Chinese Tic-Tac-Toe: 3 Ways to Learn with This Game {Free Printable}

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Chinese tic-tac-toe was the game of the summer! My 4-year-old daughter loves tic-tac-toe, so we have practiced Chinese reading with this game! Tic-tac-toe is an interactive and effortless way to study many Chinese characters. In Mandarin Chinese, tic-tac-toe is called (jǐng zì qí) or 圈圈叉叉 (quān quān chā chā) depending on regional preferences. This is a great first game for children age 4+ who can understand simple rules and recognize patterns.

The game is easy to set up! However, you can also print our free Chinese tic-tac-toe templates listed at the of this post! We have played Chinese tic-tac-toe in 3 different ways, and the ideas are listed in order of increasing difficulty.

1. Post-It Note Chinese Tic-Tac-Toe

This first Tic-Tac-Toe version is a fun way to focus on learning two characters at a time. My daughter had fun choosing Post-It Note colors for Chinese tic-tac-toe! Similar characters such as 具 (jù), 真 (zhēn), 且 (qiě), and 直 (zhí) were reviewed. My daughter and her Korean nanny also reviewed Hangul vowels with tic-tac-toe! We used ribbon to create the 3 x 3 grid, and the ribbon and Post-It notes were in a Montessori-inspired tray, ready to be chosen for playful learning!

Here are some pictures of the Post-It Note Chinese tic-tac-toe game in action!

Please note that we used the same colored Post-It note for this game so that we would have to focus on distinguishing the Chinese characters.

We used a black ribbon to form a line through the winning row, but this step is not necessary if you want to save material.

By the way, if you can’t write Chinese, you can print out the words on regular paper!

Here is a snapshot of Korean tic-tac-toe with Hangul vowels! My daughter and her nanny played green versus yellow.

2. Chinese Tic-Tac-Toe Writing Practice

Since my daughter refuses to use Chinese writing worksheets, I followed her tic-tac-toe interest and implemented writing practice with the game! Since the tic-tac-toe grid is based on squares, it is the perfect setting for Chinese writing practice!

During the first half of the summer, my daughter used our Chinese stroke order sandpaper cards for reference. (Read more about the Chinese stroke order cards here). She can now write most of these words correctly from memory!

The beauty of tic-tac-toe is that you can play while waiting at a restaurant, doctor’s office, airport, or other places with long idle time! This next photo was from a few months ago when we practiced writing 大 (dà / big) and 小 (xiǎo / small) on the restaurant’s Kids Menu!

3. X and O Chinese Tic-Tac-Toe

This version is the most challenging because 9 Chinese characters are reviewed simultaneously! We used the traditional Xs and Os and said each character out loud while circling and crossing it out!

This round was a tie!

Just for fun, here’s a “behind-the-scenes” photo of my 23-month-old son trying to participate! Lately, he wants to feel like he’s part of big sister’s learning! He appreciated that I drew a Tic-Tac-Toe grid for him as well haha.

Free Chinese tic-tac-toe printables!

Click on the below links to preview and download:

I recommend the 4 grid versions if you want to conserve paper. The single large grid versions are recommended for young learners who may benefit from seeing large details of each character. You can even laminate the large grid (eg, we have this laminator) or put it in a dry erase pocket sleeve (such as this one).

Just for fun

Lastly, I wanted to share our scribble rocks vs rainbow rocks tic-tac-toe! While my daughter and I made the rainbow rocks, my son joyfully scribbled on his rocks! Inspired by his scribbles, we ended up making more with him! We drew with Posca paint pens (available here) and sealed the rocks with Modge Podge (available here).

If you try Chinese Tic-Tac-Toe, please let us know! Leave a comment or share a photo with our Facebook group, Montessori-inspired Kids Learning Chinese and English!

Happy learning, friends!

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