25 Horror Books for Kids Age 9-12 Years

These creepy horror chapter books are filled with ghosts, zombies, haunted houses, and more, perfect for scaring the socks off 9-12 year olds and keeping them turning the pages late into the night!

As with all of the lists in our Best Chapter Books for Kids collection, each title in this list links to an Amazon page (these are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission at no cost to you) where you can find more information and reviews for titles you might not be personally familiar with.

Dust & Grim by Chuck Wendig
When her father passes away, 13 year old Molly discovers an older brother she never knew existed. And now that they’ve both been orphaned, Molly moves in with Dustin so they can figure out the details for managing the funeral home they’ve inherited from their mother. A magical funeral home with a peculiar clientele…it’s a mortuary for monsters!

Molly is really not sure how she will ever deal with talking wolves, their vampire accountant, the secrets hiding behind strange and mysterious doors, and a secret cemetery in this perfect middle grade mix of silly, gross, and scary! Age 9+ years.

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Spirit Hunters (book 1 of the series) by Ellen Oh
Harper’s family has just moved from an air conditioned apartment in New York to a stuffy old house in Washington D.C. Harper knows the move has something to do with a fire at school and a serious accident that put her in hospital, but she has no memories of the incident. Harper is wary of her new home and when her new friend, Dayo, tells her the rumors that her new house has a terrible history of hauntings and evil deeds, she fears that the source of her memory loss may have been caused by a malevolent spirit.

When her little brother, Michael, begins to exhibit signs of plotting something terrible, Harper’s blocked memories begin to resurface. The accident she caused and the change in Michael both seem to have connections to supernatural beings. Harper has no choice but to engage with the spirit world in an attempt to stop another tragedy from tearing her family apart. Age 9+ years.

There are three books in the scary Spirit Hunters series.

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Ghost Girl by Ally Malinenko
Ghost Girl explores the power of friendship when trio Zee, her best friend Elijah and her arch nemesis, Nellie, are trapped within a spooky, paranormal existence. Following a dark and stormy night, the people of their town have begun mysteriously disappearing, others are acting in strange and dangerous ways. Zee, who has always loved ghost stories suddenly sees all manner of things that frighten her – including… a ghost!

The trio must work together to defeat the evil forces that threaten them, and work together to save their town. Age 9+ years.

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Scritch Scratch: A Ghost Story by Lindsay Currie
Blending Chicago history, a ghostly mystery and a story of friendship, in Scratch Scratch Claire’s start to seventh grade has been a challenge, thanks to her dad’s embarrassing ghost tour business and a new girl moving in to steal her best friend.

Claire doesn’t believe any of the paranormal nonsense her dad is pushing, until one night she’s forced to help him on his ghost tour, and a very troubled spirit follows her home. Now she must overcome a fear of new situations and new people, while using her tried and true love of science to solve the mystery of the ghost boy. Age 10+ years.

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For more kids horror books by Lindsay Currie, check out her other spooky titles;
– The Girl in White
– What Lives in the Woods
– The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street
– It Found Us

The Ghouls of Howlfair by Nick Tomlinson
Serious young historian Molly Thompson suspects that the creepy legends about her tourist town of Howlfair are beginning to come true. But when her mother bans her from doing any further research, bookworm Molly and her friends become covert monster-hunters to keep Howlfair safe. It seems that someone is secretly trying to summon Howlfair’s mythical monsters and to Molly and her friends everything, and everyone, is becoming increasingly suspicious! Age 10+ years.

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Crater Lake: Don’t Ever Fall Asleep by Jennifer Killick
In this horror-sci-fi-humor inspired tale, friends Lance, Chet, Maksym, and Katja have arrived at Crater Lake, with all their year six classmates on a school trip. The new campground is called Crater Lake as is built in a huge crater formed when a meteor that crashed to earth many years prior.

Suddenly, their bus slams to a halt as they come across a strange, blood-covered man in the road. Is he a zombie? Is he an alien? Is he dead? Who is he and what is he trying to tell them? His warnings are garbled and unclear. From that moment on, things don’t seem quite right. Things take an even stranger turn when night falls as the those who have fallen asleep become bug-eyed and brainwashed, and begin heading into the woods on some strange mission – including the teachers. Those who haven’t fallen asleep yet remain still very much human.

The friends must work together in an attempt to stop alien entities from taking control of their classmates and teachers, all while making sure their minds are still functioning and their bodies are still moving, as apparently sleep is not an option! Age 10+ years.

There are two books in the Crater Lake series.

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City of Ghosts (book 1 of the series) by Victoria Schwab
This spooky, atmospheric read follows Cassidy Blake, a young girl who can travel behind “the veil” to see the ghosts within. How is that possible? When Cassidy drowned, her best friend Jacob, himself a ghost saved her, and he now walks within the living realm with her.

