12 Zodiac Animal Paper Lanterns – classroom fun for Chinese New Year 2026

Another wonderful FULL SET of 12 Zodiac Animal Printable Activities – the Zodiac Animal Paper Lanterns! This is a wonderful set of either full color paper lanterns or animal paper lantern coloring pages for Chinese New Year! Of course you can make “just” the classic red paper lantern (this is a long term favourite of ours), however, adding the cute animal designs, extends this fun activity and allows you to celebrate the different Zodiac Animals. 2026 is the Year of the Horse, but of course, we love to make ALL the Zodiac Paper Lanterns.

As mentioned, you can get all these lanterns individually in my Teacher’s Pay Teacher’s store (I will list them below), you can simply grab the FULL SET! You will get a total of 25 printable pages – 12 Zodiac animal in black and white, 12 Zodiac animals in full color PLUS a bonus page of a sheep paper lantern coloring page – as some people interpret the Year of the Goat as the Year of the Sheep! (This also applies to my Zodiac Animal Corner Bookmark Bundle).

Supplies needed to make your paper lantern:

• Plain paper
• Coloring pens or pencils (if using the coloring page)
• Scissors
• Glue stick

This FULL Set of 12 Zodiac Lanterns is also available individually:

Note: the year of the sheep interpretation is only available as a freebie in the full bundle!

1. Year of the Rat
2. Year of the Ox
3. Year of the Rabbit
4. Year of the Dog
5. Year of the Pig
6. Year of the Tiger
7. Year of the Dragon
8. Year of the Snake
9. Year of the Horse
10. Year of the Goat
11. Year of the Rooster
12. Year of the Monkey

How to make your Paper Lantern for The Year of the Horse

Here is how you assemble ALL the Zodiac Animal Paper Lanterns – using the Horse Lantern as an example.

Begin by choosing the coloring page or the full color paper lantern. If choosing the coloring page, have fun coloring in your paper lantern. You can use a mixture of mediums – maybe use watercolors for the background and felt tip pens for the zodiac animal itself? Whatever you choose, take your time and have fun!

Take care cutting out your basic shapes

Fold your paper lantern in half

Cut the lantern strips. Be careful to keep the ends in tact.

Add glue along one edge of the paper lantern. Make sure the glue goes to both ends.

Fold lantern onto itself and secure the glue.

Make one.. MAKE THEM ALL!

Hope you enjoy this paper craft, as much as we do!! You can make more wonderful Chinese New Year Crafts here (the Dragon Concertina Puppet is ALWAYS popular and continues to be free for Red Ted Art readers) as well as some wonderful Zodiac Animal Finger Puppets: