We are the Year One children from Haslingden Primary School in Rossendale, and we love learning about Chinese New Year.

We do have several Chinese families in our school and share in the preparations for this important event. One of the most interesting things we do in our class is to find out about which year the children were born in, and discover their animal on the 12 year cycle.

It is great fun seeing if the characteristics match!! We even go home and find out when our parents and grandparents were born and find out their animals too.

We enjoy making paper lanterns and dragons as you can see in our pictures, and we learn to sing our Chinese New year song.

Christmas, Divali Hanukah and Eid are other important Winter festivals around this time of year, and it is very interesting to compare the features of each and look at the many similarities.

This gives us all an understanding of each other's celebrations and fosters tolerance within our multi cultured community.

Manchester is only 25 minutes away and many children now go with their families to enjoy and participate in the China town celebrations - taking with them an understanding of what is happening which will be valuable throughout their lives.