When her author parents are presented with an opportunity to host a television show that takes viewers on a tour of the scariest cities in the world, Cassidy finds herself in Scotland. There she begins to feel that the pull on the veil is stronger here, and that the ghosts in Scotland are much more sinister than Cassidy has previously encountered.

With the help of a new friend, Cassidy finds out that there is a reason she can see ghosts, and a job she must do. She needs to help send the ghosts walking within the living realm permanently behind the veil, off to whatever lies beyond. And so beings the Cassidy’s adventure of trying to defeat an evil spirit, and save her own life! Age 10+ years.

There are three horror books in The City of Ghosts series.

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This Appearing House by Ally Malinenko
Jac is getting ready for a series of tests that will hopefully label her as No Evidence of Disease five years post disease. But Jac fears the disease is returning. She’s taken a couple of falls, her hands have started to twitch, and she might be experiencing hallucinations – how else can you explain the house that just appeared at the end of Juniper Drive? She also has to deal with irritating jerks John and Sam, who like to pick on her best friend, Hazel.

When John declares that he’ll leave Hazel alone if Jac goes in to the house, she does. The boys follow her, and then things start to go wrong. The doors lock behind them, every door leads back to the room they were just in, and voices call out to them. But Jac soon realizes that the house is meant for her. She feels that “the only way out is through,” and she and Hazel try to figure out the mysteries of the house as they’re taken on a dark adventure to find the truth. Age 10+ years.

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Serafina and the Black Cloak (book 1 of the series) by Robert Beatty
Serafina lives in the basement of the magnificent Biltmore mansion, the home of the wealthy and influential Vanderbilt family. She’s lived there all of her life with her Pa taking care of her, but the Vanderbilts have no idea she’s even alive.

With the entire estate to roam, she must take care never to be seen by the rich folks upstairs, and never to leave the estate grounds to venture into the forbidden forest nearby. But, when the children of the estate begin to vanish, only Serafina knows the truth. Her life is thrown into turmoil on the night that she witnessed the Man in the Black Cloak vaporize a child into thin air. And now, he wants her. With the help of Braeden Vanderbilt, the young master of Biltmore Estate, they must stop him before he strikes again. Age 10+ years.

There are four books in the Serafina series.

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Doll Bones by Holly Black
Zach, Poppy and Alice have an ongoing pretend game with dolls in which they act out fanstastical stories about pirates, mermaids and thieves. Until one day the dolls are thrown away, and in desperation to continue the game Poppy takes a creepy bone-china doll they call the Great Queen from her mother’s cabinet.

Then Poppy begins having dreams that Great Queen won’t rest until she’s buried in an empty grave! As the children make plans to lay the Queen’s ghost to rest creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? Age 10+ years.

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The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
Molly and Kip are two Irish orphans trying to make their own way in Victorian England. Desperate for work and a place to call home, the children take roles as servants to the Windsor family, who live in an isolated place people refer to with a shudder as “the Sourwoods.” When they arrive, they can’t help but notice that the estate is in a state of disrepair. However, what stands out more than anything is the huge tree that grows so close to the house that some of its branches have grown right through the walls.

The longer Molly and Kip stay, the more they realize there is an eerie connection between the tree and all the strange things they observe – the Windsor family’s sickly complexions, the nightmares that plague everyone at bedtime, a mysterious room upstairs that is kept locked at all times, and a mysterious nighttime visitor. But just as Molly and Kip decide they need to leave this dangerous place, the power of the mysterious tree lures them in. Will they be able to save themselves? Age 10+ years.

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The Clackity (book 1 of the series) by Lora Senf
Blight Harbor is the seventh most haunted town in America, and a place where it’s normal to know by name the ghost who haunts your house or the local hardware store! So when things take a sinister turn, and a creature called The Clackity kidnaps the local paranormal expert from the abandoned abattoir at the edge of town, a little girl named Evie knows if she doesn’t go after her, she’ll lose everything. Because that expert is her Aunt and guardian, Desdemona, Evie’s only family.

The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie reluctantly embarks on a journey into a strange otherworld, with her love for her missing aunt propeling her forward through a host of horrors while her ingenuity and pluck allow her to navigate a world where skewed rules and half-truths run the game. Age 11+ years.

There are three books in the scary Blight Harbor book series.

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The Nest by Kenneth Oppel
“We’ve come because of the baby,” she said. “We’ve come to help.” Steve is worried about his newborn brother, born with multiple congenital difficulties and facing surgery, concerned for his parents and their stress at the situation, and anxious about the nest of strange wasps outside his window.

