Seven poems in this set
These are short poems from the Tang dynasty that many Chinese children learn in their first years of school. Each one has only four lines, so it fits on one or two worksheets. Click a poem’s name above to load it.
- 悯农 “Pity the Farmers” by Li Shen. A farmer hoes in the midday sun and his sweat drips onto the soil. “Who knows that every grain in the bowl was hard work?” Chinese parents quote it when children leave rice in the bowl.
- 画 “A Painting”, traditionally credited to Wang Wei. It is a riddle: mountains with colour, water that makes no sound, flowers in every season and birds that don’t fly away. The answer is a painting.
- 江雪 “River Snow” by Liu Zongyuan. A thousand mountains without birds, ten thousand paths without people, and one old man fishing alone in the snow.
- 草 (赋得古原草送别) by Bai Juyi. Grass on the plain dies each year and grows back: “wildfire cannot burn it out, the spring wind brings it to life again.”
- 寻隐者不遇 “Looking for the Hermit” by Jia Dao. A visitor asks a boy where his master is. “Gathering herbs, somewhere on this mountain, but the clouds are too deep to know where.”
- 鹿柴 “Deer Park” by Wang Wei. An empty mountain, voices with no one in sight, and evening light falling on green moss.
- 游子吟 “Song of the Traveller” by Meng Jiao. A mother sews her son’s clothes before he leaves, stitching tightly because she fears he will be slow to come home. It has six lines, so it fills two pages.
The four most famous first poems, including 静夜思 and 咏鹅, are on the Chinese poem worksheet page.
One line a day
A classic poem has twenty characters, five per line. Copying the whole poem in one sitting is a lot for a child. Instead:
- Day 1: read the poem aloud together and talk about the picture it paints. Draw it.
- Days 2–5: write one line a day. Delete the other lines from the box above, or print the whole poem and do one row a day.
- Day 6: recite the poem from memory, then write the whole thing with tracing set to 0.
By the end of the week your child can recite, write and explain a poem that Chinese children all know, which is a real thing to share with grandparents.
Which poem first?
画 is a good starter because the riddle makes it fun, and most of its characters are simple: 山, 水, 花, 人, 鸟. 悯农 is the most useful at the dinner table. 江雪 and 鹿柴 are quieter and suit older children. Save 游子吟 for Mother’s Day.
Settings tips
Poems are long, so medium boxes with two tracing boxes keep each poem to one or two pages. Pinyin helps with reading aloud. For a quick review sheet, turn stroke order off.
Questions parents ask
Why are the punctuation marks missing?
The worksheet only draws characters, so commas and full stops are skipped. Each line of these poems is five characters, so the lines are easy to find.
Can I add my own poem?
Yes. Paste any poem into the box, up to 80 characters. Longer poems can be split across two worksheets.
How to print this worksheet
- Pick a set with the buttons above, or type your own characters into the box.
- Choose A4 or US Letter to match your printer paper.
- 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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