129 Fun Facts About Trivia Questions for Second Graders

How many legs does a spider have?

Spiders have eight legs and two main body parts, which makes them arachnids rather than insects.

How many legs does an insect have?

Insects also have three body parts, a head, a thorax and an abdomen, plus two antennae.

What is a baby frog called?

Tadpoles hatch from frog eggs with tails and no legs, then grow legs and lungs as they turn into frogs.

What does a caterpillar turn into inside its chrysalis?

Butterflies go through four stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult.

Which is the fastest land animal?

A cheetah can run about 60 miles per hour, faster than a car on a city street.

Which is the tallest animal in the world?

The giraffe is the tallest animal; adult males stand about 18 feet, and the long neck reaches leaves other animals cannot.

What is the biggest animal that has ever lived?

A blue whale can grow to about 100 feet long, longer than two school buses.

Which bird cannot fly but is a great swimmer?

Nearly all penguins live south of the equator, and they use their flippers like wings underwater.

Which is the only mammal that can truly fly?

Flying squirrels only glide; bats flap wings made of skin stretched over long fingers.

Where does a mother kangaroo carry her baby, called a joey?

Kangaroos come from Australia and New Guinea, and animals with pouches are called marsupials.

How many hearts does an octopus have?

An octopus has three hearts: one pumps blood around the body and the other two push it through the gills.

What do giant pandas eat almost all the time?

Giant pandas eat bamboo for up to 14 hours a day, and a thumb-like wrist bone helps them grip the stalks.

A zebra's stripe pattern is special because it is what?

Every zebra's stripe pattern is different on every animal, like a fingerprint, which may help zebras recognise one another.

What colour is a polar bear's skin under its white fur?

The dark skin soaks up the sun's warmth, and a thick layer of fat keeps the bear cosy in the Arctic.

Which animal is a bird that hunts mostly at night?

Owls cannot move their eyes, so they turn their whole heads to look around.

A group of lions is called what?

A group of lions is a pride, usually a few related females, their cubs and one or two adult males.

What do bees make honey from?

Bees make honey from nectar from flowers, carried home in a special honey stomach and dried out inside the hive until it thickens.

A dog is a tame descendant of which wild animal?

Dogs descend from the wolf, tamed more than 14,000 years ago, which made the dog the first animal people domesticated.

What is a camel's hump full of?

The stored fat gives the camel energy on long desert trips when food is scarce.

Which planet is called 'the third planet from the Sun'?

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only planet we know of that has life.

The Sun is actually what kind of object?

The Sun is a star, a huge ball of hot gas at the centre of our Solar System; its light takes about eight minutes to reach Earth.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon on July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission, the first of twelve people to walk there.

How many colours are in a rainbow, according to Isaac Newton?

You can remember them with the name Roy G. Biv: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

How many minutes are in one hour?

One hour has sixty minutes, and each minute has sixty seconds, so an hour is 3,600 seconds long.

A leap year has how many days?

A leap year has 366 days; the extra day is February 29, added about every four years to keep the calendar in step with Earth's orbit.

Which is the coldest continent on Earth?

Antarctica is the coldest continent, with a record low near -89 °C; it is also the driest and windiest, home only to visiting scientists.

Which is the largest ocean in the world?

The Pacific is the largest ocean, covering almost a third of Earth's surface, and it is also the deepest.

Which is the tallest mountain on Earth?

Mount Everest rises about 29,000 feet (8,849 m) on the border of Nepal and China, the highest point on Earth.

Which is the longest river in the world?

The Nile, usually listed as the world's longest river at about 6,650 km, flows north through Africa into the Mediterranean Sea.

Which is the largest hot desert in the world?

The Sahara is the largest hot desert, about 9 million square kilometres across North Africa, roughly the size of the United States.

Which continent is the largest?

Asia is the largest continent, covering about 44 million square kilometres, and Australia is the smallest.

About how many bones does a grown-up have?

A grown-up has 206 bones; babies are born with about 270, but many of them fuse together as we grow.

A person's heart is about the size of what?

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

At about what age does a baby usually get its first tooth?

