Left Versus Right Hand: How to Teach Your Child Left and Right with Stickers!
Are you ready for an easy and fun way to teach left versus right hand with stickers? Last year, my daughter and I made felt hands for skip counting practice. Since they took some effort to cut, I was excited about repurposing them for this right versus left-hand learning activity! This sticker game is low-prep and inexpensive, and I’m excited to share it with you!
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At what age do children understand left versus right hand?
My 4.5-year-old daughter intermittently gets confused about which hand is right versus left. Interestingly, she has no trouble with reading and matching the words “left” and “right” to 左 (zuǒ) and 右 (yòu).
However, left and right confusion can be normal until around age 6!
Fun ways to teach left versus right hand!
To teach my daughter how to remember left versus right, here are some strategies that have helped:
- Forming an “L” with the left index finger and thumb. This is effective if your child knows letters and doesn’t reverse them.
- Going outdoors to play and jump on footprints labeled with 左 (zuǒ / left) and 右 (yòu / right)
- Focusing on naming the dominant hand and asking your child to do things with that hand (eg, “Can you draw with your right hand?”).
- Teach Left Versus Right with Stickers and Hands! (This post)
Important vocabulary in Chinese, Pinyin, and English
Since my children are learning Chinese and English simultaneously, they are learning all basic terms in both languages. I am learning along with them and taking notes in Pinyin for my personal reference.
- 左 (zuǒ / left)
- 右 (yòu / right)
- 手 (shǒu / hand)
- 手指 (shǒuzhǐ / fingers)
- 贴纸 / 貼紙 (tiēzhǐ / sticker)
Left versus right-hand sticker activity: What you need
- Felt or construction paper.
- We used stiff felt for durability. However, my wrist got sore from cutting. Instead, I recommend soft felt or paper.
- We used colorful felt so that each pair of hands was a certain color and, therefore, associated with groups of 10s. However, you could make each felt hand the same color if you prefer.
- Scissors
- Black marker
- Dot stickers – We love Avery and Neon Labels
- A pair of cute child hands 🙂
Please see this post for more details of the setup process.
How to teach left versus right hand with stickers activity
- Trace each pair of hands ten times (10 x 10 = 100 fingers!)
- Cut hand shapes
- If your child is learning Chinese, write 左 and 右 on the dot stickers. Otherwise, write “L” and “R” or “Left” and “Right” or another language that your child is learning.
- You can affix stickers to your child’s hands to serve as a reference.
- Learning activities:
- Match left and right.
- Mix up the hands and match the above left and right words to other languages (eg English, Korean)
Left versus right-hand sticker activity: candid photos
For reference, my daughter’s hands have stickers labeled “左” and “右”!
In the below photo, the hands are arranged neatly in left-right color-matching pairs.
In the next photo, the hands are mixed and no longer arranged in pairs.
Since this is much more challenging than the above step, I recommend reserving this for when your child can recognize the difference between the right and left hand.
Here, my daughter is placing the sticker on the correct hand with confidence! If the activity is too challenging from the heart, it can discourage a child from trying. Please keep in mind that this concept is learned gradually over time!
The activity ended with the kids high-fiving the hands and then hiding them in random parts of the play area 😆 .
If your child has fun learning left versus right hand with this sticker activity, please let us know!
We love to see how other families do Chinese learning activities!