When Steve first dreams about what he believes is an angel with an offer to help the baby, he is eager to accept the plan. But this is no angel. The silvery winged wasps have tricked Steve into a horrible contract that will see him help the queen to take his defective baby brother and replace him with a perfect one that the wasps are manufacturing. When Steve realizes his mistake, he fights to do everything possible to keep the strange wasps away from his baby brother. And all the while, the wasps’ nest is growing, the angel keeps visiting him in the night and the adults can not seem to see the danger all around them, in a horror filled story about the dangers of perfection and wishing things were back to normal at any cost. Age 11+ years..

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Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
11 year old Ollie spots a woman about to throw an old book in the water. As any book lover would do, Ollie snatches the book away. She discovers it is a personal history from the 1800s. Soon after she finds the book, Ollie goes on a field trip to a nearby farm, and begins to draw parallels between the book and the people around her.

The school bus breaks down on the trip home and Ollie and few of her classmates get thrown into a terrifying adventure as the strange bus driver offers them the strangest advice, “Best get moving. At nightfall they’ll come for the rest of you.” Nightfall is, indeed, fast approaching when Ollie’s previously broken digital wristwatch begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN!!!  As Ollie and two classmates head into the woods that are bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them, the bus driver offers one final piece of advice to the trio, “Avoid large places. Keep to small.” Age 11+ years.

There are four scary books in the Small Spaces book series.

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The Keeper by Guardalupe Garcia McCall
James’ family have moved to Oregon from Texas and he is feeling homesick, and still grieving the death of his grandmother. He and his sister, Ava, are in the middle of a prank war that their parents are sick of. When James starts receiving sinister letters from “The Keeper,” warning him that his home is being watched and that someone is looking for “young blood,” his parents think it’s just another prank between James and his sister. But when the siblings find out that the town has a history of missing children, they must work together to figure out who is sending the letters before they become the next victims of The Keeper! Age 11+ years.

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The List of Unspeakable Fears by J Kasper Kramer
In this historical spooky story set in the early 1900s, we meet Essie, a fearful, anxiety-ridden girl who comes home from school to find her mother already packed to leave to a new home with a step-father her daughter has never met. Worse yet, he’s a doctor who lives on North Brother Island where patients with extremely contagious diseases are sent to be quarantined.

The island poses many dark secrets, and there is something terribly unsettling about her new home, and her stepfather, all things that add to Essie’s ever growing list of unspeakable fears. And when she sees the red door from her nightmares just down the hall from the bedroom of her terrifying new home, Essie is sure a true life nightmare is just about to begin! Age 11+ years.

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Nightbooks by J. A. White
Alex loves writing spooky stories but hates being called a weirdo, so late one night he goes out to burn the Nightbooks in which he has long recorded his hair-raising tales. Unfortunately, Alex is captured and imprisoned by a witch and must tell a scary story each night to stay alive. Alex knows that scary stories don’t typically have happy endings and on discovering that there have been other children before him that have now long disappeared, he is desperate for a different ending to the nightmare he now finds himself trapped in! Age 11+ years.

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The Screaming Staircase (book 1 of the series) by Jonathan Stroud
In an alternative modern day London, the world is haunted by supernatural beings, and private agencies rely on child operatives to combat the ghosts, as they are the only ones with senses sensitive enough to detect them.

After a horrible accident in her home village, Lucy Carlyle flees to London and joins a small struggling agency, Lockwood & Co. She is soon they are embroiled in a mystery that may cost Lucy and her teammates their lives in this tale of ancient evil, unsolved murders, powerful ghosts and nefarious mortals. Age 12+ years.

There are five books in the Lockwood & Co horror book series.

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The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie
When Sunshine and her adoptive mother move to Washington from Texas, an oppressive, wet cold settles upon Sunshine. Everything is gray and creepy and stale. Almost immediately Sunshine begins to experience mysterious noises, hearing cries, footsteps, and even giggling in the middle of the night.

It quickly becomes clear that someone or something is haunting their home and, even more frightening, it seems that only Sunshine can sense it. What starts off as small shifts, quickly escalates into something else, something much scarier. Sunshine is enthralled by what’s happening, and with the help of a new friend, Nolan, is determined to unravel the mysteries that chill the air of her new home. Age 12+ years.

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Classic Kids Horror Books for 9-12 Year Olds

The Witches by Roald Dahl
They live in ordinary houses, they look and behave like ordinary women. But witches aren’t ordinary at all. They have murderous, bloodthirsty thoughts and they absolutely hate children – and their leader, the Grand High Witch, is hatching a wicked plan to make every child disappear forever! Age 9+ years.