Most babies get their first tooth at about six months; these milk teeth later fall out to make room for adult teeth.

A shape with four sides and four right-angle corners is called what?

If all four sides are the same length, it is a special rectangle called a square.

What shape is a stop sign?

A stop sign is an octagon, a shape with eight sides, so drivers recognise it even from behind.

How many squares are on a chessboard?

A chessboard has 64 squares in an 8-by-8 grid, and each player starts with 16 pieces.

In soccer, which player is allowed to use their hands?

Even the goalkeeper can only use hands inside their own penalty area.

How many players from each team are on the field in baseball?

Each baseball team fields nine players, and a runner must touch all four bases to score a run.

Who was the first president of the United States?

George Washington served from 1789 to 1797 and is the only president chosen unanimously by the Electoral College.

Abraham Lincoln was president during which war?

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, led the Union through the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 and helped end slavery.

Rosa Parks became famous in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on what?

Her brave choice in Montgomery, Alabama, started a bus boycott that lasted more than a year.

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

France gave the Statue of Liberty, dedicated in 1886; it is made of copper, which is why it has turned green.

How many stars are on the flag of the United States?

The US flag has 50 stars, one for each state, plus 13 stripes for the original colonies.

Which two brothers flew the first successful airplane in 1903?

Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903; it lasted 12 seconds.

Alexander Graham Bell is famous for inventing which machine?

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, receiving the first telephone patent in 1876, and founded the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.

What does the needle of a compass always point toward?

A compass needle points north because it is a tiny magnet that lines up with Earth's magnetic field.

The 'rex' in Tyrannosaurus rex means what?

Rex is Latin for king, so Tyrannosaurus rex means 'tyrant lizard king'; it lived until the extinction about 66 million years ago.

The remains of a plant or animal from long ago, kept in rock, are called what?

Fossils can be bones, footprints, shells or even bugs trapped in amber.

In The Cat in the Hat, what are the Cat's two mischievous helpers called?

Thing One and Thing Two leap out of the Cat's red box and fly kites indoors in Dr. Seuss's 1957 book The Cat in the Hat.

Who keeps asking the grumpy character to try green eggs and ham in the Dr. Seuss book?

Sam-I-am pesters the narrator throughout Green Eggs and Ham, which Dr. Seuss wrote using only 50 different words to win a bet with his publisher.

In Where the Wild Things Are, what costume is Max wearing?

Max wears a wolf suit and is sent to bed without supper in Maurice Sendak's 1963 book, which won the Caldecott Medal.

What is a spider's web used for?

Spiders spin webs for catching food: insects stick to the silk, which comes from spinnerets at the back of the body.

What is the name of Earth's only natural satellite?

The Moon is the only place beyond Earth that people have ever visited, and twelve astronauts have walked on it. It takes about a month to go around Earth once.

What force pulls a dropped ball down to the ground?

Gravity pulls every object toward Earth's centre; Isaac Newton published his law of gravity in 1687.

Which is the biggest planet in our Solar System?

Jupiter is the biggest planet in the Solar System; more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it.

Which planet is famous for its bright rings?

Saturn's rings are made mostly of pieces of ice, some as small as dust and some as big as houses.

Which planet is nicknamed the Red Planet?

Mars looks orange-red because of rusty iron dust on its surface, which earned it the nickname the Red Planet.

Which is the smallest planet, and the closest to the Sun?

Mercury is the smallest planet and the closest to the Sun, zipping around it in just 88 days.

Which is the largest animal that lives on land?

The elephant is the largest land animal; an African bush elephant can weigh more than 6 tonnes, and its long nose is called a trunk.

Which is the biggest and heaviest bird in the world?

The ostrich is the biggest bird, up to 9 feet tall and 150 kg, and it lays the largest eggs of any living land animal.

Which are the smallest birds in the world?

Hummingbirds are the smallest birds; the bee hummingbird of Cuba weighs about 2 grams, and their fast wingbeats make a humming sound.

A dolphin is what kind of animal?

A dolphin is a mammal: it is warm-blooded and breathes air through a blowhole on top of its head, just like whales.

What does a snail carry on its back?

