Recommended children's songs and hand play songs for October! Music time in childcare that feels like autumn.
The season of children’s songs that warmly embrace the heart in October has arrived.
Crimson dragonflies at dusk, cosmos flowers, golden rice ready for harvest, and children going out to collect acorns and fallen leaves… Scenes that color autumn in Japan are beautifully depicted in the lyrics and melodies of these songs.
In this article, we introduce autumn children’s songs beloved in early childhood settings, as well as seasonal finger-play songs you can enjoy with kids.
Please sing these autumn songs—cherished across generations—together with your loved ones, children and adults alike!
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Recommended Children’s Songs and Hand-Play Rhymes for October! Music Time in Early Childhood Education That Feels Like Autumn (61–70)
Bright Red Autumnsakushi: satsuma tadashi / sakkyoku: kobayashi hideo
This song, vividly depicting the colors of autumn, expresses the season’s beauty through the eyes of children.
Scenes of nature turning red—ivy, maple leaves, and snake gourds—appear one after another, conveying the pure joy of children who discover them.
First introduced in October 1963 on NHK’s “Tanoshii Uta,” it has since remained beloved through “Minna no Uta.” The lyrics, which fully embody Tadashi Satsuma’s poetic worldview, allow children to feel the beauty and vitality of autumn’s nature.
It’s a perfect piece for autumn events at nurseries and kindergartens, or for family strolls.
Why not sing it together and joyfully welcome the arrival of autumn?
Bright Red AutumnKobayashi Hideo
Sung by UA, who also appeared on NHK Educational’s Doremi no Terebi, the song evokes vivid autumn scenes just by listening to it.
The track is also included on UA’s album Utau Ua.
The composer is Hideo Kobayashi, known for creating numerous choral works.
Dango, dango, they stuck together.
Autumn is the season of hearty appetites—so many foods taste great right now, don’t they? The song “Dango, Dango Stuck Together” is a fingerplay tune about delicious dango sticking to your head, shoulders, cheeks, and chin and not coming off easily! You use your hand in a fist to pretend it’s a dango, sticking it to different parts of your body as part of the fingerplay.
It’s a fun song where you can even add your own original lyrics.
When you strain with an “Uuun!” trying to pull the dango off, your whole body can’t help but get moving.
Sing it, and you might just find yourself craving some dango!
The Forest Recital
It seems a rabbit, a raccoon dog, a monkey, and a turtle are supposed to take part in a recital held in the forest, but they’re all too nervous or end up quarreling and can’t go on! As each animal appears, let’s sing while moving in a way that matches that animal.
In the end, all the animals come together and put on the recital.
We finish on a warm note, feeling that a showcase where every animal’s individuality shines is wonderful! It’s the perfect song for autumn, the season when art—and recitals—abound!
Village Festival
Here is a children’s song that perfectly captures the feel of “classic old Japan.” It’s a piece included in the 1912 publication Standard Elementary School Songs, and it depicts an autumn harvest festival.
The festival music sounds described in the lyrics evoke scenes of traditional Japanese festivals.
It’s also interesting that about half of the lyrics are filled with onomatopoeic festival chants.
Since the scenes in the lyrics reflect older times, many children today might find them hard to understand.
It’s a good idea to sing it together while explaining the traditions of old festivals.
Village Festival
In autumn, festivals are often held, and they’re one of the things children look forward to.
This song describes a festival at a shrine in the village.
The lyricist is unknown, but a leading theory attributes it to Shigeru Kuzuhara, who wrote “Yūhi” (Sunset).
autumn field
This is “Autumn Field” from Hakushu Kitahara’s Six Children’s Songs.
The composition was done by Ikuma Dan.
Among the songs in this collection, it is probably the best known and most often sung.
It is a song in which “that child” from the lyrics walks along a small path, and it captures the loneliness one feels in autumn with remarkable skill.
Many of you have probably felt that same loneliness, haven’t you?