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Coraline, feeling ignored by her overworked parents, finds an alternative world behind a previously locked door in her home where an alternative apartment just like hers exists. But in this other apartment she also finds an “other mother”  and “other father” who promise her everything she wants from life as long as she stays with them forever. Could this other life be just too good to be true? A classic horror book for children that will hook readers ages 9+ years.

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See Coraline and other great horror books transformed into graphic novel format in our list of spooky graphic novels for kids!

The Field Guide (book 1 of the series) by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
In book one of The Spiderwick Chronicles, twins Jared and Simon and their sister, Mallory, move into the decrepit Spiderwick Estate and discover a field guide for fantastical faeries (that was never intended for human hands) that leads them into a dangerous parallel world to their own!

Be aware that the first book in the series is milder than the content in the remainder of the series titles. Age 9+ years.

There are five books in The Spiderwick Chronicles spooky book series.

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Goosebumps book series by R.L. Stine
If you grew up in the 90s, you are probably familiar with R.L. Stine’s spooky Goosebumps series! With more than 60 titles in the series, these short, horror books for kids continue to keep children turning the pages, and could just about keep young fans entertained forever!

With collections like the Classic Goosebumps 20 book set containing titles such as Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, The Haunted Car, The Scarecrow Walks at Night, The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, The Blob That Ate Everyone, Night of the Living Dummy and The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, you can see that Stine has re-imagined virtually every nightmare scenario into a page-turner for younger horror readers. Age 9+ years.

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The Bad Beginning (book 1 of the series) by Lemony Snicket
Book one of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events series finds the three very intelligent and lovely but very, very unfortunate Baudelaire children sent to live with their distant cousin, Count Olaf, when they are orphaned. Olaf is despicably evil and who will do absolutely anything to get his hands on the children’s inheritance in this dark comedy that is both terribly hilarious and dreadfully irreverent. Age 10+ years.

There are thirteen books in the complete A Series of Unfortunate Events book series.

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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Orphaned Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead.

He lives there following the brutal murder of his family. Granted the Privilege of the Graveyard and taught how to fade into the background, Bod spends his entire childhood playing among graves, learning his letters from the gravestones, running into trouble with ghouls, being tutored by a werewolf with a taste for Eastern European food, and dancing with Death.

And all the while the evil that tried to murder him in the first place is still searching for him! A clever story that is both creepy and nostalgic with a bittersweet ending. Age 10+ years.

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More Spooky Books & Resources

For more spooky stories, books and resources, check out these related posts;

15 Teen Murder Mystery Books

21 Halloween Movies for Kids

Free Printable Halloween Games

The post 25 Horror Books for Kids Perfect for Halloween and In Between! appeared first on Childhood101.

30 Children’s Books About Birthdays

Each book on our Books about Birthdays list is linked to an Amazon page for more information and reviews (these are affiliate links).

I Love Birthdays by Anna Walker: A sweet book for preschoolers and kindergarteners (and a favourite in our house) – join Ollie in celebrating everything that is fabulous about birthdays.

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I Am Invited To A Party by Mo Willems: While maybe not exactly a birthday book, we love this wonderful Elephant & Piggie book about parties. A long time hit in our house.

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It’s My Birthday by Helen Oxenbury: Unlike the poor Little Red Hen, this youngster’s animal friends are delighted to help her make a cake to celebrate her birthday. A lovely birthday story about helping and sharing with friends.

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Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton: “You hear your door come crashing down—those birthday monsters are in town!” Boynton’s fabulously popular rhyming text and wonderfully simple illustrations turn to the topic of birthdays in our favorite book about birthdays for toddlers.

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The Princess and the Presents by Caryl Hart: Will the world’s most spoiled princess ever learn that birthdays are about so much more than presents!

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Happy Birthday, Cupcake by Terry Border: As Cupcake and her best friend, Blueberry Muffin, try to plan her birthday party, there is lots to consider. What is the perfect birthday party idea for a group of foods?

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Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins: Who knew cakes could be so rude! These cakes certainly do NOT have the sweet disposition of their flavoring! A rather ridiculously wonderful story that proves even the rudest cake can learn to change its behavior.

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The Birthday Book by Todd Parr: A celebration of every type of birthday shared in Todd Parr’s colorful, signature style. Great birthday story for toddlers and preschoolers.

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Happy Birthday Wombat by Jackie French: It’s Mothball, the hilarious wombat’s birthday and you’ll never guess what a birthday is like through the eyes of one very funny wombat!

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RELATED: For more like Happy Birthday Wombat, check out this list of 35 Fun Books About Australian Animals.

Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party by Melanie Watt: Scaredy Squirrel is planning his birthday party – for one! The perfect party for a worrywart! But whatever will happen when the other party animals arrive uninvited?

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Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes by James Dean: Pete the Cat and his friends are busy as can be baking cupcakes for a party, and Pete can’t wait to perform with his groovy band. But some of the cupcakes have gone missing! Who could have taken them?

