Music Class

15 Singable Autumn Songs for Preschoolers

Fingerplays, Freebies, Music Class, Printable, Songs, Teaching, Toddler / By Cherie / August 31, 2021 December 11, 2021

15 singable autumn songs for preschoolers and toddlers! Autumn is my favorite season and I have collected a nice repertoire of singable fall songs for preschoolers. In fact, I wrote a few of them and added familiar tunes to others. So this list may be different than many of the lists you will find online because some are original ideas. But I guarantee all are loved by parents and kid from my early childhood music classes. (And here is another list of imaginative fall songs for preschoolers if you are looking for more fall songs activities!)

What kind of autumn song should I teach preschoolers?

This blog post contains a list of text lyrics, song sheets, and videos to help you create music with toddlers and preschoolers. You will learn how to teach these autumn songs and rhymes for early years and preschool children. Included are musical fingerplays and songs about leaves, apples, spiders, scarecrows, pumpkins, squirrels and bunnies. These songs reinforce concepts preschoolers need to learn when they begin school like counting, colors, and developing large movement and fine motor skills.

I also wrote another blog post, “Imaginative Fall Songs for Preschoolers” that focuses on creativity, pretend play, and use of imagination. And a blog post, “Preschool Songs with Actions Boost Brain-Body Connection”. The songs in those posts are a great addition to this list!

What if I don’t know the songs?

Often the words repeat so they are easy to sing. Most melodies are familiar, but the ones you may not know I am including videos so you can learn them! You’ll enjoy singing these seasonal songs in September and October, and I will provide links that you can save on your playlist. Let’s make music together!

Autumn Songs for Preschoolers PDF Preview

Autumn songs for kids with printable resources.

Fall music is a great springboard for fall craft activities. Learning about the different shapes and colors of autumn leaves lends itself to many many toddler and preschool activities. Going outdoors and actually collecting falling leaves is so much fun for kids. Below I will share the songs I love sing during autumn. Teachers and parents love teaching these songs about the seasons.

Fall Songs about Leaves

Falling Leaves

Falling leaves

This version of Falling Leaves is sung to the tune of Jingle Bells. I like to sing this song with scarves so kids can move the scarf and imagine and the leaves are twirling in the air. If you can find an orange, yellow or red scarf all the better! When you sing “way up high” move the scarf up over your head. You can even stand on your tippy toes. When you sing “way down low” your scarf can touch the ground. Move your scarf fast and then slow (over exaggerate this!) when you get to “fast and slow”. At the very end blow a loud wind sound and you can even toss the scarf in the air, blow it and let it drift to the ground. Kids love this!

Leaves are Falling Down

This is a song that I use as a little fingerplay song. “Leaves are falling down” I wiggle my fingers and hands, and make my arms go from high to low (just like when it rains in Itsy Bitsy Spider song). “Swoosh!” my arms swipe out and in. “Rake them” I hold both fists together like I am hold a rake. You can make this song fun by changing the tempo (speed). Start slow and each time you repeat the song, make it a little faster. Kids love to get silly with this!

Autumn Leaves are Falling Down

Autumn Leaves are Falling

“Autumn Leaves are Falling Down” is sung to the tune “London Bridges.” Again like the song “Leaves are Falling Down,” I will wiggle my fingers and hands, and make my arms go from high to low while I am singing the lyrics, “Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.” We imagine we are raking leaves by putting our fists together and pretend we are holding a rake for the second verse.

I love to engage kids with their imagination. “What else can we do with the leaves?” I will ask. They may want to make a pile, jump in them, or bag them up. Creativity is so much fun. Let the kids create more verses to act out to this song!

Crunchy Leaves

I love the song Crunchy Leaves. It is sung to the tune “Hot Cross Buns”. This is a song I sing in every season because the words are so fun to change! On the download page I give you ideas for other words you can sing like, “pumpkin patch,” “falling leaves,” “coat and hat,” and “apple pie.” I have kids think of other autumn things that fit these three syllables. When they offer me suggestions, we check to see if it is three syllables. Sometimes they can hear that it is, or it isn’t. Really there are no bad suggestions, so longer syllable ideas we sing extra silly.

Because this song has a repeating short, short, long pattern I love to have kids bounce a stuffed animal on their lap while singing. It gives them the opportunity to move while singing, and you may have noticed… kids love to move!

