てあそび: Japanese Fingerplays

sozai no puchi-chi

Fingerplays (children’s songs with coordinating hand movements) are called Teasobi／てあそび in Japanese. て=hand and あそび=play. One of my favorites is a song called “Hajimaruyo/はじまるよ” which translates to “We’re About to Begin”. It is a great song for getting the children’s attention and getting them settled before giving instruction or reading a book. My Japanese playgroup often uses this song to gather everyone together and it works great! It is also a good song for teaching children their numbers.

You can listen/view the song at Teasobi.com by clicking here. てあそびドットコムis a great, great website full of videos, lyrics, and sheet music of popluar children’s songs and fingerplays. They also have handy diagrams for their songs.

My other favorite teasobi (also on Teasobi.com) are:

1) おべんとうばこのうた (The Bento Box Song)

2) グーチョキパー (Rock Scissors Paper) YouTube video here

3) ひげじいさん (The Bearded Grandpa)

いたずら天使 is another website that has Teasobi lyrics.

Watch Anpanman and Baikinman in this Teasobi episode:

Part 1

Part 2 Part 3

Do you have a favorite teasobi?

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