Hanzi Lab! 01 — Chinese Basic Strokes

Teach Chinese basic strokes, Hanzi writing and stroke order with editable Mandarin worksheets, posters, tracing pages, cards and classroom games.

Hanzi Lab! 01 — Chinese Basic Strokes is a complete beginner resource pack for teaching the building blocks of Chinese characters. Students learn to recognise, trace, move, build, write and find eight essential strokes: 横 héng, 竖 shù, 撇 piě, 捺 nà, 点 diǎn, 提 tí, 折 zhé and 钩 gōu.

Every stroke includes an English name, Chinese term, pinyin, start point, directional arrow, finish point, movement cue, tracing practice and simple character examples. English-first classroom instructions make the resources accessible to non-specialist teachers and beginner Mandarin learners.

What is included:

• 16-page student workbook
• 8 individual basic-stroke posters
• 5 additional reference posters
• 8 pages of stroke cards and printable activities
• 6 pages of character-building games
• 5-page teacher guide with answers and teaching notes
• A4 and US Letter editions
• Editable PowerPoint files
• Ready-to-print PDF files
• Two complete 48-page combined print packs

Students practise the beginner characters 一, 二, 三, 十, 人, 大, 小, 土, 木, 山, 日 and 口 using large and standard 米字格 writing grids.

The pack introduces five beginner stroke-order principles:

1. Top to bottom
2. Left to right
3. Horizontal before vertical
4. Left-falling before right-falling
5. Outside before inside

Classroom activities include:

• Stroke Detective
• What’s Missing?
• Stroke Count
• Stroke Sort
• Human Strokes
• Build a Hanzi
• Matching and direction cards
• Character recipe mats
• Cut-out stroke pieces
• Team games and movement challenges

The consistent learning sequence is:

See it → Trace it → Move it → Build it → Write it → Find it

This resource works well for beginner Mandarin lessons, Chinese as a foreign language, primary classrooms, international schools, tutoring, homeschooling, writing centres, intervention groups and independent practice.

The clean, modern design uses warm cream, jade green and soft apricot colours with light 米字格 motifs. It avoids distracting decoration and keeps the focus on stroke direction, character structure and handwriting practice.

Print the worksheets on standard paper and the reusable cards on heavier paper. The editable PPTX files allow teachers to change instructions, examples, colours or page content to suit their learners.