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This Is Actually My Party (Charlie and Lola) by Lauren Child: It’s Charlie’s birthday but Lola is so excited that she opens all of Charlie’s birthday cards and even blows out his birthday candles! What will happen when Lola is banned from the party?!

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The Night Before My Birthday by Natasha Wing: Part of the popular, ‘The Night Before…’ series, this birthday story book captures all the excitement of an upcoming birthday. But when everything is ready for the special day, what happens when an ice cream emergency occurs?!!

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Happy Birthday Mouse by Laura Numeroff: It’s Mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie’s birthday and he needs to choose a birthday treat to eat! A simple birthday story board book for toddler and preschooler fans of the picture book series.

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Grug Has a Birthday by Ted Prior: No one knows how old Grug is. Not even Grug. So when he learns about birthday parties, Grug decides to throw a birthday party, with cake and party hats…but something important is missing??!

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Fancy Nancy Puppy Party by Jane O’Connor: When Fancy Nancy decides to give her puppy, Frenchy, the most glamorous, fabulous birthday party ever, she is not sure that her puppy know how to behave at such an elegant event!

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Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells: It’s Grandma’s birthday and Max wants to make her an icky, worm-infested cake. But Ruby intends to make an angel surprise cake with raspberry-fluff icing. Will they both become bunnies who bake?

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Grumpy Monkey Party Time by Suzanne Lang: Jim feels a little anxious about Porcupine’s upcoming party – especially when he finds out there will be dancing involved! A great party story teaching kids that it is okay to go against the flow and to speak up when you are not okay.

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The Perfect Birthday Recipe by Katy Hudson: Beaver is a perfectionist. His latest project is his birthday cake. Not content with anything less, this will be a PERFECT birthday cake! When Beaver’s friends, Tortoise, Rabbit, Bird and Squirrel, decide to help, a Beaver sized temper tantrum ensues. And Beaver must decide what is more important – his friends or his cake?

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Cake by Sue Handra: In this hilarious birthday story book, Cake has been invited to a party. He’s very excited as he’s never been to a birthday party before. But as the candles on his party hat begin to burn and the other party guests start to sing, Cake starts to think that this is one party he’d rather not be at..!

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Ollie’s Birthday Surprise by Nicola Killen: It is Ollie’s birthday, and she is feeling excited! So when a bunch of colorful balloons float past her window and into the magical woods, Ollie can’t help but follow. But where could they be headed and what magical surprise could be in store?

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Box of Tricks by Katie Cleminson: Eva is given a very special birthday present – a box of tricks! She soon discovers that she is a master magician and she conjures up a rather magical party. What happens when it is time for the party to end?!

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Fortunately by Remy Charlip: “Fortunately, Ned was invited to a surprise party…Unfortunately, the party was a thousand miles away…Fortunately, a friend loaned Ned an airplane.” Join Ned on his rather wacky adventure to a surprise party. But will he actually make it???

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Jimmy’s Boa and the Big Bash Birthday Splash by Trinka Hakes Noble: A clever, classic birthday story! When Jimmy’s mother gives him a goldfish, she never imagines the chaos that will ensue when he takes the fish AND his boa to his party at SeaLand!

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A Dinosaur Came To My Birthday Party! by Frances Mackay: A fun birthday party story for preschool dinosaur lovers! Which dino would you invite to your birthday party?

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Ten Rules of the Birthday Wish by Beth Ferry: A ten step guide book to making a successful birthday wish that is perfect for talking about what children enjoy about their own birthday celebrations.

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Bear Can’t Wait by Karma Wilson: Another fun installment for fans of Wilson’s Bear series, Bear is having a hard time waiting for the wonderful surprise party he and the other animals are planning!

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If You Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff: If you give a pig a party – with balloons, a party dress, and guests. The search for guests might just lead to a street fair, a game of hide and seek, a sleepover, and more! Great for fans of this popular picture book series.

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A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban: In this hilarious, heartfelt classic happy birthday story, Frances is not sure whether to give her annoying little sister a birthday present.

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RELATED: For more wonderful book classics to share, be sure to check out our collection of 50 Classic Children’s Books.

Starla Jean Takes the Cake by Elana K. Arnold: Starla Jean is sure that her chicken, Opal Egg, will lay an egg in time for her to bake a cake for her little sister’s first birthday! As the day draws near, Starla Jean does find something in Opal Egg’s nest – but it’s not an egg! A great picture book to chapter book transition.

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RELATED: For more book suggestions for children making the move from picture books to chapter books, be sure to check out our collection of Illustrated Chapter Books for 7-12 Year Olds.

