The rat is the first, and possibly the most courageous, of all the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Being born in the Year of the Rat is therefore regarded as an honour and a privilege, so if you have a baby in 2020, the next Year of the Rat, you are lucky parents!
We will be building up this section well in advance of the next Rat year, but in the meantime - especially if you have a child born in 2008, the last Year of the Rat - please explore the links below.
24th January 1936 - 10th February 1937
10th February 1948 - 28th January 1949
28th January 1960 - 14th February 1961
15th February 1972 - 2nd February 1973
2nd February 1984 - 19th February 1985
19th February 1996 - 6th February 1997
6th February 2008 - 25th January 2009
25th January 2020 – 11th February 2021
Rats are clever, energetic and charming - in fact they can talk their way into or out of anything! Rats are often popular and ambitious, and many rats become wealthy in later life because of their hard-work and clever minds. Rats are generally not good leaders as they are too interested in their own plans to pay much attention to leading others, but they are kind and honest, clean and tidy.
In the Chinese Zodiac, rats are thought to be clever, energetic and charming - and the rat on our colouring page looks as though he has those qualities! Ask the children to grab some pens or crayons and colour him in...
Here's a cheeky little colouring page for the Year of the Rat - with a very cute rat!
A fun printable Year of the Rat poster with words describing rat characteristics - talkative, ambitious, charming, imaginative, energetic, clever and honest.
Print and cut out this cute rat onto some card, and punch holes around the edge to make your own rat lacing card.
These super little Year of the Rat bookmarks are fun to give out at Chinese New Year to children born in the Year of the Rat! They list some of the typical Rat characteristics...
Here's a fun way for children to practise describing characters and character traits in their writing. Imagine you are writing a script for a television programme and your main character is typical of people born in the Year of the Rat.
Have fun with our rat crafts, rat colouring pages and rat printables - lots to do here!
Rats