Little Moon Chinese

Mid-Autumn Festival worksheets

Moon, mooncakes and family: write the words and poem lines of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The festival of the full moon

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节, Zhōngqiū Jié) falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, when the moon is at its fullest and brightest. Families gather, eat mooncakes, carry lanterns and look at the moon together. For families living far from grandparents, it is also a time to call home and think of each other.

The moon is at the centre of the whole festival, which makes 月 (yuè, moon) a lovely first character. It is only four strokes and it really does look like a crescent moon.

Words on this worksheet

  • 中秋节 Zhōngqiū Jié: the Mid-Autumn Festival. 快乐 kuàilè means happy.
  • 月饼 yuèbing: mooncake. The 饣 on the left of 饼 means food.
  • 团圆 tuányuán: the family together again. Both characters are drawn inside a box, like a family inside a home.
  • 嫦娥 Cháng’é: the moon goddess, and 玉兔 yùtù, the jade rabbit who lives with her.
  • 月亮 yuèliang (the moon) and 圆 yuán (round).

Tell the story while you write

Children remember characters better when they come with a story. While your child writes 嫦娥, tell the legend: long ago there were ten suns in the sky, the archer Hou Yi shot down nine of them, and he was given a potion that would make him immortal. His wife Chang’e drank it and floated up to the moon, where she lives to this day with a white rabbit. On the night of the full moon, people put out food and look up to see if they can spot her.

Both 嫦 and 娥 have 女 (woman) on the left, a good chance to talk about how parts of a character give clues to the meaning.

Two moon poems

Use the quick-pick buttons to print lines from two famous poems:

  • 静夜思 by Li Bai: the poet sees moonlight on the floor, thinks it is frost, looks up at the moon and misses home. It is the first poem many Chinese children learn. There are more poems like it on the poem worksheet page.
  • 但愿人长久，千里共婵娟 from Su Shi’s 水调歌头: “I only wish we may all live long, and share the same moon though a thousand miles apart.” It is the line people send to faraway family at Mid-Autumn.

Activity ideas

  1. Moon-phase diary. For the week before the festival, write 月 each evening and draw the shape of the moon next to it.
  2. Lantern labels. Write 中秋快乐 on strips of paper and stick them to paper lanterns.
  3. Mooncake tags. Write 月饼 and a family member’s name on a small card for each mooncake you share.
  4. A call to grandparents. Hold up the finished worksheet on a video call and read the poem line together.

Questions parents ask

When is the festival?

It follows the lunar calendar, so the date moves each year, usually in September or early October.

Is 婵娟 too hard for young children?

Probably, as both characters have many strokes. Younger children can stick to 月, 中 and 圆, and listen to the poem while an older sibling or parent writes it.

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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