30 Chinese Dot Sticker Learning Activities for Kids (Printables)
We’re pretty obsessed with dot stickers: the best, easiest, and most versatile tool for any family! Within minutes, Chinese learning activities can be created with dot stickers and tailored to our kids’ interests!
Both of my kids learned to read many of their first Chinese characters with dot stickers!
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What age can kids start dot sticker learning activities?
Around age 18 months to 2 years, kids can start exploring peeling and affixing stickers randomly.
As their fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination improve, they can try simple line and shape tracing with stickers (explained here).
Around age 3-4 years and up, you can start using dot stickers for fun Chinese character matching games!
What you need for Chinese dot sticker activities!
Are you ready for winning activities that all busy parents can prepare?
Here are the key materials that we have used regularly over the past several years!
1. Round color coding labels AKA dot stickers
Garage Sale Pups color-coded neon labels
Our favorite dot stickers are the 1″ Garage sale pups brand because they have all colors of the rainbow.
The 1″ size is also perfect for writing Chinese characters! However, you can also type and print Chinese characters, English words, numbers, or anything else!
The downside is that these labels are not removable.
Avery adhesive removable round labels
The mini 0.25″ Avery round stickers are great for tracing and pre-writing activities.
We love the white 1″ Avery labels, because Chinese words are very readable with a light background.
If you’re looking for smaller removable stickers, the 0.75″ Avery labels come in various colors!
2. Paper
We usually use scrap paper or the back of cardboard in attempt to recycle.
Any printer paper or construction paper will be fine, too!
3. Black marker
I love using black Sharpie fine point markers because the Chinese characters are bold and much easier to read compared to other colors.
Alright! Now that you have the simple materials, you are ready to whip up a learning activity for your kids!
30 Chinese dot sticker learning activities!
I’ve put together a list of various Chinese learning activities with dot stickers from over the years!
Some have printable templates to help save time.
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These easy dot sticker activities are organized as follows:
- Tracing Chinese characters
- Chinese counting activities
- Color matching activities
- Chinese nature learning
- Transportation activities
- Animal activities
- Science activities
- Holiday activities
- Sentence reading practice
- Learning progress tracker
1. Tracing Chinese characters with mini dot stickers
Interact with each Chinese stroke with mini dot stickers!
To create giant Chinese characters, type or copy/paste the focus word into Pages or Microsoft Word.
Change the font to KaiTi font and increase the size as large as possible (eg, 460pt).
2. Counting activities with dot stickers
Montessori-inspired Chinese counting with dot stickers
Red is the standard Montessori color for math counters.
Only one color is used in Montessori materials so that children focus on quantity.
Related: Learn How to Count in Chinese and English | Montessori Math
For Chinese literacy, you can write Chinese numbers on the red dot stickers if your child is ready to learn Chinese characters.
Ice cream cone counting with dot stickers
Cut triangles from brown paper to represent cones.
Then affix dot stickers (“ice cream scoops”) to corresponding number!
3. Color matching activities with dot stickers
Dot sticker giant color matching!
Print out Chinese characters on colored paper, then match Chinese words to the corresponding color!
Tips and Chinese translations in this post about dot sticker color matching.
Color matching balloons with Chinese characters
Use a stencil or bottle cap to trace circles. Draw a person in the center and lines going to each balloon.
Then write Chinese color names and have your child match the corresponding word!
Also pictured is a way that we adapted the activity to the English alphabet!
4. Chinese nature learning activities with dot stickers
Chinese vocabulary related to sunshine
Draw sun shapes and teach related words such as:
- 亮 (Liàng / bright)
- 太陽 (Tàiyáng / sun)
- 陽光 (Yángguāng / sunny)
For more advance readers, this is also the perfect activity to teach Chinese sun radical words (printable and examples here).
Download the sunshine template (for 1″ dot stickers) from following links:
Chinese water and rain vocabulary
Use dot stickers to teach 雨水 (yǔshuǐ / rain water) or teach Chinese water radical words!
Chinese leaf dot sticker activity
Dot stickers can also be a fun representation of 树叶 / 樹葉 (shùyè / leaves)!
Match green stickers with Chinese words or add fall colors for a seasonal challenge!
Related: 10 Fun and Free Chinese Teaching Activities with Leaves! (Printable)
Chinese flower vocabulary
Start with simple words like 花 (huā / flower), build up to sentences like 美丽的花 / 美麗的花 (měilì de huā / beautiful flower).
Click here for Chinese translations for parts of a flower with dot stickers!
