Chinese 木 Radical Words – Wood Dice and Sensory Writing Game
We are gradually reviewing Chinese characters by radicals, and last month my 5-year-old and I had fun with 木 (Mù / Wood) radical games! To put the Chinese 木 radical words in context, I used wood materials for reinforcement.
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Since Chinese is a minority language for our family, we use fun activities to make learning exciting and memorable! However, you can apply this game to other languages as well!
Here’s a close look at nature-based supplies that we used as well as important 木 radical vocabulary.
Explore this: How I Taught My Child 1000 Chinese Characters as a Non-Fluent Speaker
Common 木 radical words in Chinese:
- 木 (mù / wood)
- 森林 (sēnlín / forest)
- 果 (guǒ / fruit)
- 杯 (bēi / cup)
- 椅 (yǐ / chair)
- 桌 (zhuō / desk)
- 树 (shù / tree)
- 根 (gēn / root)
- 桶 (tǒng / bucket)
- 棍 (gùn / stick)
What you need for the Chinese 木 radical dice and sensory writing activity:
- Wood slices
- Wood dice
- Pencil
- Black gel pen
- Optional: sensory writing tray +/- wood stick. We used baking soda this time, but you can also do sand or salt writing.
How to prepare the 木 radical dice and wood chips
- Draw Chinese characters with pencil on wood slice
- Trace over with black gel pen
- Write different Chinese 木 radical characters on wood block with gel pen
- Make sure the wood is completely dry before touching to avoid smearing
Tips on writing :
- I use a Chinese dictionary app which shows Chinese characters in the standard KaiTi font with stroke order animation.
- Regular gel pen was the easiest to write with compared to the Posca paint pen and Sharpie. As you can see in the image below, the edges of each stroke are most crisp with a regular gel pen. The other options were more difficult to control.
How to play the Chinese 木 radical dice and sensory writing activity
- Roll the dice
- Find the matching 木 radical word on the wood slice
- Write it on paper or in a sensory writing tray!
My daughter practiced writing in the baking soda tray with a stick and also her finger.
Related: Teach Kids Chinese: 门 / 門 Door Radical Words (VIDEO)
According to my dictionary apps, she writes the last part of the character in the wrong order亅 before 口 instead of 口 before亅.
However, both of our Chinese teachers have mentioned that generally, it’s okay if there are minor mix ups. They reassured that as long as the general order and direction are visually correct, don’t stress!
Also, since everybody always asks… yes, she also just wanted to play with the baking soda!!! 😂 Thankfully, any spills are easy to clean since baking soda is a cleaning agent!
Bonus idea
We haven’t tried this yet, but in the future, I’m thinking about using the wood slices for a Mad Libs fill-in-the-blank word game!
Has your child learned about Chinese 木 radical characters?
If you practice reading and writing Chinese 木 radical characters or other words, please let us know in the comments. We’d love to know if these tips were helpful and what you learned from the experience!
