Lunar New Year 2026 | Year of the Fire Horse Art Project

Hi, I'm Patty Palmer.

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What are good Lunar New Year projects for the classroom?

Bold energy, fiery colors and fresh beginnings are galloping in this Lunar New Year.

February 17th marks the Lunar New Year, a holiday celebrated in Asia and Asian communities around the world. The year of the Fire Horse is said to bring rapid change, innovation and fresh opportunities.

If you’d like to honor Lunar New Year traditions while exploring the symbolism of the zodiac through art, we have the perfect one-session project for grades three and up.

This isn’t just a drawing lesson, it’s a chance for students to visualize the adventures they’d like to take this year, both in art and life – plus add a focus on color theory and simple materials? That’s a win in any art room.

And if you love a good picture book like we do, consider reading The Night Before Lunar New Year by Lingfend Ho and Natasha Wing to your students for a child-friendly exploration of the customs and traditions of Lunar New Year.

To create this project, give each students:

– 9″ x 12″ piece of black sulphite paper

– White oil pastel or crayon

– Chalk pastels

– Scrap paper (about 6″ x 9″)

– Paper towel

We’ve created a handy drawing guide to help students draw the horse. Download it by clicking the button below.

HOW TO CREATE THE FIRE HORSE

Step 1.) Draw the horse with white oil pastel or crayon. Be sure to leave space for the fiery mane.

If you’d like to, add patterns to the horse’s neck. This is optional and can be omitted for younger students.

Step 2.) Add warm colored chalk pastel to fill in the horse. Smooth the chalk with one finger.

Add a lighter color in areas that light would hit and darker color in areas that would be in shadow. Smooth with one finger.

You can give each student a dry paper towel to wipe fingers off in between colors.

Step 3.) For the fire, add yellow to the flaming mane and smooth. Then add a layer of orange, leaving the ends yellow. Smooth. Add a layer of red, leaving some areas orange, then smooth.

Step 4.) Add a solid cool color, like green, blue or violet in the background.

Use another cool color to create swirls in the background. Smooth out. Add another color if you’d like.

Step 5.) Trace lines with a black chalk pastel.

If needed, you can put the scrap paper down to rest your hand on to get more leverage without smearing while tracing.

Step 6.) Inside each swirl, use the black chalk pastel to write out an adventure you’d like to have this year.

Shake off the paper gently over a trash can to get rid of excess chalk dust. To store, sandwich the papers between a folded piece of scrap paper to help prevent smearing.

If you create this lesson in your art room, I’d love to see your students’ fiery horses galloping across our social media feed. Come join The Deep Space Sparkle Facebook Page right HERE and post and tag us in your photos.

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