Book Activities for Kids

For more great books and book activities for preschool and kindergarten, check out these related posts;

The Secret Birthday Message Book Activities

Herve Tullet Book Activities

Three Little Pigs Puppets

The post 30 Best Children’s Books About Birthdays appeared first on Childhood101.

Why learn about the Olympic Games?

The Olympic Games is a major, international sporting event held every four years. It is considered the foremost sports competition in the world, with athletes from more than 200 countries competing in a wide range of sports.

There are lots of interesting facts and rituals, involving both the tradition of the ancient Olympics and the Olympic Games as we know them today, to engage children in learning about this fabulous event.

With this set of Olympics worksheets including Olympics facts and information for children, your students will have a better understanding of how the Olympic Games started and how it operates today, its relationship to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, the important symbols and rituals of each Olympic Games event, the sports offered and the Olympic medals.

Free, Printable Olympic Games Worksheets for Middle Grades

This free Olympic Games printables pack is best suited to children in elementary grades (primary school) and middle grades 3-7. The pack includes;

4 pages of interesting Olympic Games facts covering;

• The Olympics in Ancient Times
• The Modern Summer Olympics
• The Paralympics
• The Winter Olympics
• The Olympic symbols and brand
• The Olympic flame and torch
• The Opening and Closing Ceremonies
• The Sports Roster
• Olympic Medals.

The supporting worksheets and activity sheets include;

• Olympic Games True or False Worksheet
• Summer Olympic Games Host Cities Research Activity
• Two page Olympic Athlete Research Prompts and Record Sheet
• Summer Olympics Sports Word Scramble
• Summer Olympics Sports Word Search
• Olympic Games Host City Word Search
• Summer Olympic Games Crossword
• Summer Olympics Host City Crossword

We have also added a set of Answer Sheets for each activity pack that also includes three handy lists of host cities for the modern Summer Olympic Games, Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

And you can download this PDF of printable Olympic Games activities as either of two versions of the worksheets – the first is US Letter sized with US spelling and the second is A4 sized with UK spelling.

Tips for Download & Printing : Olympic Games Worksheets

Printing Tips

• Save the PDF to your computer.
• Open the PDF to print the pages you require.
• When printing, select “Fit to printable area” (or similar) to ensure the page fits with your printer type and local paper size.

Having trouble accessing or downloading the file? Please try a different internet browser.
Please note: All Childhood 101 printables are for personal use only, you may not use any part of this content for commercial purposes-that includes selling the document, giving it away to promote your business or website, or printing the file to sell. You may not share, loan or redistribute these documents. Teachers may use multiple copies for students in their own classroom.

More Learning Around the World Resources

For related resources, check out these geography posts;

75 Picture Books from Around the World

Great Geography Videos for Kids

Online Geography Games

The post Free Printable Olympic Games Worksheets for Kids appeared first on Childhood101.

You can find the instructions for downloading a printable version of this list of Bee Research Questions below.

A bee research project would be a great way to raise awareness about World Bee Day with school age children. It would also tie in nicely with Earth Day celebrations, or an Environmental Science unit.

What is World Bee Day?

With more than 20,000 identified bee species in the world, and the importance of bees to the world’s environment – not least to the production of both food and oxygen – bees are kind of a big deal! World Bee Day was initiated on May 20th, 2017 by the United Nations as a means of raising awareness of the significant contribution that bees make to the world. It is now celebrated on May 20 each year.

What’s the big deal about bees?
In one word – pollination. Bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers. Nectar and pollen are food sources for bees. As bees move from flower to flower collecting the nectar and pollen that they need, they transfer pollen from plant to plant and enable pollination.

When animals and insects pick up the pollen of flowers and spread them to other flowers, they enable the plant to reproduce. Importantly to humans, this includes many food crops and trees for oxygen production. When pollination occurs, the fertilized flowers of the plant enable it to reproduce or form fruit. Whilst other animals, including birds and rodents, can act as pollinators, the most common (and important) pollinators are insects, especially bees.

Bees also produce food for humans directly in the form of honey. And there is a lot of interest in the medicinal properties of honey and the many other products bees make.

Unfortunately, many bee species are at risk. Their habitats are disappearing as green spaces are cleared and replaced with buildings, and the use of pesticides on crops and flowers is harmful to them.

