100 Fun Facts About Elementary School

How many sides does a hexagon have?

The word comes from Greek: hex means six and gonia means corner. Honeycomb cells and most pencils are hexagons.

How many planets are in our Solar System?

There were nine on classroom posters until 2006, when Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.

Which planet is closest to the Sun?

Mercury orbits closest to the Sun, about 58 million km away on average; it is also the smallest planet, and its year lasts only 88 Earth days.

Which is the largest planet in the Solar System?

Jupiter is so big that more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it.

Which planet is nicknamed the Red Planet?

Mars looks red because of rust: iron oxide in the dust and rocks that cover most of its surface.

Which planet is famous for its bright rings?

Saturn's rings are made mostly of water ice, in chunks ranging from grains of sand up to the size of a house.

What kind of object is the Sun?

It is a very ordinary star that only looks huge and bright because it is so much closer to us than any other.

How many natural moons does Earth have?

Mars has two tiny ones and the giant outer planets have dozens each, but Earth makes do with a single large Moon.

About how many hours does it take Earth to spin around once?

Earth spins once in about 24 hours, which gives us day and night; a full trip around the Sun takes about 365 days.

Which star is called the North Star?

Polaris sits less than one degree from the north celestial pole, almost directly above the North Pole, so it barely moves while other stars wheel around it.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

Neil Armstrong stepped off Apollo 11's ladder in July 1969, followed by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins circled overhead in the command module.

How many continents are there?

Asia is the biggest by far, and roughly 60 percent of all the people on Earth live there.

Which is the smallest continent?

Greenland is big, but it counts as an island, which leaves Australia as the smallest continent.

Which is the largest ocean on Earth?

The Pacific covers about 165 million square kilometers, more than all the land on Earth put together, and it is also the deepest ocean.

Which ocean lies between North America and Europe?

The Atlantic is the second-largest ocean, shaped like a long letter S between the Americas on one side and Europe and Africa on the other.

Which is the longest river in the world?

The Nile runs about 6,650 km north through northeast Africa, from the Lake Victoria region to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt.

What is the largest hot desert in the world?

The Sahara covers about 9 million square kilometers of northern Africa, nearly as big as the whole United States.

What is the tallest mountain on Earth above sea level?

Mount Everest's official height was remeasured in 2020 at 8,848.86 meters by China and Nepal, and it rises a few millimeters every year.

Which is the largest country in the world by area?

Russia covers about 17 million square kilometers, against Canada's 10 million, and stretches across eleven time zones.

Which country has the most people?

India passed China in 2023 to become the most populous country, with more than 1.4 billion people.

On which continent is the Amazon rainforest?

The Amazon rainforest lies in South America; about 60 percent of it is in Brazil, with the rest spread across Peru, Colombia and six other countries and territories.

What is the capital city of Canada?

Many people guess Toronto because it is the biggest city, but the government sits in Ottawa, on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River.

What is the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth called?

The equator splits Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and is about 40,075 kilometers long.

Which of the Great Lakes has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake on Earth?

Lake Superior's surface spans about 82,000 square kilometers, and it holds enough water to cover both American continents roughly a foot deep.

How many states are in the United States?

There are 50 states; Alaska and Hawaii were the last two to join, both in 1959.

Who was the first president of the United States?

George Washington served two terms, from 1789 to 1797, and then chose to step down instead of running again.

In what year was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

The Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, which is why Americans set off fireworks on that date.

Which president's face is on the U.S. penny?

Abraham Lincoln has appeared on the one-cent coin since 1909, the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from which country?

France gave the statue; French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed it, and it was dedicated in New York Harbor in October 1886.

Who painted the Mona Lisa?

Leonardo da Vinci painted it in the early 1500s; the small portrait has been displayed at the Louvre in Paris since 1797.

What is the largest animal that has ever lived?

The blue whale, up to about 30 meters long and 150 tonnes, outweighs any dinosaur known; its heart alone weighs around 180 kilograms.

What is the fastest land animal?

A cheetah can hit about 104 kilometers per hour (65 mph), but only for a few hundred meters before it has to rest.

What is the tallest land animal?

Giraffes stand up to about 5.5 meters tall, taller than any other land animal; the neck has only seven bones, the same as a human neck, each much longer.

Which is the largest living bird?

The ostrich stands up to 2.8 meters tall and weighs over 100 kilograms; it cannot fly but lays the biggest eggs of any living bird.

Which is the largest living reptile?

Saltwater crocodiles are the biggest reptiles alive: big males reach 6 meters and around 1,000 kilograms, and they swim far out to sea between islands.

