Bus,” makes those boring bus rides fun.
It sings about all the different movements you experience on a bus—turning right and left on curves, going up and down hills, and more.
You can move your body up, down, left, and right to match the lyrics’ motions, raise your hands to show the bus going farther and farther, or act out a countdown—so instead of just singing, you can enjoy the time by moving your whole body.
The song even describes arriving at the destination at the end, so after repeating the song several times, try to have the song “arrive” right when you actually reach your destination!
The skylark sings.Sakushi: Azuma Kume / Sakkyoku: Taki Rentaro
This song evokes the gentle atmosphere of spring and is truly perfect for the season around May.
The skylark mentioned in the title and lyrics is also said to be a bird that heralds spring.
Singing a song so full of spring might make you want to go look for skylarks or go see flowers that bloom in spring.
By the way, due to urbanization and the resulting decrease in green spaces like fields and meadows, skylarks have become difficult to spot nowadays.
It might be nice to try looking for them in a nature-rich place during Golden Week while singing this song.
Koinobori Swimming Through Space!machi akari
Koinobori is a custom that started in the Edo period, said to have begun among samurai families to pray for the healthy growth of boys.
Nowadays, people raise them to wish for children’s health regardless of gender.
The famous song “Koinobori” is such a well-known nursery rhyme that every Japanese person can sing it.
Do you know a fun song that’s like a parody of that “Koinobori”? Akari Machi’s “Swimming Through Space! Koinobori” tells the story of carp streamers swimming beyond rooftops, past the clouds, and all the way into outer space.
It even has a proper punchline where they get hungry and come back home, making it a real delight.
Listen once and you might get hooked!
Koi in the pondMonbushō shōka
When we think of Children’s Day in May, koinobori (carp streamers) come to mind, but the carp in this song are real carp living in a pond.
There are many kinds of carp, from the ones you might find in a park pond to vividly colored nishikigoi (koi).
The lyrics depict scenes of clapping to get their attention or tossing them ofu (wheat gluten feed) out of a desire to see and play with the carp.
Koinobori floating in the sky are wonderful, but it’s also lovely to sing along and play like this with real carp in nature!
A-I-U-E-O nigirisakushi/sakkyoku: shuu saeko
A bright, rhythmic tune themed around the joy and smiles of making rice balls as a family.
With lyrics that spark curiosity and imagination about everyday ingredients, it captivates children’s hearts.
First broadcast on NHK’s “Okaasan to Issho” in April 2001, the song has been covered by many artists, including Satoko Yamano and the Himawari Kids.
It’s used in nursery schools and kindergartens as part of food education, and it’s also recommended to hum along at home while making onigiri with your child.