[Children's Songs] Cute songs recommended for childcare. List of popular nursery rhymes.
Kids love to sing!
Singing is a form of exercise, nurtures interest in language, and helps develop expressiveness and a sense of rhythm.
It’s also said that singing releases “happy hormones,” making it effective for relieving stress.
Bring plenty of music into daily life and sing freely together with your children.
This time, we’re introducing popular children’s songs we’d love you to sing and play with your kids!
We’ve collected everything from classic nursery rhymes passed down through the years to the latest hit songs.
You can search songs by category—animals, vehicles, food, and more—so you’re sure to find the perfect tune for your children.
If you add simple choreography or hand-play motions as well as singing, the kids will be thrilled!
Be sure to explore a variety of nursery rhymes and enjoy happy times with your children!
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Autumn Songs (1–10)
mushroomSakushi: Mado Michio / Sakkyoku: Kurakake Shōji
Mushrooms are an essential taste of autumn.
This song describes mushrooms growing hard and strong while receiving blessings from the heavens.
We tend to forget about them because they don’t move, but in fact mushrooms grow just like we do! Listening to this song helps you see mushrooms as living beings, so even kids who don’t like the taste might grow fond of them.
It’s also great as a play song for nursery schools and kindergartens.
Children aged 1–2 dancing in mushroom costumes would be absolutely adorable.
pine coneSakushi: Hirota Takao / Sakkyoku: Kobayashi Tsuyae
Pine Cones was created in 1936.
The lyricist, Takao Hirota, was a first-grader at the time, and his teacher, Tsuyae Kobayashi, set his poem to music.
With simple lyrics about animals in the mountains eating nuts, it’s appealing because even young children can sing it.
Many of you may know it from NHK’s popular children’s program, With Mother.
Many nursery schools and kindergartens enjoy using this song for hand-play and rhythm activities, so be sure to sing it for indoor autumn play.
Donguri KorokoroSakushi: Aoki Sonoyoshi / Sakkyoku: Yanada Tadashi
In autumn, you can find lots of little acorns scattered along the paths, right? The song “Donguri Korokoro” tells a charming story about such acorns.
It begins with a lightweight acorn that rolls and rolls until it falls into a pond.
At first, it has fun playing in the water with a kind loach, but gradually it becomes homesick and wants to return to the mountain where it came from.
The lyrics are a bit bittersweet, but when you sing it, sing cheerfully—and make sure to collect lots of acorns!
Yakiimo goo-choki-pasakushi: sakata hiroo / sakkyoku: yamamoto naozumi
Perfect for autumn, when roasted sweet potatoes are at their tastiest, is “Yakiimo Goo Chaa Paa,” a song you can also enjoy as a hand-play game.
It’s the ideal tune for the season of hearty appetites, depicting roasting sweet potatoes and savoring them.
Try acting out with your hands how hot the potatoes are and the motions of eating, in time with the lyrics.
There’s even a rock-paper-scissors part at the end of the song.
While you’re waiting for the sweet potatoes to finish roasting, sing and play along with friends or family! The more you sing, the hungrier you’ll get…
autumn sky
Under the clear autumn sky, the song “Akino Sora” makes you want to sing.
As the humidity drops and a refreshing breeze blows, autumn is the perfect season for field trips and strolls.
In this kind of autumn, you can’t help but raise your voice a little, trying to send it far, just like in the song.
Like shouting “Yoo-hoo!” from a mountaintop, calling out loudly toward the beautiful sky is bound to feel great! If you sing out loud—and even give a shout—you’ll feel as refreshed as the autumn sky.
When you’re lucky enough to meet a pleasant autumn sky, be sure to try it just like in this song.
Dragonfly, dragonfly.
Among the insects often seen in autumn are dragonflies, and this time I’d like to introduce a children’s song about them.
The song is short and easy to remember! You can just sing it, but you can also move your fingers in little circles as if catching a dragonfly, make big circles with your arms, or even spin your whole body around.
There are no set rules for how to play—feel free to express the dragonfly however you like as you sing.
It’s also fun to use props, like singing while flying a dragonfly made from origami, or slipping a ribbon between a pair of chopsticks to flutter in the wind.
Full Moon Night’s Mochi Pounding
You often hear the story that on the night of the Harvest Moon, rabbits are pounding mochi on the moon, right? If you don’t want to lose to those rabbits, you can enjoy pounding mochi yourself on the night of the Harvest Moon with this hand-clapping game, “Jūgoya-san no Mochitsuki.” It’s a hand play song for pairs: the two of you pound mochi like the rabbits inside the moon.
One person keeps both hands opening up and down, clapping rhythmically—ton, ton, ton, ton.
The other person kneads and pounds the mochi, trying not to get their hands caught between the claps.
It looks simple, but if your timing is off, it quickly gets confusing—surprisingly tricky! Be sure to enjoy it on the night of the Harvest Moon!