I love to explore the diverse cultures of various foreign countries and engage in fun activities inspired by these cultures with my son and daughter.
Chinese culture is one of my favorites, and I like to teach my kids about Chinese culture through several activities, books and movies.
My son is a big fan of Chinese noodles🥘; therefore, our dining table witnesses the delicacies of Chinese cuisine often. Moreover, my children love to read about all the stories and Chinese folk tales.
I always make sure that these activities not only educate my kids about the mesmerizing culture of China but also aid in the overall development of cognitive 🧠 and motor 💪 skills.
Engaging Chinese Activities for Your Little Ones
I have prepared a list of amazing Chinese activities that I enjoy a lot ✅️ with my little ones. Read on to discover all of them and embark on an adventure to explore 🔍 interesting delights of Chinese culture.
Learn How To Write Chinese
I love to teach my little ones how to write ✍️ in Chinese using different methods. Sometimes, I use the process of marble painting 🎨 while the rest of the time we use colorful chalk.
We also practice writing in Chinese by creating impressions with our fingers on the surface of sand on a plate or bowl.
Also, I draw the outlines of Chinese sentences on a piece of paper 📃 and ask my little ones to cut ✂️ along the outlines to create a cutout of the whole sentence.
Chinese Dragon Craft Activities
Painting 🎨, as well as creative craft activities, are a staple in our household, and I love to use cute and innovative methods of painting in the daily activities of my little ones so that they happily participate all the time.
Here are a few methods for creating amazing Chinese dragons 🐉that my little dragon lovers are always ready ❤️ to engage in:
Origami and Hand ✋️ Painting Chinese Dragons:
There are endless ways of making beautiful and stunning dragons 🐉 using the magic of origami.
In fact, I cut out the impressions of my little one’s hands ✋️ on a piece of paper and added claws, a breath of fire, and a magnificent tail to it using colorful pens or paper cutouts to make an incredible dragon 🐲 for my little ones.
Fork Dragon:
I instruct my adorable dragon lovers through the method of dipping a fork’s backside in green, black, white, brown, red, or bright yellow shades of paint 🎨 and pressing its pretty impression on paper in various patterns to create a dragon’s 🐲 face and body.
We create the eyes 👀, claws, and other parts of the dragon using a paintbrush 🖌, marker pens, or by sticking embellishments.
Streamer Chinese Dragon:
We prefer using streamers for decorations and also make a funky’ dragon 🐉 on the wall’ using it at birthday parties. This is an entertaining dragon-themed activity suitable for the birthday 🎂 parties of little ones.
Firstly, I just draw the outline of a dragon 🐲 on white chart paper and cover the area lying on the inner side of the outline with double-sided tape.
I hang it on the wall using thread or tape and ask the little guests to put colorful streamers on the outline of the dragon’s figure.
Along with these streamers, you can use scale-like embellishments for the same purpose. The little guests enjoy themselves to the fullest, and we also have a colorful dragon 🐉 on the wall.
Grain Dragon:
Playing with rice grains, wheat grains, cereals, or pasta takes me back to my beloved childhood days.
For this sensory activity, I put rice, grains, cereals, or pieces of pasta inside a ziplock bag and add black, red, white, brown, green, or yellow shades of paint to it ( you can utilize any shade of paint your little one prefers).
I instruct my little dragon lovers to shake the bag and keep it aside for the colors to dry up so that the pieces of cereal, grains, pasta, or rice are in our desired shades of color.
I draw the outline of a stunning dragon 🐉 on a piece of white paper and instruct my kids to glue these colorful grains of rice, cereals, or pieces of pasta on it using glue (an ideal ✅️ sensory activity that helps to boost the focus of a child).
Bubble Wrap Dragon:
Bubble wraps are my daughter’s favorite supplies to utilize for painting and craft activities.
I just guide my little dragon 🐉 lovers to immerse a piece of bubble wrap in shades of black, white, red, green, brown, or yellow (use any shade of color your little one likes) and press its bubbly impression on the outline of a dragon to make a bubbly 🫧 dragon painting.
Pro Tip
You can also make a dragon mask by decorating a paper plate with the image of a dragon 🐲 and tying it around the head of your little one using thread. If you want to make a dragon puppet, then just attach an ice cream stick to this paper plate.
Read Chinese Books For Kids
I have always been a big fan of Chinese folktales; therefore, Chinese storybooks 📚 have always held my interest.
I want to instill the same kind of interest in Chinese books 📚 in my little ones, too. These books also help me to teach my kids the Chinese language quite easily.
Here are a few books we love to read together:
- Mina’s First Day of School (Bilingual Chinese with Pinyin and English – Simplified Chinese Version)
- My First Mandarin Words with Gordon & Li Li
- Dim Sum for Everyone!
- Ten Blocks to the Big Wok: A Chinatown Counting Book
- Naptime Powers! (Discovering the Joy of Bedtime)
- Chinese For Kids First 50 Characters Ages 5+ (Simplified): Chinese Writing Practice.
- Let’s go on a hike!
- I found it!
Important Note:
I will advise all parents to strictly go through the contents of any book 📖 before allowing their little ones to read it just to be sure that the contents of the books are suitable ✅️ according to the age group of your little one.
Create a Cherry Blossom Tree
The cherry 🌸 blossoms of China are quite famous all over the world. Therefore, making a beautiful 😍 painting of a cherry blossom tree has always been a favorite in our list of Chinese activities.
What you need-
Paint 🎨, cotton balls, pom poms, embellishments, accessories, and white chart papers.
Steps:
- I ask my little one to utilize their hand to create the impression of the trunk of a beautiful cherry 🌸 blossom tree.
- I immerse my little one’s hand in shades of brown paint 🎨 and ask them to put the impression of their arms ✋️ up to their elbows on a piece of white paper.
- Their fingers form the cute branches of the stunning tree. I also teach them how to dab round cotton balls dipped in pink shades of paint on paper to create the stunning impression of cherry 🌸 blossoms.
- Also, I instruct them to create leaves by using the impressions of dried leaves dipped in paint or by finger painting.
- We also add pompom balls, accessories, and embellishments to make an absolutely beautiful cherry blossom tree to decorate our living room.
Watch Movies
Animated movies with Chinese characters have been popular ✅️ amongst children.
My son and daughter also love to watch movies with me quite often. Here are a few of our favorite ones:
- Stand By Me Doraemon
- Monster Hunt
- Wish Dragon
- Over the Moon
- NextGen
- Willoughbys
- Duck duck goose
- The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Important Note:
I will advise all parents to strictly go through the contents of any movie 🎬 before allowing their little ones to watch it just to be sure that the contents of the movies are suitable ✅️ according to the age group of your little one.
Chinese Delicacies
Food is the favorite delight for children all over the world. Moreover, there are endless Chinese delicacies that can be cooked at home in a few easy steps.
I love making such Chinese delicacies for my little ones often. Here are a few Chinese treats my kids love to relish:
- Chinese Almond Cookies
- Chinese Chicken Curry
- Vegetarian Dumplings
- Honey Sesame Chicken
- Peanut sauce with Rice Noodles
Conclusion
Learning about China is a very interesting theme for kids. The colorful Chinese culture and cuisine have a lot to offer for little ones to enjoy and learn about.
I love ❤️ engaging in these Chinese activities with my kids. Tell me in the comments below which activity did you enjoy the most 😇 with your little ones.
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)