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 Nursery Rhymes & Fingerplay Songs for October! Autumn-Themed Music Time in Early Childhood Education (21–30)
a maple leafSakushi sakkyoku: Sasaki Nobutsuna
This is a charming children’s song written and composed by Nobutsuna Sasaki.
It depicts a heartwarming scene that brings to mind a child delighting in comparing fluttering, falling leaves with their own hands.
Its gentle melody makes it easy for children to sing, and the lyrics are filled with words that warm the heart.
It’s perfect not only for singing in preschools and kindergartens, but also for humming along with your child on an autumn stroll.
Be sure to sing together and enjoy the colors of the season.
Tanuki of Fist MountainSakushi: Kayama Yoshiko/Shokyoku: Komori Akihiro
As everyone knows, it’s a classic hand-play song.
Children’s author Yoshiko Kayama wrote the story-rich lyrics, and composer Akihiro Komori set them to an easy-to-love melody.
This play song not only features the cute figure of a tanuki, but also conjures up gentle, idyllic autumn scenes—like the white butterfly and red flowers depicted in the lyrics.
The song and its story come together as one, enriching the listener’s imagination.
After it was featured on the TV program “Tobe Tobe Panpororin” in 1973, it spread across Japan.
The motions—like stacking clenched hands—and the lively choreography that matches the lyrics are great fun too.
Become tanuki together as parent and child, and give it a try!
Recommended children's songs and hand play songs for October! Music time in childcare that feels like autumn (31–40)
Five pumpkins
“Five Little Pumpkins” is a popular song that’s perfect for Halloween.
It’s a slightly thrilling Halloween tune for kids, where five pumpkins arrive on Halloween night and say, “If you don’t give us treats, we’ll gobble you up!” The song includes the numbers 1 through 5, making it great for helping little ones learn to count.
It might be fun to sing the song while showing the numbers with your fingers.
It’s a great choice for Halloween events where parents and children can sing together while counting, so give it a try!
I want to scribble on the sky.
“I Want to Scribble on the Sky” is a song that conveys a child’s pure feelings.
Many of us spent our early years looking up at the sky and imagining, “I want to ride on a cloud” or “I want to fly.” Likewise, the protagonist of this song wishes to “draw pictures in the sky.” Since autumn is often called the season of the arts, why not sing it before drawing time? The lyrics were written by Michio Yamagami, and the music was composed by Taku Izumi.
Mysterious Pocket
A dreamy song where biscuits keep multiplying just by patting your pocket.
At first there should have been only one biscuit inside, but every time you pat your pocket, they increase more and more.
Surely some kids have admired that magical situation and tried to imitate it, right? But in reality, if you try it, the biscuits just crumble to pieces, and you end up getting scolded by your mom afterward…
rabbit
Autumn is the season for moon viewing.
Many nursery schools and kindergartens probably enjoy making crafts with motifs like the moon, rabbits, and moon-viewing dumplings.
“Usagi” is a traditional Japanese children’s song that lets you savor the atmosphere of moon viewing through singing.
The song does not depict a rabbit on the moon, but rather a rabbit gazing at the moon.
By sharing episodes related to moon viewing and singing together with friends, or doing hand-play while singing, children can feel the customs of autumn more closely.
maple leaves
The Japanese children’s song Mōmiji, with lyrics by Tatsuyuki Takano and music by Teiichi Okano, was included in the 1911 edition of Elementary School Songs for the second grade.
When we sing it as children, the meaning of the lyrics may not sink in very much.
But listening to it again as adults, both the melody and the words are truly beautiful.
It’s one of the nursery and school songs we’d love to see passed down from childhood.
The Takano–Okano duo also left many other masterpieces, such as Furusato and Haru ga Kita.