Free Year of the Horse AAC Coloring Pages for Lunar New Year
Free Year of the Horse AAC Coloring Pages for Lunar New Year: AAC-friendly, low-prep, and perfect for special education classrooms
Lunar New Year is one of my favorite opportunities to bring culture, communication, and creativity together in the classroom without adding pressure or overload. It is colourful, meaningful, and full of rich language opportunities, especially for our students who benefit from visuals, routines, and predictable structure.
To support this, I have created 2 free Year of the Horse coloring pages that are now available in my free resource library. These pages are designed specifically with special education, early years, and AAC users in mind.
They are calm, inclusive, and intentionally simple, while still being educational and purposeful.
Why Year of the Horse?
The Lunar New Year follows a 12 year zodiac cycle, with each year represented by an animal. The Horse symbol is often associated with energy, kindness, confidence, and strength. Introducing zodiac animals is a lovely way to expose students to cultural learning without overwhelming them with too much information at once.
Rather than focusing on facts or long explanations, these pages focus on:
- Recognition
- Language exposure
- Fine motor development
- Communication opportunities
This makes them ideal for a wide range of learners, including non-speaking students and those using AAC.
What Is Included in the Free Download?
You will receive two printable coloring pages, each designed with slightly different goals in mind so you can choose what works best for your students.
Page 1: Trace and Color
This version includes:
- “Year of the Horse” in dotted traceable text at the top
- A friendly horse character holding a scroll with the Chinese character for horse
- “2026” in dotted numerals for number tracing
- A clear, uncluttered layout for colouring
This page is perfect for:
- Fine motor practice
- Pencil control
- Pre-writing skills
- Early number recognition
It works beautifully as a calm table activity, morning work, or part of a Lunar New Year themed learning station.
Page 2: AAC-Supported Communication Page
The second page includes everything above, with the addition of an AAC sentence strip at the bottom.
The sentence reads:
Year of the Horse
Each word is paired with a clear visual symbol:
- Year
- of
- the
- Horse
This allows adults to model language naturally while students:
- Point to symbols
- Colour symbols
- Trace or visually attend to the words
- Repeat verbally if appropriate
This page is especially supportive for:
- AAC users
- Emerging communicators
- Students with limited expressive language
- Receptive language development
It is not a test and it is not demanding a response. It is simply offering accessible language exposure within a meaningful context.
Why Use AAC Symbols on a Coloring Page?
AAC does not need to be complicated or device-based to be powerful.
By adding a simple sentence strip, we are:
- Normalising AAC use in everyday activities
- Supporting core vocabulary
- Encouraging shared attention
- Making learning more inclusive
Adults can model the sentence aloud while pointing to each symbol:
“It is the year of the horse.”
Students can engage at their own level, whether that means pointing, looking, colouring, or listening. There is no right or wrong way to interact with the page.
This is especially important during cultural celebrations, where students should feel included rather than overwhelmed.
How You Might Use These Pages in the Classroom
These coloring pages are intentionally flexible. Here are a few easy ways to use them.
- Morning work during Lunar New Year week
- A calm activity during transitions or after play
- A visual support alongside a Lunar New Year story
- Part of a themed binder or folder
- A take-home activity to share learning with families
You can also pair the pages with:
- Red and gold crayons or paint
- Dot markers for extra fine motor input
- Laminating and using wipeable markers
- Cutting and pasting the AAC symbols for interactive use
Perfect for Special Education and Early Years
These pages were designed with real classrooms in mind.
They are suitable for:
- Special education classrooms
- Autism support settings
- Early years and preschool
- Speech and language therapy
- Home learning and homeschooling
They require no prep, no laminating if you do not want to, and no additional resources. Just print and use.
Download Free Here
Get this resource and over 200 others for free by joining up to my (FREE) resource library.
If you’re already a member of the free resource library, just log in here and download your resource.
Helpful Links
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And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my Free Resource Library for tons of classroom tools, visuals, and printables to make your teaching life easier (and a whole lot more fun!).
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Nikki
