A collection of classic nursery rhymes and hand-play songs for September! Enjoy autumn with your child through songs.
With the refreshing autumn breeze comes a cool season filled with children’s smiles.
During such delightful autumn days, why not incorporate songs and fingerplay that are perfect for the season into life with the children? In fact, there are many children’s songs for September that gently depict autumn scenes, such as ginkgo leaves, chestnuts, and moon-viewing.
Here, we will introduce a wide range of songs that will be useful in September childcare—from pieces that express autumn landscapes like moon-viewing and autumn foliage to fingerplay songs.
Be sure to find songs that let you enjoy the season together with the children while experiencing the ambiance of autumn.
- [Children’s Songs of Autumn] Autumn songs, school songs, and traditional children’s rhymes. A collection of classic pieces to sing in autumn.
- Recommended children's songs and hand play songs for October! Music time in childcare that feels like autumn.
- Song of the Maple Leaves. An autumn children’s song/nursery rhyme/folk song
- Children’s songs and nursery rhymes about the moon
- [Childcare] Recommended songs and nursery rhymes for November: Fun autumn fingerplay songs
- A collection of classic nursery rhymes and hand-play songs for September! Enjoy autumn with your child through songs.
- Songs to Listen to in September: Popular J-POP Tracks That Capture the End of Summer and Early Autumn
- [Hand Play] Popular with kids! A collection of trendy hand-play songs and nostalgic traditional children’s songs
- [For Seniors] Autumn Songs That Touch the Heart: From Nostalgic Children’s Songs and School Songs to Showa-Era Kayōkyoku
- Nursery rhymes and fingerplay songs to enjoy in May! Songs perfect for the fresh green season
- [Autumn Songs] Songs of autumn. Classic tracks and popular favorites you’ll want to listen to in the fall.
- Recommended Autumn Songs for People in Their 80s: A Collection of Seasonal Kayōkyoku and Children's Songs
- Children’s songs, folk songs, and nursery rhymes about insects
A Collection of Classic Nursery Rhymes & Hand-Play Songs for September! Enjoy Autumn with Your Kids Through Songs (41–50)
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!
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.
Sticky-bug bug
“Hittsuki Mushi-Mushi” is a play song where you stick to something that matches the color mentioned in the lyrics.
Like the game “Color Tag,” kids love this kind of play! If you’re playing outside in November, choosing colors like red, brown, yellow, and black to match the seasonal scenery makes the game easier and adds a sense of the season—highly recommended.
Of course, it’s fun indoors too, so give it a try!
[Hand Play] Pumpkin, Nankin, Pumpkin
![[Hand Play] Pumpkin, Nankin, Pumpkin](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f3AfTWWFenk/sddefault.jpg)
Sweet and delicious pumpkin that comes into season in autumn.
This time, it’s a hand-play activity themed around the different names for pumpkin.
Children can learn three ways to say it—kabocha, nankin, and pumpkin—and even encounter names of dishes made with pumpkin, making it great for food education too.
The hand motions are simple, and the “cha-cha-cha” rhythm lifts the mood, so it’s easy for little kids to join in.
Give it a try together during Halloween season, when you see pumpkins more often!
autumn sky
It’s a very short piece, but as the title suggests, it’s a memorable song that evokes the clear autumn sky.
There’s a call-and-response part where you shout toward the sky, so if adults sing it, kids will surely enjoy copying them.
Even children who are too young to sing can have fun with this song.
If you go for a walk in the pleasant autumn weather, be sure to try singing it.
Potato Digging Song
Perfect for the autumn season, this song is a children’s tune about the fun of digging sweet potatoes.
Set to a bright and cheerful melody, it depicts children experiencing potato digging.
The call-and-response chant “Untokosho, dokkoisho” is memorable and really livens things up when everyone sings together! It’s often sung at autumn events and harvest festivals, and its simple, easy-to-remember lyrics make it enjoyable even for very young children.
Singing it before a potato-digging outing is a fun way for everyone to share the excitement.
Delicious Aki
As the saying ‘autumn is the season of appetite’ suggests, fall is also a time when many delicious foods are in season.
That’s why I’d like to introduce Oishii Aki (Delicious Autumn).
This book features foods that reach their peak in autumn, such as chestnuts, sweet potatoes, and Pacific saury.
It’s exciting to wonder, ‘What will appear next?’ and a fun point is that each item comes with its own unique choreography.
It also seems like a great way to spark interest in food.