The Leaves are Falling Down

The Leaves are Falling Down song is sung to the the tune, “The Farmer in the Dell.” There is a focus on color names: orange yellow red and brown. And also an add-on to this song with counting. We sing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 going higher each time up the music scale. Then as we sing, “8 leaves falling, falling to the ground.” we are going back down the scale. I love to have kids visually see the music going higher and then lower using props. So having a cut out leaf or a scarf while singing this song is great!

A Scarecrow Song

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Well, this isn’t actually about a scarecrow. But we can imagine we are a big scarecrow in the garden frightening away the birds who want to eat the vegetables in the garden. You can even dress up like a scarecrow if you put on a plaid shirt and hat. Kids love moving to this song. Make sure they know where all the body parts are before you begin. And make sure to repeat this song many times, getting faster and faster and faster. Did I already mention (yes!) kids love to get silly with how fast they can sing and move.

Autumn Spider Songs

10 Little Spiders

“Ten Little Indians” is another one of my favorite melodies to re-use every season. We can have 10 little friend, 10 little cookies, 10 little apples, etc. What can your children come up with for autumn? Pumpkins, apples, costumes, black cats, and more. Getting kids input and encouraging their creativity makes singing and moving even more fun!

This song “10 Little Spiders” has a creative ending. You can change the last line of the song to have the spiders crawl on a body part: a leg, arm, head, chin, etc. This makes the song very fun. If your child is old enough you can use a spider stuffed animal, finger puppet, or even cut out a spider and see if they can find and touch it to the body parts you sing.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

This classic song is probably one of the most popular children’s songs. Whenever I, as a teacher, decide I am tired of this song and take it out of my early childhood music class, I get those disappointed kids that mention at the very end of class that that was the one song they wanted to sing! So, while I may get tired of singing this song, kids don’t!

It’s also a favorite first piano song. Kids love to play songs they already know when they are learning to play an instrument. If you want to know 10 ways to get your child ready for piano lessons check out a few more of my blog posts for more information!

Fall Songs About Apples

Apple Tree Song

Apple Tree Song is sung to the tune, “Hush Little Baby.” Apple Tree can be sung over and over and each time you can change the number of apples on the tree. You can start from the number one and count going up. Or you can start at the number 10 and count going down. Older kids may also count by twos, fives, or tens.

Apple Pie Song

Apple Pie Song

This song is similar to the “10 Little Spiders” song in that it uses the tune, “10 Little Indians.” Apple picking and apple orchard visits are a classic part of autumn, so it makes sense to have an apple pie counting song! You can think about other foods apples can be put into: cobbler, oatmeal, muffins, cereal, etc. Kids love to be a part of the creative process and think of some of the most amazing things!

Fall Songs About Pumpkins

When I think of autumn, I think of apples, sunflower, and PUMPKINS! There are lots of great songs about pumpkins. Many of the apple songs can also become pumpkin songs with a little twist of lyrics.

Five Little Pumpkins

Five Little Pumpkins is a more difficult song for preschoolers to learn, because it has a lot of words! But wonderful education happens in this song, so it is worth singing!

First of all this song teaches ordinal numbers. Ordinal numbers are first, second, third, fourth, fifth. I like to do a little piano teaching prep here, so I teach the kids to put up their thumb on first, pointer finger on second, middle finger for third, ring finger for fourth and pinky for fifth.

These are the finger numbers for teaching piano lessons so it is great prep to get kids used to identifying these ordinal numbers with the correct finger. Just by demonstrating it, kids catch on.

I like to sing “Five Little Pumpkins” to the tune, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Pumpkin Patch Song

I sing this song to the tune of “Shortenin’ Bread.” You can sing this song many times and each time you can change the word “loves” to something else. Some suggestions include: picks, eats, carves, bakes, etc. Again, getting kids thinking about what other ideas they can come up with is fun!

A Little Pumpkin with a Frown

This is an original song. I wrote this song because kids don’t always feel happy. So it’s a great segue into talking about emotions and what we can do when we are not happy. How might you feel when you have a frown on your face? Why might you feel that way? What can you do about it? Equipping children with how to handle their emotions is very important. I look for opportunities to validate emotions and feelings, and let kids know that it is okay to feel those ways. The video below demonstrates how to sing this song,

Fall Animal Songs

Animals are busy busy busy in the fall. They are preparing for a long winter. Talking about what animals are doing to prepare for winter is a great springboard to thinking about animal activities and how animals might move. These ideas are great to incorporate into music and movement.

Grey Squirrel

Kids love the Grey Squirrel song because they love to swoosh the big bushy tail! I love to sing this song with a scarf and move the scarf like the squirrel’s tail. Identifying your nose and fingers that hold little acorns adds to the movement of this song.

