Little Moon Chinese

Body parts in Chinese worksheet

Head, shoulders, knees and toes: write the body parts in Chinese, many of which still look like what they mean.

Characters that look like the body

Body parts are one of the best topics for showing children how Chinese characters began as pictures. Several of them started out as simple drawings:

  • 口 kǒu (mouth): an open mouth.
  • 目 mù (eye): an eye turned on its side. Turn the paper 90 degrees and you can see it.
  • 耳 ěr (ear): the curve of an ear.
  • 手 shǒu (hand): a hand with fingers spread.
  • 心 xīn (heart): an early drawing of the heart.
  • 牙 yá (tooth): an old drawing of teeth meeting.

The Picture characters button prints these six. They are short, mostly under six strokes, and make a great first worksheet for preschoolers.

Everyday words for the face and body

  • 头 tóu: head. 头发 tóufa: hair.
  • 脸 liǎn: face.
  • 眼睛 yǎnjing: eyes. In daily speech children say 眼睛 rather than 目.
  • 鼻子 bízi: nose. 嘴 zuǐ: mouth (everyday word).
  • 耳朵 ěrduo: ears. 牙 yá: teeth. 舌头 shétou: tongue.
  • 眉毛 méimao: eyebrows.
  • 身体 shēntǐ: body. 肚子 dùzi: tummy.
  • 手 shǒu: hand. 脚 jiǎo: foot. 腿 tuǐ: leg.

The flesh radical

Many body-part characters have 月 on the left: 脸, 脚, 腿 and 肚. Here it does not mean moon. It is a squashed form of 肉 (meat, flesh), so it marks parts of the body. This is a fun puzzle for older children: “Why would ‘leg’ have a moon in it?” Then let them hunt for other 月 characters on the sheet.

Songs and games

  1. Head, shoulders, knees and toes. Sing it in Chinese: 头、肩膀、膝盖、脚趾. Point to each body part and then to the character on the sheet.
  2. Simon says. 摸摸你的鼻子 (touch your nose). Children who can read can play with written cards instead of spoken commands.
  3. Draw a monster. Your child draws a monster with three 眼睛 and four 手, and labels each part.
  4. Body outline. Trace around your child on a big roll of paper and stick on labels they have written.

Suggested settings

For children aged three to five, print the Picture characters set in large boxes with five tracing boxes and fading on. Ages six and up can try the Face set with three tracing boxes. 嘴 (16 strokes) and 睛 (13 strokes) are hard, so turn on stroke order and give them two rows each.

Questions parents ask

Should my child learn 目 or 眼?

Both. 目 is simpler to write and appears inside many other characters, like 看 (look) and 睡 (sleep). 眼睛 is what people actually say. Learn 目 first for writing, then 眼睛 for speaking.

Are there more simple characters like these?

The kindergarten worksheets collect more picture-like first characters, such as 人, 山, 日 and 水.

How to print this worksheet

  1. Pick a set with the buttons above, or type your own characters into the box.
  2. Choose A4 or US Letter to match your printer paper.
  3. Press Print or save as PDF. In the print window choose your printer, or “Save as PDF” to keep a copy.

Your settings are saved in the page address, so you can bookmark it or send the link to another parent or teacher and they will see the same worksheet.

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