Learning Activities for the Year of the Horse

When Lunar New Year comes around (that’s February 17, 2026), we’ll be ushering in the Year of the Horse, so let’s look at some horse (and lunar new year more generally) activities to try in the classroom or at home.

I have a post on general activities for Lunar New Year including DIY drums and dragons.

Living Life and Learning has some Lunar New Year printables on the Chinese zodiac including an I-spy, crossword and wheel of the zodiac kids can color, cut and glue the animals to. There’s also a little story with comprehension questions and a page for kids to draw their own zodiac sign. They also have another set of worksheets that includes the zodiac years, animals, a different I-spy, writing practice and an activity to find others in the classroom or household with different animal signs.

Hub Pages has printable red envelopes and bookmarks for the year of the horse, as well as printable coloring pages with a horse theme.

Activity Village has year of the horse printables for members that include mazes and a worksheet for coming up with words in the letters of year of the horse.

Teachers Pay Teachers has a lot of good resources for Lunar New Year in general and the year of the horse more specifically. To point out a couple, GATER Educator Kris Prince has a set of activities that includes reading comprehension about Lunar New Year, the year of the horse and the history of paper, and activities including a horse collage and calligraphy.

And Hope Creek Art Studios has a great set for art teachers of all grade levels on how to draw a horse that includes different techniques for different ages and skill levels such as working on symmetry or doing a one-line drawing.

Grab a printable horse crown/headband from Let’s Go to Learn. They also have year of the horse and more general Lunar New Year coloring pages.

Or get a full unit study and activity pack from My Mega Bundles Shop. This one includes information on the Chinese zodiac, practice writing horse in cursive, history and trivia, color b number, puzzles, math games, printable decorations and red envelopes and more. This set is aimed at kids 4-10 and looks like lots of fun.

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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