10 Fun and Free Chinese Activities with Leaves

10 Fun and Free Chinese Teaching Activities with Leaves! (Printable)

Whenever we’re outside, my kids have a blast crunching and collecting leaves. Since they’re learning Chinese as a second language at home, I try to make it extra fun by following their interests. Here are 10 easy Chinese language activities with leaves that your family might enjoy, too!

Simple Chinese activities with leaves

10 Fun and Free Chinese Teaching Activities with Leaves! (Printable)

Nothing beats nature for free and educational resources!

Whether you’re intimated or comfortable with teaching Chinese to your children, these Chinese activities with leaves are simple, low-prep, inexpensive ways to make learning memorable.

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1. Start with Chinese speaking skills

Children at a farm with wagons during the autumn season

When you’re out and about, collecting all types of leaves with your children, try to speak Chinese consistently!

Narrate your observations and describe colors, shapes, and textures that you notice in Chinese. Welcome your child to share their discoveries, too!

If they reply back in the dominant language instead of Chinese, don’t worry. Repeat what they said in Chinese, and keep reinforcing keywords to encourage them to use it.

Related: How To Get Your Child To Speak the Minority Language

2. Trace Chinese character 叶/葉 with leaves

Tracing Chinese character 叶/葉 with leaves

When my children were little, 叶/葉 子 (yèzi / leaf) was one of the first Chinese characters they learned to read.

For these pre-writing activities with leaves, you can download my free Chinese character template in Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

It’s interesting to compare how different the simplified (叶) and traditional (葉) Chinese characters can be.

Consider printing these on cardstock paper for repeat use. If your child likes to glue and paste, regular printer paper or construction paper should be fine! Here are some other tips for teaching these Chinese characters:

  1. Introduce Chinese character 叶/葉
  2. Trace Chinese character with finger (consider following stroke order)
  3. Trace Chinese character with leaves (consider following stroke order)
  4. Optional: hole punch leaves and place or glue onto Chinese character

To teach 子, check out this activity: Learn to Read and Write Chinese Character 子 with Seeds.

3. Leaf Shape Matching Game

Leaf Shape Matching Game - simple and free nature activity for kids

After a recent trip to the park where my kids collected various leaves, I remembered a brilliant leaf activity from Little Pine Learners.

Spending only a few minutes, I cut out part of our easel paper and traced our leaves with a Sharpie!

Voila – instant activities with leaves!

With this leaf puzzle matching game, I could make it easier for my son by using fewer, different leaves. For my daughter, I could increase the challenge by using similar leaves.

My toddler even found the act of tracing interesting. At this age, everything is new and exciting!

Of course, in keeping with our Chinese print-rich environment, I wrote 叶子 on each leaf shape.

Actually, I forgot to write the Chinese word for one of the leaves, and my son quickly pointed it out! Just when I think he might not be paying attention, he shows that he notices these Chinese characters.

4. Leafy letters and Chinese envelopes

Leafy letters and Chinese envelopes

Whenever we delve into Chinese Lunar New Year crafts, we find ourselves running low on paper.

Therefore, we sometimes write messages on leaves, and they fit perfectly in our fun printable Chinese red envelopes.

This activity with leaves was a fun way to encourage Chinese reading and writing practice.

5. Make a Chinese sentence with leaves

Make a Chinese sentence with leaves - fun way to learn Mandarin Chinese with children

Over the years, my daughter and I have had a lot of fun using leaves for sentence-building activities with leaves.

This is a fun and effective method of visualizing sentence structure. By rearranging the leaves, we review which order can produce grammatically correct sentences.

What to use to write on leaves: We found that metallic Sharpie markers and colorful paint pens show up well on leaves.

6. Trilingual positive affirmations with leaves

Trilingual positive affirmations with leaves (Chinese, English, Korean) - positive parenting for children

Last year, I created a heart of leaves to talk about positive affirmations with my daughter in English, Chinese, and Korean.

We reviewed characteristics like being hardworking, smart, kind, strong, brave, helpful, funny, honest, caring, creative, and beautiful (especially from within!)

After our discussion, my daughter matched the trilingual words together!

What better way to celebrate our family’s heritage and love than with nature?

7. Chinese word-matching leaves

Chinese word matching - make a turkey with leaves!

In this example from a few years ago, we made a Thanksgiving turkey craft with leaves and used it for Chinese character matching!

Related: Easy Thanksgiving Turkey and Gratitude Activities

If you want to keep it simple, you can just write 2 sets of Chinese characters and have your child pair them up for reading practice.

For the crafty families, see what other leaf animals you can create, and talk about it in Chinese.

8. Role-playing with leaves

Fall of Freddie the Leaf 一片叶子落下来 book about nature, life, death, and seasons in simplified Chinese

When we read Fall of Freddie the Leaf 一片叶子落下来, we used real leaves to talk about the characters in the book and how life changes with the seasons.

Collecting a variety of leaves is also helpful for bringing books to life!

Related books: Chinese and English Books About Trees and Autumn!

9. Leaf painting literacy activity

Leaf Painting Chinese Literacy Activity

This child-led activity was the perfect combination of nature, art, play, and Chinese learning!

We collected leaves from the park and discussed the autumn season in Chinese. I asked her to share some thoughts and copied down what she said: “秋天的树叶改变颜色 然后漂落下来. (Qiūtiān de shùyè gǎibiàn yánsè ránhòu piào luòxià lái.) Autumn leaves change color and then drift down.”

Then my daughter traced the leaves with paint around each Chinese character.

10. Autumn tree leaf art – Chinese nature activity for kids

秋天 Autumn tree leaf art - Chinese nature activity for kids

Here’s a final throwback activity to when my daughter was learning about 秋天 (qiūtiān / autumn day)!

The action of drawing autumn tree branches and gluing leaves helped her memorize these Chinese characters long-term!

These activities with leaves are simple ways to create art with nature, strengthen fine motor skills, and reinforce relevant Chinese words about autumn.

Have you tried Chinese learning activities with leaves?

If you try this activity, please let us know in the comments below! What age(s) are your kid(s), and how did it go? We’d love to hear about your learning experience!

More Chinese language activities with nature

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