On which continent do emperor penguins live?

Emperor penguins breed only on Antarctica and its sea ice; they are the tallest and heaviest penguins and huddle together through the coldest winter on Earth.

Which of these animals is a mammal?

Dolphins breathe air, are warm-blooded and feed milk to their babies, just like land mammals.

What is a baby kangaroo called?

A newborn joey is only about the size of a jellybean and crawls into its mother's pouch to keep growing.

What is a group of lions called?

A group of lions is a pride, usually a few related females, their cubs and one to three males; the females do most of the hunting.

What is a young frog called before it grows legs?

Tadpoles breathe with gills like fish, then grow legs and lungs and lose their tails.

A frog belongs to which group of animals?

Amphibians usually start life in water and move onto land as adults, which is exactly what a frog does.

How many legs does an insect have?

Six legs, three body parts and an outside skeleton are what make an insect an insect.

How many legs does a spider have?

That is why spiders are not insects: they have eight legs and only two body parts.

What do we call an animal that eats only plants?

Cows, rabbits and elephants are herbivores; bears, which eat both plants and animals, are omnivores.

Which gas do plants take in from the air to make their food?

Plants take in carbon dioxide through tiny pores in their leaves and, with water and sunlight, turn it into sugar.

Which gas do plants give off during photosynthesis?

Nearly all the oxygen we breathe was released by plants, algae and tiny ocean bacteria.

At what temperature does water freeze on the Fahrenheit scale?

On the Celsius scale the same point is 0 degrees, which is why the two scales confuse everyone.

At what temperature does water boil on the Celsius scale?

Water boils at 100°C, which is 212°F, at sea level; high in the mountains the lower air pressure makes it boil at a lower temperature.

What is it called when water vapor in the air turns back into liquid water?

Condensation is how clouds form, and why a cold glass gets wet on the outside on a hot day as vapor cools into droplets.

What is the hardest natural material?

Diamond is so hard that the only thing that can scratch it is another diamond.

What is melted rock called once it flows out of a volcano?

Underground the molten rock is magma; once it erupts onto the surface it is called lava, which can flow at over 1,000°C.

What is the chemical symbol for gold?

Au comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold; Ag is silver, from argentum.

Which of these is a primary color of paint?

Red, yellow and blue are the primaries in art class; mixing two of them makes the other three colors on the list.

How many colors are usually said to be in a rainbow?

Isaac Newton chose seven partly because he wanted the colors to match the seven notes of the musical scale.

What is the largest organ of the human body?

The skin is the largest organ, making up about 15 percent of your body weight; its outer layer replaces itself roughly once a month.

About how many bones does an adult human have?

An adult has about 206 bones; babies are born with around 270, but many of them fuse together as a child grows.

How many teeth are in a full set of permanent (adult) teeth?

A full adult set is 32 permanent teeth, including four wisdom teeth; kids have 20 baby teeth, which fall out to make room for the adult set.

Which organ pumps blood around your body?

The heart beats about 100,000 times a day, and it is roughly the size of your fist.

Sunlight on your skin helps your body make which vitamin?

Vitamin D is nicknamed the sunshine vitamin because skin makes it from UV light; it helps your body absorb calcium to build strong bones.

What is 7 times 8?

7 × 8 = 56. A handy way to remember it is to count 5, 6, 7, 8: fifty-six equals seven times eight.

What number does the Roman numeral X stand for?

X is 10; V is 5, L is 50 and C is 100, so XL means 40 and XC means 90.

How many days are in a leap year?

A leap year has 366 days, one more than usual, added almost every four years to keep the calendar in step with Earth's 365.24-day orbit.

What shape is a stop sign?

A stop sign is an octagon: its eight sides make it recognizable even from the back, so drivers know oncoming cars must stop.

What is a word that means the opposite of another word called?

Hot and cold are antonyms; hot and warm are synonyms, words that mean nearly the same thing.

Who wrote Charlotte's Web, the story of Wilbur the pig?

White also wrote Stuart Little, and he based the barn on his own farm in Maine.

Who wrote The Cat in the Hat?

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) wrote it in 1957 using only 236 different words, after a publisher challenged him to make a fun book for beginning readers.

Which instrument has 88 keys?

A standard piano has 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black, covering a little more than seven octaves.

How many players does each soccer team have on the field at once?

One of the eleven is the goalkeeper, the only player allowed to use their hands.

How many stages are there in a butterfly's life cycle?

Egg, caterpillar, pupa and winged adult: this is called complete metamorphosis.