A shell is the snail's home, and it grows bigger along with the snail, so it never needs a new one. A slug is basically a snail without a shell.

How do sloths spend most of their lives?

Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside down in trees in Central and South American rainforests, even eating and sleeping that way.

Koalas eat the leaves of which tree?

Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, which are poisonous to most other animals, and they sleep up to 20 hours a day to digest them.

Which bird is the national bird of the United States?

The bald eagle is the national bird of the United States; it has appeared on the Great Seal since 1782.

A frog is what type of animal?

A frog is an amphibian: it starts life in water as a tadpole, then grows lungs and legs so it can live on land too.

What is the chemical formula for water?

H2O means two hydrogen atoms joined to one oxygen atom, which is what every molecule of water is made of.

About how much of the Earth's surface is covered by water?

About 71% of Earth's surface is covered by water, and almost all of it is salt water in the seas and oceans.

How many baby teeth do children usually have?

Children usually have 20 baby teeth, which fall out and are replaced by up to 32 adult teeth.

How many chambers does the human heart have?

They are called the atria and the ventricles.

Which is the second-largest ocean in the world?

The Atlantic is the second-largest ocean after the Pacific, covering about a fifth of Earth's surface.

How many letters are in the English alphabet?

26 letters, and each one has a big form and a small form, so you really learn 52 shapes.

How many keys does a modern piano have?

A modern piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black, covering just over seven octaves.

Chocolate is made from the roasted, ground beans of which plant?

The beans are called cocoa or cacao beans.

The modern pizza was first made in which Italian city?

Modern pizza comes from Naples, where baker Raffaele Esposito is said to have made the Margherita for Queen Margherita in 1889.

Cheese is made from what?

A milk protein called casein clumps together to make it.

What do male lions have that female lions do not?

The mane grows from the head down to the shoulders and chest.

Which animal gives us wool?

A sheep's wool grows back after shearing, so it gets a haircut every year and the wool becomes sweaters, blankets and socks.

Beavers are famous for building what across streams?

Beavers build dams out of branches and mud to make ponds where they can build their lodges safely.

How do flamingos usually stand?

Flamingos usually stand on one leg with the other tucked up, which may help them keep warm and save energy.

Parrots are famous for being able to do what?

Parrots can copy human words; an African grey named Alex learned about 100 words and could name colours and shapes.

Chameleons are best known for being able to change their what?

Chameleons change their colour by shifting tiny crystals in their skin, mainly to signal to other chameleons and to control their temperature.

How many arms does a starfish usually have?

Some kinds have even more arms.

Clownfish live safely among which sea creatures?

The anemones protect them from bigger fish.

Where do earthworms live?

Earthworms live in the soil and tunnel through it, which lets air and water reach plant roots. That is why gardeners are happy to find them.

Which is the only group of animals that has feathers?

Birds also lay hard-shelled eggs and have beaks with no teeth.

What do fish use to breathe underwater?

Gills take oxygen out of the water.

What is the nut of an oak tree called?

The nut of an oak is an acorn; squirrels bury acorns for winter, and the ones they forget can grow into new oak trees.

Wind is the natural movement of what?

Air moving from one place to another is all wind is; you cannot see it, but you can see what it pushes, like leaves and flags.

What do we call a piece of land completely surrounded by water?

An island can be tiny or as big as a whole country; Greenland is the biggest one of all, and Australia is counted as a continent instead.

What is the chemical symbol for iron?

Fe comes from ferrum, the Latin word for iron.

What is the chemical symbol for gold?

Au comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold; the symbol Ag belongs to silver.

Which is the hardest natural substance we know of?

Diamonds are made of carbon atoms packed very tightly.

Which of these metals will a magnet pull toward it?

Iron is pulled by a magnet, as are steel (mostly iron), nickel and cobalt; gold, copper and aluminium are not.

Which number means 'nothing at all'?

Zero is written as 0, and putting it after another number makes that number ten times bigger: 1 becomes 10.

Which shape has no corners and one curved edge?

A circle has no corners; every point on its edge is the same distance from the centre.

Sunflowers are grown for their tasty what?

Some seeds are pressed for oil and some are eaten as snacks.

