手和脚
shǒu hé jiǎo — Hands and Feet
📐 Standards alignment
ACTFL World-Readiness: Communication (interpretive, presentational) · Connections (the body in science and PE) · Comparisons (counting words in Chinese and English)
Can-Do targets (NCSSFL-ACTFL, Novice Low):
- I can name my hands, arms, legs and feet in Chinese.
- I can say how many of a body part I have.
- I can act out a Chinese instruction with my whole body.
Learning objectives
- Recognise six Chinese words for the body below the neck
- Use 两只 to say “two hands”, “two feet”
- Put the face words and the body words together into one whole 身体
Materials
Room to move. Optional: chalk or masking tape to mark a hopping course on the floor.
Prior knowledge
Unit 6 Lesson 1 — the face words. Also useful: counting to ten from Unit 4, because today we count body parts.
Key vocabulary
手 脚 腿 胳膊 肚子 身体
Face words, one more time
Play one quick round of the touching game from Lesson 1 — 眼睛, 鼻子, 嘴巴, 耳朵. Thirty seconds is plenty. Then say: “Now let us go below the neck.”
Six words from the neck down
Tap each card to flip it over. Look at the characters, say the word out loud, then check the back for the meaning — and press 🔊 to hear it.
两只 — “two of them”
Body parts come in pairs, which makes this a perfect place to meet a Chinese counting habit. To say “two hands” you say 两只手 — and that little 只 in the middle is a measure word, a word Chinese puts between a number and a thing. English does this too, in phrases like “two slices of bread”; Chinese just does it every single time. Try 两只脚 for two feet and 两只眼睛 for two eyes. Do not worry about which measure word goes with what yet — noticing that they exist is the whole goal today.
Wiggle what I say
The grown-up calls a body part in Chinese and your child wiggles, shakes or waves exactly that part — and nothing else. Calling 身体 should get the whole body going. Then swap: your child calls and the grown-up wiggles. Getting to make a grown-up wobble about the room is the best motivation there is.
Memory game — find the pairs
Every Chinese word has its English meaning hiding somewhere in the grid. Tap two cards to see if they match.
Find the matching pairs!
Listen and choose
Press each play button and pick what you heard.
1. Press play. Which part did you hear?
2. Press play. Which part did you hear?
3. Press play. Which part did you hear?
The hopping course
Mark a short course on the floor with chalk or tape. Your child travels along it, but the grown-up decides how by calling a body part: 脚 means hop on one foot, 手 means crawl on hands and knees, 肚子 means slide along on your tummy. Call the parts in Chinese only. Time them, then try to beat the time.
Show what you know
1. Which word means “hand”?
2. How do you say “two feet”?
3. Which word means your whole body?
Great work!
That completes the body: 手, 脚, 腿, 胳膊, 肚子 and the whole 身体, on top of last lesson’s face words. Your child also met their first measure word, 只, without having to learn a rule about it. Unit 7 takes all of this to the zoo and starts describing animals.
Take it home
Trace and label
Lie down on a big sheet of paper and have a grown-up draw around you — or just draw a body in the box below. Label as many parts as you can in Chinese, using both this lesson and the last one. Say each word as you write it.
Name: Date:
Ten-second challenge
Can you touch 手, 脚, 肚子 and 腿 in under ten seconds while a grown-up calls them out? Colour in a star each time you manage it.
Note for teachers & parents
Pacing: the counting idea in step 3 is a stretch for Kindergarten. Treat it as something to notice, not something to master — two minutes is enough.
Watch for: 腿 and 脚 are easy to confuse because the leg and the foot are neighbours. Point at the actual body part every time you say the word and the confusion fades on its own.