How do worker honey bees tell each other where to find food?

The 'waggle dance' points the way to distant flowers, while a simpler 'round dance' means food is close by.

Which substance has the chemical formula H2O?

The formula means every molecule has two hydrogen atoms; water is the only common substance found naturally as a solid, a liquid and a gas.

Which part of speech names a person, place, or thing?

Proper nouns like Paris or Maria get a capital letter; common nouns like city or girl do not.

What force pulls a dropped ball toward the ground?

Gravity makes the falling ball speed up by about 9.8 meters per second every second; the same pull keeps the Moon circling Earth.

Which month has only 28 days in most years?

It gets a 29th day in leap years, so someone born on 29 February has a real birthday only every four years.

Which instrument measures temperature?

A thermometer measures temperature; early ones used mercury or alcohol rising in a glass tube, while many today use an electronic sensor instead.

Which bird is the national symbol of the United States?

The bald eagle was only made the official national bird by an act of Congress in December 2024, more than 240 years after it first appeared on the Great Seal.

How many degrees are in a right angle?

A right angle measures exactly 90 degrees, a quarter of a full 360-degree turn; every corner of a square is a right angle.

Kenya is a country on which continent?

Kenya lies on the east coast of Africa, on the equator; it is named after Mount Kenya, the continent's second-highest peak after Kilimanjaro.

What is the name of the galaxy that contains our Solar System?

The Milky Way's name describes the hazy band of light it makes across the night sky; from inside, we see its disk edge-on from Earth.

What is 9 times 9?

9 × 9 = 81. A neat extra: 81 is the only number above 1 whose square root (9) equals the sum of its digits, 8 + 1.

The trumpet belongs to which family of instruments?

Like all brass instruments, the sound starts with the player buzzing their lips into the mouthpiece.

Which is the smallest of the world's oceans?

The Arctic Ocean, about 14 million square kilometers, is the smallest and shallowest ocean, and much of it is covered by sea ice for most of the year.

Who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Dahl published it in 1964; Willy Wonka has since been played on screen by Gene Wilder, Johnny Depp and Timothée Chalamet.

Which planet is farthest from the Sun?

Neptune, about 4.5 billion km from the Sun, is the outermost planet; Pluto, farther out on average, was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Spiders belong to which group of animals?

Arachnids have eight legs and two body segments, while insects have six legs and three.

Who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone?

Bell's patent was filed in 1876, the same day rival Elisha Gray filed a notice for a similar device.

A seesaw is an example of which simple machine?

A seesaw is a lever: the middle support is the fulcrum, and the farther from it you sit, the more turning force your weight provides.

What is the largest bone in the human body?

The femur, or thigh bone, is both the largest and longest bone; it can support many times an adult's body weight.

Which gas makes up most of Earth's air?

Dry air is about 78 per cent nitrogen, with argon a distant third at under 1 per cent.

Which planet is the hottest in the Solar System?

Venus's thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere traps heat so well that its surface, at about 464°C, is hotter than Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun.

Which is the largest living primate?

Adult males, called silverbacks, can stand over 1.7 m tall, and gorillas share about 98 per cent of their DNA with humans.

Words like 'rain' and 'reign' that sound alike but differ in meaning are called what?

'Rose' the flower and 'rose' the past tense of rise are homophones that also happen to be spelled the same.

Where is the deepest known point in Earth's oceans?

The Mariana Trench's deepest spot, the Challenger Deep, lies nearly 11 km down; Mount Everest would fit inside with more than 2 km to spare.

What is a young swan called?

A cygnet: the word comes from the Latin cygnus, meaning swan, with a French diminutive ending that means 'little'.

Which is the smallest bone in the human body?

The stapes sits in the middle ear, is about 3 mm long, and is named for its stirrup shape (stapes is Latin for stirrup).

Which year is written MCM in Roman numerals?

MCM is 1900: M is 1,000 and C is 100, and writing C before M subtracts it, giving 1,000 + 900; 1912 is MCMXII.

What is the official language of Brazil?

Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas, and it has more Portuguese speakers than Portugal itself.

What is the currency of Japan?

The yen's symbol is ¥, and the name (en in Japanese) means 'round object', after the shape of the coins.

Which is the largest African country by area?

Algeria became Africa's largest country in 2011, when Sudan split in two; most of its 2.38 million square kilometres are Saharan desert.

Leukocytes are better known as what?

Leukocytes are white blood cells, the body's germ fighters; red blood cells outnumber them roughly 700 to one, yet a drop of blood holds thousands of them.