My version is adapted from Leanne Guenther’s fall nursery rhyme. You can add more verses to this song by changing the lyrics “grey squirrel” to other family members, like papa squirrel, mama squirrel, baby squirrel, etc. You can also talk about other animals that have tails and make this an animal tail song.

Or you can make this a color song and make your squirrel brown, yellow, orange, red, etc.

Five Little Bunnies

There are several melodies you can sing Five Little Bunnies to: Twinkle Twinkle, Paw-Paw-Patch tune, Row Row Row your Boat. This song lends itself to making up any kind of simple tune. The end of the song is fun. You can have children hop as long as you want and you can count how many hops they hop!

Printable Resource: Autumn Songs for Preschoolers

I love to have all my seasonal materials in one place. So I made up this song collection, printed it, and put a comb-binding on it. If you are interested in this pdf collection you can get it by subscribing to Music Time Kid Music Community below. I’d love to have you join us. I am constantly putting together more musical resources to help you have fun with your toddlers and preschoolers. Both parents and teachers find these games, songs, musical activities and other printables helpful! Join us today!

Toddlers Music Classes with Beethoven!

3 Comments / Music Class, Toddler / By Cherie / August 30, 2021 September 27, 2021

Toddlers music classes are full of laughter, fun, and discovery. I have created a music class with Beethoven, a fun loving, pancake eating sheepdog puppet, who sings, dances, and plays musical instruments. Kids love joining along and making music with him! Familiar music is also enriched with sounds of music from around the world. Beethoven will show you how to sing some songs while shaking a maraca and dancing to the music!

FREE Early Childhood Music Classes

Your preschooler will love this free 6 week early childhood music class. Together you’ll get to meet Beethoven, an adorable sheepdog who loves to sing, dance and play musical instruments! This online class is so much fun your kids will want to see it again and again! And, best of all… your kids will be learning so much as they participate.

Parent child bonding opportunities are so important. They build strong relationships and trust. Early childhood music classes are the perfect opportunity for building strong parent child relationships.

Why are there classes for toddlers?

Babies and young kids by themselves are too young for a music class. But together with a caring adult, children of all ages are able to participate in music programs. Music helps children with cognitive development, language development, social development, and the development of physical skills. And while the development of children is essential, there are also benefits of music on kids’ health.

Cognitive Development

A definition of cognitive is 1 : of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering) cognitive impairment.

When kids learn how to sing fun songs, they are using a lot of intellectual brain activity. They are hearing a melody, rhythm, and words simultaneously. Those are a lot of skills to develop and utilize at the same time! And I think it is wonderful that children benefit from music in this way when it is also just good ole fun!

Language Development

Music encourages language development because most kids love to sing to music. While they may not know all the words to a song, they begin to vocalize what they can and then improvements are made over time. Engaging your child in musical activities is a wonderful springboard for your child’s language to develop.

I love teaching music classes for babies and toddlers because it gives familes a chance to gather together in a group. But life has sure changed with the covid-19 pandemic. In-person, interactive classes have had to explore different ways to help parents and children learn how to make make music together. Personally I love the in-person classes for the personal contact, the family community that exists, the opportunity to create a learning experience for the youngest of age child.
Online and video education is increasingly becoming popular. Parents are still seeking to have parent child bonding experiences that are fun, and discover how to use music to help their child grow developmentally.

Motor Skill Development

When young children begin to attend school, they are required to already know so many things. From the alphabet to counting to being able too hold a pencil or scissors. Both gross (large) and fine (small) motor skills are essential for the success of children in school. I believe the music classes for young kids play an important part of children’s ability to acquire these skills.

For example, gross motor skills are developed as kids march or hop to the music. Dancing to music helps kids learn how to feel a steady beat or move to a specific rhythm pattern.

Fine motor skills are practiced when a child plays a triangle (an instrument held suspended by a thread and struck with the other hand with a small metal stick).

Music classes provide weekly opportunities for this kind of development. And school teachers are grateful to the parents who provide this kind of education and program to their children.

Parents ask, “How do I teach my 2 year old music?”

Sing on Non-sense Syllables

When a child first begins to talk he/she says bah-bah-bah or dah, dah, dah. So it is natural for children to sing melodies with these non-sense syllables. It’s actually the building block to language development. Adults might feel silly singing songs with these syllables, but it makes it easy to play instruments, move to the beat, and learn how to sing without worrying about the words to a song. Even choirs vocalize on these basic syllables because it is easier to get a good sound from the voice!