Bee Research Questions for Kids

The printable includes the following questions about bees to be used as prompts to get students researching these wonderful, essential insects;

1. Honey bees are not the only bees in the world. How many other bee species are in your local area?
2. Not all bees sting, what sting-less bees do you have in your local area?
3. Can all honey bees sting? Or only males? Or only females?
4. Can bumblebees sting once or multiple times?
5. What makes honey bees so noisy when they fly? Are all bees noisy when they fly?
6. Do all bees live in a beehive? If they don’t, where do they live?
7. Do all bees make honey and honeycomb?
8. Does a bee have two eyes or more?
9. How fast do bees fly and do all bees fly as fast as each other?
10. Do all bees have a queen bee or only the honey bee?
11. Why are honey bees so important that they are now found all round the world?
12. Do all bees swam?
13. Can honey be used as an antiseptic?
14. Does a honey bee have more than one stomach? What about other bees?
15. What threats are facing honey bee populations?
16. How can we help bees survive?
17. Are all species of bee the same size? If not, what is the smallest and what is the largest?
18. How long is a honey bees life span? Do other bees live for longer?
19. Do bees sleep at night?
20. Can bees see at night?
21. Can bees see in colors or do they see in black and white?

The post Bee Research Questions for Kids appeared first on Childhood101.

What is World Bee Day?

With more than 20,000 identified bee species in the world, and the importance of bees to the world’s environment – not least to the production of both food and oxygen – bees are kind of a big deal! World Bee Day was initiated on May 20th, 2017 by the United Nations as a means of raising awareness of the significant contribution that bees make to the world. It is now recognized as a day of awareness and action on May 20 each year.

And you can add a little humor to World Bee Day activities in your classroom with this Bee Jokes Fortune Teller!

Bee Jokes for Kids Fortune Teller

The free printable file includes two versions of the Bee Jokes fortune teller – one created for printing on US letter paper and the other on A4. The fortune teller includes four perfectly corny bee jokes for kids (download instructions can be found at the bottom of this post).

Instructions for Making a Bee Jokes Fortune Teller

1. Cut out the fortune teller square. Turn the square over to the non-printed side.
2. Fold one corner over to meet the opposite corner, fold on the diagonal and then unfold.
3. Repeat with the two remaining corners. Lay the creased paper flat.
4. Fold each of the four corners to meet in the middle of the square.
5. Flip the fortune teller over.
6. Again, fold each of the four corners so that their points meet in the middle.
7. Flip the fortune teller again.
8. Fold the fortune teller in half (the numbered flaps should be on the inside).
9. Insert your thumbs and pointer fingers, one into each of the four folded pockets on the outside of the fortune teller. Work your fingers into the four corners and, using the creases, push the corners together to form four points in the middle of the fortune teller. Now you are ready to play.

How to Play With Your Fortune Teller

1. Place your thumbs and first fingers not the bottom sections of the teller. Present to a friend and ask them to choose a word.
2. Spell out the word aloud while opening and closing the fortune teller, working it by making pinching and pulling motions with your fingers to making it open once for each letter said aloud.
3. Hold the teller open and have your friend choose a number from the inner flaps displayed.
4. Count aloud as you work the teller back and forth that many times.
5. Ask your friend to choose another number from the inner flaps now displayed.
6. Lift the flap that corresponds with the number chosen and read aloud the bee joke displayed for your friend to answer.

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The post Bee Jokes for Kids Fortune Teller appeared first on Childhood101.

Bee Word Search

Great for engaging students with World Bee Day, Earth Day or your classroom science program, this teacher-made series of Bee Word Searches engages children with relevant vocabulary related to these valuable insects. And, the challenge level word searches provide an additional layer of learning.

These puzzles can be used as research prompts to learn more about bees (at the beginning of your unit of study) or as an opportunity for children to show what they have learned about bees (if used at the conclusion of the unit study).

What is World Bee Day?

With more than 20,000 identified bee species in the world, and the importance of bees to the world’s environment – not least to the production of both food and oxygen – bees are kind of a big deal! World Bee Day was initiated on May 20th, 2017 by the United Nations as a means of raising awareness of the significant contribution that bees make to the world. It is now celebrated on May 20 each year.

These bee word search puzzles are a fun activity to include in your plans for World Bee Day with school age children. They also tie in nicely with Earth Day celebrations, or an Environmental Science unit.

What’s the big deal about bees?
In one word – pollination. Bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers. Nectar and pollen are food sources for bees. As bees move from flower to flower collecting the nectar and pollen that they need, they transfer pollen from plant to plant and enable pollination.

When animals and insects pick up the pollen of flowers and spread them to other flowers, they enable the plant to reproduce. Importantly to humans, this includes many food crops and trees for oxygen production. When pollination occurs, the fertilized flowers of the plant enable it to reproduce or form fruit. Whilst other animals, including birds and rodents, can act as pollinators, the most common (and important) pollinators are insects, especially bees.

Bees also produce food for humans directly in the form of honey. And there is a lot of interest in the medicinal properties of honey and the many other products bees make.

Unfortunately, many bee species are at risk. Their habitats are disappearing as green spaces are cleared and replaced with buildings, and the use of pesticides on crops and flowers is harmful to them.

