Jumping on footprints is a quick and easy way that I sneak in Chinese teaching with my kids. 老大 often likes to trace our footprints when we play in the backyard, so I follow her lead and embellish it with character reinforcement. Although 老大 knows the characters 左, 右 (zuǒ, yòu / left, right) very well, she still occasionally mixes her left and right hands/feet.
For this footprint jumping activity, all you need is chalk (affililate link) and kids who love to jump around. Reading practice plus exercise equals a win-win for everybody!
Note that you can write any words that your kids are learning. For example, I also wrote 脚 (jiǎo / feet), and 跳 (tiào / jump), but you could also write numbers and color names! Just make sure the foot outline is large enough so that there is enough space to write the characters clearly.
If you are working on a light-colored concrete, I also recommend using black chalk so the characters stand out. If you have a black tar driveway, then white chalk would be needed for contrast.
老二 saw 老大 jumping on footprints and wanted to try it too! He wants to try everything that his big sister is doing! It was so funny to see him trying to touch the Chinese characters!
Jumping on footprints is a perfect outdoor learning activity for ALL ages and abilities. If you try this activity with your kids, please share! Leave a comment and don’t forget to tag a photo #ChalkAcademy on Instagram.
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[…] outdoors to play and jump on footprints labeled with 左 (zuǒ / left) and 右 (yòu / […]