Download the flower template (for 1″ dot stickers) from the following links:
5. Chinese transportation learning activities with dot stickers
Label DIY train with dot stickers
My son labeled 火车 / 火車 (huǒchē / train) on our cardboard roll train cars!
Then he matched the dot stickers to words on paper.
Train wheels Chinese word matching
Draw or print vehicles and use the wheels as the perfect chance to match Chinese words!
Download the train wheels template (for 1″ dot stickers) from the following links:
Related: Make-A-Sentence Post-It Note Train Literacy Activity!
Car wheels Chinese word matching
Draw or print vehicles and use the wheels as the perfect chance to match Chinese words, such as 车轮 (chē lún / tire)!
Download the vehicle wheels template (for 1″ dot stickers”) from the following links:
6. Chinese animal learning activities with dot stickers
Learn parts of a fish in Chinese
If you’re feeling a little crafty, make a paper plate fish and use dot stickers to teach about the fish parts in Chinese!
If you are short on time, you can draw or print out a picture of a fish and try the same matching activity!
Spider word matching
In the above photo, we reviewed the Chinese characters 蜘蛛爬 (zhīzhū pá / spider crawling). This brilliant idea was inspired by Days with Grey!
Lady bug counting with dot stickers
We draw lines and dots mini red stickers to make pretend 瓢虫 / 瓢蟲 (piáo chóng / lady bugs) for counting practice!
Kids can affix out-of-order for practice in approximating spacing and identifying missing numbers.
7. Chinese science learning activities with dot stickers
Virus vocabulary and concepts
We drew the appearance of a circulating virus to teach Chinese vocabulary and public health strategies:
- 冠状病毒 (Guānzhuàng bìngdú / Coronavirus)
- 勤洗手 (Qín xǐshǒu / Wash your hands often)
- 隔离 / 隔離 (Gélí / Quarantine)
Download the printable virus dot sticker wheels template (for 1″ dot stickers) in the following links:
Learn Chinese words about light with dot stickers!
This is a simple way to teach relevant words like 灯泡 / 燈泡 (dēngpào) and 亮 (liàng / bright).
Download the light bulb template (for any size dot stickers) from the following links:
Solar system planet names
With white Avery round labels, we drew planets on the sticker and matched them to the corresponding Chinese characters.
8. Chinese holiday learning activities with dot stickers
Chinese Thanksgiving dot sticker word matching activities
We’ve used dot stickers to learn pumpkin vocabulary:
- 南瓜 (Nánguā / Pumpkin, squash)
- 南瓜派 (Nánguā pài / Pumpkin pie)
- 好吃 (Hào chī / Delicious)
My friend @totschoolwithosh also shared how she used dot stickers to teach 大，中，小 (dà, zhōng, xiǎo / big, medium, small) in Chinese!
Chinese Christmas dot sticker word matching activities
Dot stickers are fun and festive for Christmas-themed learning, too!
We’ve matched dot stickers with Chinese words to Christmas trees as ornaments, holly berry, and Christmas lights!
Chinese New Year dot sticker fireworks (fun printable)
We’ve also used dot stickers to practice reading Chinese New Year greetings!
Get the printable Chinese Happy New Year coloring and sticker sheets here (updated annually)!
9. Chinese word sticker sentence reading practice
When your child has mastered simple word matching, increase the challenge by using dot stickers to practice reading full sentences and paragraphs!
You can also use dot stickers to involve kids to make cards while helping them with Chinese reading practice!
10. Dot stickers to track Chinese reading progress
Last but not least, mini dot stickers are perfect for keeping track of Chinese reading practice.
The above photos shows an example from 四五快读 (see review and how we used Si Wu Kuai Du as non-native Chinese speakers).
If you or your child is unfamiliar with a Chinese character, put a mini red dot sticker next to the word.
When the Chinese character has been memorized, replace it with a green dot sticker or simply remove the sticker!
Printable templates for dot sticker activities
- Flowers
- Sunshine
- Vehicles
- Train
- Light bulbs
- Viruses
- Chinese Happy New Year coloring and sticker sheets here
Have you tried dot sticker learning activities in Chinese or other languages?
Leave a comment and tell me how it went! We love to see how other families do educational activities!
I tried the ice-cream dot sticker activity with my 2 yo and she loved it. She almost finished it at one go, which has not been her typical response to counting activities. Looking forward to trying out more. Thank you so much!
I’m so happy to hear this!! Thank you for taking the time to share this good news, and I hope she enjoys the other activities!
Thank you for sharing these lovely ideas, I will definitely try them out for my kids 🙂
You’re welcome! Have fun!