Pinyin Sheets

First Chinese Characters for Kids: An Official Starter List and How to Practise It

Published 2026-10-06 · Updated 2026-10-06

First Chinese Characters for Kids: A Starter List from the Official Curriculum

"Which characters should we start with?" is one of the first questions parents ask, especially parents teaching Chinese at home or supporting a weekend Chinese school. You could use a frequency list from the internet, but there's a better starting point: the list China's own curriculum asks schools to teach first.

This article explains where that list comes from, shows the first part of it with pinyin and meanings, and gives a simple weekly routine for practising it with printable sheets.

Where this list comes from

China's Compulsory Education Chinese Curriculum Standard (2022 edition) (义务教育语文课程标准（2022年版）), published by the Ministry of Education, includes an appendix called the Basic Character Table for Literacy and Writing Teaching (识字、写字教学基本字表) (Appendix 4, printed p.66).

Here's what the standard says about it:

  • It contains 300 characters, arranged by stroke count.
  • These characters have simple forms and recur often, and most of them serve as building blocks of other characters.
  • Learning them first helps build a foundation for reading and writing and makes later learning more efficient.
  • They should be key content in grade 1–2 textbooks.
  • Thirteen of them are listed with the radical form they take inside other characters: 人 (亻), 刀 (刂), 水 (氵), 手 (扌), 爪 (爫), 火 (灬), 心 (忄), 玉 (王), 肉 (月), 竹 (⺮), 衣 (衤), 足 (⻊), 金 (钅).

That last point is why the list is so useful. When a child knows 水 and that it appears as 氵 in other characters, they have a head start on 河, 湖, 海 and many more.

How big is the goal?

For context, the same curriculum expects children in grades 1–2 to recognise about 1,600 common characters and write about 800 (p.7). China's official Table of General Standard Chinese Characters (通用规范汉字表, 2013) contains 8,105 characters. Its first level, 3,500 common characters, is meant to cover the basic needs of school education (State Council notice; MOE briefing).

A child learning Chinese part-time abroad won't move at that pace, and that's fine. The 300 basic characters are a realistic, high-value first target.

The first 87 characters

Below are the first 87 characters of the 300-character list, in the order printed (by stroke count). The list itself gives only the characters. The pinyin and English meanings were added by us, and the pinyin shown is the dictionary (citation) tone.

1–2 strokes

一 yī (one) · 二 èr (two) · 十 shí (ten) · 厂 chǎng (factory) · 七 qī (seven) · 儿 ér (child) · 八 bā (eight) · 人 rén (person) · 入 rù (enter) · 几 jǐ (how many) · 九 jiǔ (nine) · 了 le (particle) · 刀 dāo (knife) · 力 lì (strength) · 又 yòu (again)

3 strokes

三 sān (three) · 干 gān (dry) · 工 gōng (work) · 土 tǔ (soil) · 才 cái (talent; only just) · 下 xià (down) · 大 dà (big) · 上 shàng (up) · 小 xiǎo (small) · 口 kǒu (mouth) · 山 shān (mountain) · 巾 jīn (cloth) · 千 qiān (thousand) · 个 gè (measure word) · 广 guǎng (wide) · 门 mén (door) · 己 jǐ (self) · 子 zǐ (child) · 也 yě (also) · 女 nǚ (woman) · 飞 fēi (fly) · 习 xí (practise) · 马 mǎ (horse)

4 strokes (first part)

王 wáng (king) · 开 kāi (open) · 天 tiān (sky; day) · 元 yuán (first; yuan) · 云 yún (cloud) · 木 mù (wood, tree) · 五 wǔ (five) · 不 bù (not) · 太 tài (too) · 友 yǒu (friend) · 车 chē (vehicle) · 牙 yá (tooth) · 比 bǐ (compare) · 切 qiē (cut) · 止 zhǐ (stop) · 少 shǎo (few) · 日 rì (sun; day) · 中 zhōng (middle) · 贝 bèi (shell) · 内 nèi (inside) · 水 shuǐ (water) · 见 jiàn (see) · 午 wǔ (noon) · 牛 niú (cow) · 手 shǒu (hand) · 气 qì (air) · 毛 máo (fur, hair) · 长 cháng (long) · 片 piàn (slice) · 爪 zhǎo (claw) · 反 fǎn (opposite) · 父 fù (father) · 从 cóng (from) · 今 jīn (now) · 分 fēn (divide; minute) · 公 gōng (public) · 月 yuè (moon; month) · 风 fēng (wind) · 六 liù (six) · 文 wén (writing) · 方 fāng (square) · 火 huǒ (fire) · 户 hù (household) · 心 xīn (heart) · 双 shuāng (pair) · 书 shū (book) · 玉 yù (jade) · 打 dǎ (hit) · 正 zhèng (straight; correct)

The full set, with alternative readings, is in our starter characters data file. The remaining 213 characters of the list will be added later.

Watch out for these readings

Several of these characters have more than one reading (多音字). When you print them in words, make sure the pinyin matches the word:

  • 长: cháng in 长短 (length), zhǎng in 长大 (grow up)
  • 干: gān in 干净 (clean), gàn in 干活 (to work)
  • 中: zhōng in 中国, zhòng in 中奖 (win a prize)
  • 少: shǎo in 多少, shào in 少年 (youth)
  • 分: fēn in 分开, fèn in 成分
  • 了: le in 吃了, liǎo in 了解
  • 一 and 不 change tone in speech (see tone change rules). The national pinyin standard allows the changed tones to be written in teaching materials (GB/T 16159-2012, §6.5.2).

Our worksheet generator highlights characters like these so you can pick the right reading before printing.

A weekly routine using printable sheets

The list is ordered by stroke count, not by meaning, so it's best not to teach it strictly in order. Pick five to eight characters a week that can be grouped naturally:

  • Numbers: 一 二 三 五 六 七 八 九 十
  • Body: 人 口 手 心 牙 毛
  • Nature: 日 月 山 水 火 木 土 云 风 天
  • Size and direction: 大 小 上 下 中 少

Monday: read and talk

Paste the week's characters, plus a few simple words that use them (for example 大山, 小手, 火车), into the generator. Print in full mode. Read the pinyin together, talk about the meanings, and point out which characters are building blocks of others (水 → 氵).

Tuesday–Wednesday: trace

Print the same text in tracing (描红) mode. Your child traces each character carefully a few times, following the textbook stroke order. Quality matters more than quantity.

Thursday: copy

On a blank row, your child copies each character while looking at the model, checking the centre lines of the 田字格.

Friday: dictation

Print in blank (dictation) mode: pinyin only, empty squares. Your child reads the pinyin, says the word, and writes the character from memory. Anything missed goes into next week's list.

Weekend: use them

Find the week's characters on signs, in picture books or on food packaging. Recognising a character "in the wild" is very motivating.

Tips for heritage-language families

  • Reading before writing. The curriculum itself expects children to recognise twice as many characters as they write (p.7). It's fine if your child can read a character long before they can write it.
  • Words, not just characters. 火 is more memorable inside 火车 (train) or 大火 than alone.
  • Keep it short. Ten minutes a day works better than a long weekend session.
  • Follow the school. If your child attends a Chinese school, use its textbook order and conventions, and use this list to fill gaps.

Sources

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