Free printable Chinese worksheets for children from kindergarten to Primary 3: big tracing boxes, pinyin and English on every sheet.
Start with your child's stage
Kindergarten has 40 characters; Primary 1, 2 and 3 have 100 each, in ten units of ten.
- Kindergarten Chinese: The first 40 characters for K1 and K2: numbers, pictographs and first words in extra-large boxes. 一 二 三 四
- Primary 1 Chinese: SayMei's 100 Grade 1 characters in ten units, from 你好 (nǐ hǎo) and family words to colors and useful verbs. 你 好 我 是
- Primary 2 Chinese: SayMei's 100 Grade 2 characters: body, animals, time, directions, weather, home, school and joining words. 头 足 身 体
- Primary 3 Chinese: SayMei's 100 Grade 3 characters, most taught in families that share a part: 氵 (shuǐ), 口 (kǒu), 木 (mù), 亻 (rén), 扌 (shǒu), 讠 (yán) and 日 (rì). 河 海 江 湖
About these worksheets
Chinese worksheets for kids work best when they start small: big boxes, a few strokes and characters that look like what they mean. This page gathers SayMei's free printable worksheets for children from kindergarten to Primary 3 (Grade 3). Start with the kindergarten sheets for the numbers 一 (yī) to 十 (shí) and pictographs such as 日 (rì), 月 (yuè), 山 (shān) and 水 (shuǐ). Move on to Primary 1 and Primary 2, each with 100 characters in ten short units, and use the pictographs sheet to show how 人 (rén), 木 (mù) and 鱼 (yú) began as pictures. Topic sheets cover colors, numbers, animals, fruit, the body, family and weather, and seasonal sheets add Chinese New Year and children's poems. Every sheet shows pinyin and English and prints free or saves as a PDF, and the stage sheets only use example words built from characters already learned. The sequence is our own, so it fits beside any school textbook or weekend class.
Characters that began as pictures
- Chinese Pictographs: 36 classic pictographs, characters that began as pictures, with what each one shows. 人 大 女 子
Topic sheets for kids
- Colors: Write every basic color word from red to white, plus the word for color itself 颜色 红 黄 蓝
- Numbers 1 to 100: Every character behind the numbers 1 to 100, and the 十 (shí) pattern that combines them. 一 二 三 四
- Common Animals: Practice the animals kids and beginners meet first, from cats and dogs to farm animals 动物 猫 狗 鱼
- Family & Relatives: Grandparents on both sides, older and younger siblings, aunts and uncles. 家人 父母 爷爷 奶奶
- Body Parts: Head to toe anatomy words, with the flesh radical that groups them. 头 头发 脸 眼睛
- Fruits: Ten fruits from the market stall, with the tree and grass radicals that group them. 水果 苹果 香蕉 橙子
- Weather Words: Sun, cloud, rain, snow and wind, plus the temperature words that describe a day. 天气 晴天 阴天 云
- First Characters: The 12 most fundamental single characters every beginner writes first 人 一 小 口
- Greetings & Introductions: Core pronouns, names, and words for saying who you are and meeting people. 我 你 您 他
Festivals, poems and tests
- New Year for Kindergarten: Eighteen big, simple characters for preschool and kindergarten, from 年 (nián), 春 (chūn) and 福 (fú) to 人 (rén), 山 (shān) and 水 (shuǐ). 年 春 福 红
- Chinese New Year worksheets: Lunar New Year 2027 is on Saturday, February 6, and opens the Year of the Goat, 羊年 (yáng nián), also called the Year of the Sheep or Ram. Free printable sheets for every age, with pinyin and English.
- Chinese poems for kids: Thirty short classical poems that Chinese children learn first, each with pinyin, an English translation and a copy-the-lines worksheet.
- YCT Vocabulary Lists: The official YCT 1–4 word lists have 80, 150, 300 and 600 words; each list includes the one before it. 爱 八 爸爸 鼻子
Writing paper for kids
How the 340 characters are ordered
Our own second-language pace for weekend schools, international schools and home learners: about one character a week in kindergarten and three a week from Primary 1. It is not a school syllabus; native-speaker schools move much faster.
Chinese worksheet generator: type any words and print your own tracing sheet.
Frequently asked questions
What age can kids start Chinese writing worksheets?
Most children can start tracing big, simple characters at four or five, once they can hold a crayon and follow a line. Begin with the numbers 一 (yī) to 十 (shí) and pictographs like 日 (rì) and 山 (shān), a few minutes at a time, saying each one aloud.
How many Chinese characters should kids learn first?
Forty is a good first goal: our kindergarten set covers the numbers 一 (yī) to 十 (shí), nature pictographs, the body and first words, about one a week. Primary 1 and Primary 2 add 100 characters each, in ten units of ten.
Should children learn pinyin before characters?
They can learn both together. Our sheets show pinyin above every character, so children hear and see the sound while they write. Young children can trace and say the character; writing pinyin usually starts in Primary 1, where the pinyin row helps.
Do these worksheets follow the Singapore or Malaysia syllabus?
No. The sequence is SayMei's own and does not copy any school textbook, so it works beside any of them. For your child's weekly 听写 (tīng xiě, spelling test) list, type those characters into the worksheet generator to print the same kind of sheet.
Are these Chinese worksheets for kids free to print?
Yes. Every worksheet linked on this page is free to print or save as a PDF, with no account or email needed, and you can print as many copies as you like for a class. Choose A4 or US Letter before you print.