Play Rhythmic Instruments

Music classes are not the only place kids can play musical instruments. When my kids were little I would pick up quality instruments from garage sales, online sales, thrift stores, or ask for them as gifts. I’m pretty picky about quality because it doesn’t take too much damage for a musical instrument to become dangerous if a bunch of small inner parts gets loose. So ask for great quality music instruments as gifts and build a little collection!

Move to the music

Toddlers and preschoolers learn best by moving. And music is the ideal platform for learning because who can resist music and movement? Music and movement are basically synonymous because who can listen to music without moving, right?!!! I feel so strongly that music and movement at the keys to learning that I am linking to several music and movement songs I have used over and over in my toddlers music classes.

Use your child’s favorite stuffed animals

You might be thinking, what!? Yes, stuffed animals are wonderful additions to the early childhood music experience. Most of the toddlers in my music class prefer to bounce their favorite stuffed animal on their lap to the beat of a song we are singing, than bounce on their parent’s lap. Bouncing and tapping are two ways kids learn how to feel a steady beat and that is very important in early childhood. Finding ways that makes this fun for kids helps build their rhythmic skills for future music making.

Benefits of virtual music classes

Offer support for child development

As I mentioned earlier, Covid-19 has had an impact on family’s ability to gather into community to enjoy the social aspect of early childhood music classes. But there is still a demand for toddlers music classes. Parents are seeking the many advantages music offers to help prepare their children for school. So virtual classes for toddlers are now emerging.

Teach parents how to work with their child

I love recording these classes because I can reach more families. When I teach in person, I can only allow a limited number of parents and kids in my classroom. But with virtual learning, I can teach parents the activities that their child will benefit from and then you can continue on your own at home with your child’s favorite songs on your playlist.

Accessing wonderful teachers throughout the country

Another benefit is is accessing good teachers. I have been a teacher for over 30 years. And … because I have five kids of my own and 4 grandkids… I know good music! I am happy to help you discover the wonderful music of some of the great artists like Ella Jenkins, Raffi, Laurie Berkner, Elizabeth Mitchell, and more. I don’t know about you, but when I search for music on youtube, all I see is the cutesy, cheesy crap that I can’t listen to for more than about one minute. But great music… you will find me singing along all day with my grandkids!

Drawbacks of virtual music classes

Loss of opportunities for friendship and community

Well, the main drawback of virtual classes is the loss of friendship and community. I have watched little kids become friends in music class and then they maintain that friendship for years. Something special happens in music class. Usually when I am teaching, I provide 15 minutes at the end of the class for children to explore a plethora of musical instruments. Parents can play with their child and also visit with other caregivers. This aspect is very important for child development.

May encourage parents to be less engaged

Virtual classes may tempt a caregiver to put a child in front of a screen and not participate with the child. The purpose of classes for babies and very young kids is to actually have the caregiver involved in the class. This is increasingly more important in a virtual setting. Through role modelling and demonstrating, the parent provides a wonderful foundation for learning.

Benefits outweigh the drawbacks

However, the musical benefits for child development are so very important that I think virtual classes are better than having no class at all. I believe a good early childhood music program will engage both the parent and child in an experience they can enjoy together.

What classes are best for toddlers?

So… what toddlers music classes are best? There are so many wonderful programs. I don’t believe there is only one superior curriculum. I would recommend you visit a few different classes join the one that your child enjoys and make sure the class also helps you learn! Parents who are taught along the way can then be a teacher at home. And I think this is important in life. Encouraging parents to learn and grow and equipping them to be a wonderful support and music teacher for their own children is a gift. So unfortunately I cannot really give you an answer here because every family is different.

I am offering a free 6 week class!

The good news is that I have released my first 6 week class for FREE! I’d love to have you join my class and check it out. If you don’t love it or haven’t benefited in any way, you aren’t out anything at all. But there is one catch! Please make sure you sit with your child and participate with him/her. I guarantee it will make a world of different and will be so much beneficial.

All you have to do it join my music community below and you will have instant access to my early childhood music classes. These are activities I do with all my classes I teach locally, but am unable to do so currently do to Covid-19.

I recommend having a couple basic instruments (or even safe plastic kitchen gadgets, a pot, a wooden spoon, etc.) and a scarf (could be a burp cloth, cloth diaper, or wash cloth). Most of all… have fun!

Hi, Music Time Kids!