Valentine’s Day: Love, Heart, Kindness, Compassion, and Empathy
Valentine’s Day is a day fills with love and heart. It is time for some sweets, chocolate, and balloons. More importantly, it is also an opportunity to teach about love, heart, kindness, compassion, and empathy.
Love and heart connect in the Chinese character “love ài 愛” in the traditional form. All the Chinese phrases mentioned above include a “heart xīn 心” character. This can make a good discussion topic. Make sure you download the love and heart printable for Chinese Play Time.
Let’s look at each word and its matching Chinese phrase with a selected definition from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. You can view a short video of how to write the character. I include a story video that you can use with your child to expand the learning from love to empathy.
The simplified writing form of Love
Love 愛 is “strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.”
The traditional writing form of Love
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Circle the “heart xīn 心” in the character. Love and heart go together in this Chinese word.
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Watch the video and see how this character is written in two forms.
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What is one sentence/phrase people love to hear with this word?
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Why there is “heart xīn 心” in this word?
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What words can go with the character “love ài 愛” and create a new word/phrase?
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Heart 心 is “one’s innermost character, feelings, or inclinations.”
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Circle and count “heart xīn 心” on the love and heart printable page.
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Watch the video and see how to write this word.
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Look at the “heart” character. Does it look like a heart, the organ? Is it a Chinese character in the picogram group?
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What words or phrases can you build on with “heart xīn 心”?
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Find out how to say “heart shape” in Chinese.
Kindness 善心.善良之心 is “of a sympathetic or helpful nature.”
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What is kindness? Do you see a “heart” word in the phrase?
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Watch the videos and lead a discussion about kindness.
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Examples of being kind to someone new to your class and your neighborhood.
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Read a book about Kindness.
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Experiment: See KINDNESS and see how it is contagious. Try this Kindness activity with JDaniel4’sMom.
Compassion 同情心 is “a feeling of wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, in trouble, etc.”
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Look at these three Chinese words and see if you can find the “heart” part in two of the words.
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Give an example of compassion.
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Watch the videos and have a discussion.
Empathy 同理心 is “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions.”
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Look at these three Chinese words and see if you can spot two characters that are used in “compassion.”
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Can you spot the word “heart” in the printable with one big heart word?
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Compare the difference between the love in traditional form and simplified form using the printable.
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Read books about compassion and empathy.
video in English with traditional Chinese subtitles.
Happy Valentine’s Day! Spread love, heart, kindness, compassion, and empathy every day and make our global community a beautiful one!
Valentine’s Day Love and Heart printables download.
Saying sweet words and expressions are for every day!
I have the following Valentine’s Day play page for early literacy building. There are keywords and phrases that parents can use daily. There are so many ways you can use this play page.
1. Cut out all the little hearts and add them to the matching big hearts.
2. Pick an expression in the big heart. Put together that sweet expression with coordinating words in little hearts.
3. Create your own sweet words with little hearts and big hearts!
Check out this Valentine’s Day post for the word list in Chinese, pinyin, and English.
Valentine’s Day Words in Heart Chinese play page – traditional Chinese version
Valentine’s Day Words in Heart Chinese play page – simplified Chinese version
Valentine’s Day: Love, Heart, Kindness, Compassion, and Empathy