Help a Bee Out
The best way to help bees is by raising awareness of their important work.

You can also help by planting a range of flowers in your garden so that bees have access to nectar and pollen, by choosing sustainable, organic food sources, and buying local honey and other bee products.

Which Bee Word Search to Use
There are three levels of word search included in the printable Bee Word Search document (see full download and print instructions below). I have not included an age or grade level on the puzzles as you know best which will challenge your students appropriately.

The first follows the more traditional word search format with a list of bee words to find within the word search letter grid. This puzzle includes 18 bee words to find.

The second word search page provides a series of fill-the-word statements for children to solve. These statements are all facts about bees. This version includes a bee word bank for students to use. The solutions to the quiz questions are the words to find within the bee word search grid.

The third puzzle again uses the word bee related quiz questions for the students to solve however, this time there is no word bank provided. Students can research, or draw on prior knowledge at the conclusion of a unit of study about bees to find the answers. The solutions to these questions are the words to find within the bee word search grid. There is also a bonus challenge – find 5 bonus bee words hidden within the puzzle.

How to Use Word Search Puzzles in the Classroom
Download the file and print your chosen word search page. Add pencils and invite children to start solving the puzzle. Word searches make a great activity for spelling or word study time and can be used as a resource for early finishers. The challenge word searches provide a handy learning extension activity too.

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The post 3 Free Bee Word Search Printables appeared first on Childhood101.

Perfect for children from the middle grades of elementary or primary school up to adults, creating mosaics with Lego involves lots of skills – sorting, matching, counting, adding, subtracting, even dividing and multiplying. The designs do not indicate which Lego bricks should be used so using two square four bricks in an area of the design might work just as well as a six rectangle brick along with a two brick. There are lots of different combinations that can work in completing each pattern.

Printable Star Wars Lego Mosaic Patterns

For this set we created four popular Star Wars characters – R2D2, C3PO, Darth Vadar and a Stormtrooper.

RELATED: For younger Star Wars fans, check out our Star Wars shadow puppets and Star Wars Memory Matching Card Game.

C3PO and Darth Vadar were most definitely the trickiest to design!

We had a great time putting these together. Lego Mosaics can be challenging, and definitely better suited to school age Star Wars fans.

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The post Printable Star Wars Lego Mosaic Patterns appeared first on Childhood101.

Star Wars can be a super popular area of interest to kids of all ages, making it a great motivation for learning too!  After our printable Star Wars shadow puppets were such a hit I had the idea of also creating a Star Wars memory matching game.

We love playing memory matching games here. But these aren’t just fun for matching – below I’m sharing seven different games that you can play with these Star Wars game cards.

7 Ways to Play With Star Wars Matching Cards

1. Memory Match or Concentration: This set makes a great introduction to playing Memory Match or Concentration for those who haven’t played before.

To play as a one player game: Lay all of the cards out on the table face down. Have your child turn over two cards, if they match they keep the pair and take another turn. If they don’t match, the cards are both turned back over again before they take another turn. They’ll need to keep a sharp eye out to see if they can remember where the matching pairs are hiding.

To play as a two player game: Lay all of the cards out on the table face down. Have your child turn over two cards, if they match they keep the pair and take another turn. If they don’t match, the cards are both turned back over again before their opponent takes a turn. Players continue to take turns to match pairs of cards until all of the pairs have been found. The player with the most pairs is the winner of that round.

2. What’s missing? Place down one set of cards face up and allow your child to study them for one minute. Tell them to close their eyes while you remove one card. Can they work out which card is missing?

3. Play charades: One player selects a card at random (without looking) and uses body actions and gestures (no talking) to describe the Star Wars item on the card to the other players. The other players must watch carefully and call out their guesses. The first person to guess the correct item takes the next turn.

4. Pattern making: Practice this important math skill by printing out multiple copies of the matching cards (you won’t need to print the included backing sheet for this one) and using the Star Wars game cards to make repeated patterns.

5. Alphabetical order: Use one set of the cards and challenge your child to put the Star Wars game cards into alphabetical order according to the item pictured on each card.

6. Story cards: Shuffle a set of cards and place them on a stack face down. The first person playing chooses a card and begins telling a story featuring the character or item on the card selected. At the end of an agreed period of time (it could be two sentences, 30 seconds, one minute – you choose according to the age and development of your children), the next player turns over the next card and continues telling the story, injecting the second character into the story line. Continue play until all of the cards have been used.

7. Tell me challenge: This one is for REAL fans of Star Wars! Choose one card at random and challenge your child to tell you 10 things about the character or item featured on the card in under one minute.

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The post Star Wars Memory Matching Game appeared first on Childhood101.