What do we call the underground homes that rabbits dig?

Rabbits dig burrows underground, and a group of connected burrows is called a warren.

Milk is made by which kind of animals to feed their babies?

Cows, goats and humans are all mammals.

Which season is the coldest and darkest of the year?

Winter is cold because Earth tilts your half of the world away from the sun, so the days are short and the sunlight is weak.

On what date is Christmas Day celebrated?

December 25 is Christmas Day for billions of people, and the day before it is Christmas Eve. Some churches celebrate on January 7 instead.

On what date is Halloween?

Halloween is October 31, the night before All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on November 1.

What are Cinderella's special slippers made of?

Glass slippers are the one thing the fairy godmother's magic does not undo at midnight, which is how the prince finds Cinderella.

In The Three Little Pigs, the first pig's house is made of what?

The first pig builds with straw, the second with sticks and the third with bricks, and only the brick house survives the wolf.

What does Goldilocks eat at the three bears' house?

Porridge is what the bears left to cool while they went for a walk, and Goldilocks eats Baby Bear's because it is 'just right'.

In Charlotte's Web, what kind of animal is Wilbur?

Wilbur is a pig saved from slaughter when his friend Charlotte, a barn spider, weaves words like 'Some Pig' into her web.

What kind of animal is Curious George?

A monkey with no tail, Curious George was created by Margret and H. A. Rey, who fled Paris by bicycle in 1940 carrying the drawings.

Who wrote the stories about Peter Rabbit?

Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated The Tale of Peter Rabbit, published in 1902, in which Peter sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden.

What happens to Pinocchio's nose when he tells a lie?

It grows longer with every lie, and a talking cricket keeps telling him to be good. The story was written in Italy by Carlo Collodi.

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy lives on a farm in which state?

Dorothy lives on a Kansas farm with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em before a cyclone carries her to Oz in L. Frank Baum's 1900 book.

Which planet was Superman born on?

Superman was born Kal-El on the planet Krypton and was sent to Earth as a baby just before Krypton exploded.

On which Thursday of November is Thanksgiving in the United States?

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, fixed by a law President Roosevelt signed in 1941.

Stegosaurus is famous for the big upright what along its back?

Stegosaurus had two rows of big upright plates along its back and four sharp spikes on its tail.

What does the dinosaur name Triceratops mean?

Triceratops means 'three-horned face' in Greek; it had two long brow horns and a shorter nose horn and lived about 68 to 66 million years ago.

What is the coloured part of your eye called?

The iris is the coloured ring of muscle that changes the size of the pupil to control how much light gets into your eye.

How many lungs do people have?

Two lungs sit on either side of the heart, and the left one is a little smaller to leave room for it.

What hot melted rock pours out of a volcano?

Lava is only called lava once it is outside the volcano; while it is still underground, the same melted rock is called magma.

The Amazon River is on which continent?

The Amazon flows across South America, mostly through Brazil, and carries more water than any other river on Earth.

The Great Pyramid and the Great Sphinx are in which country?

The Great Pyramid and the Sphinx stand at Giza in Egypt, near Cairo; the pyramid was built about 4,500 years ago.

What shape are the cells in a honeycomb?

Honeycomb cells are hexagons, a shape that fits together with no gaps and uses the least wax for the space it holds.

What is the special female ant that lays the eggs called?

The queen ant lays all the colony's eggs; the workers are also female, and the drones are males that only mate.

Winnie-the-Pooh is what kind of animal?

Winnie-the-Pooh is a teddy bear, based on a toy belonging to A. A. Milne's son Christopher Robin, and first appeared in a book in 1926.

What is a baby goat called?

The word comes from Old Norse, and people have used 'kid' as a playful word for human children since the 1590s.

Which planet is the hottest in our Solar System?

Even though Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus's thick carbon dioxide air traps heat, pushing its surface to about 464 °C.

Which insect makes its own light at night?

A firefly, also called a lightning bug, makes light with a chemical reaction in its abdomen to attract a mate.

About how far around can an owl turn its head?

An owl can turn its head about 270 degrees; it has 14 neck bones, twice as many as people, so it twists without cutting off blood to the brain.

What tiny things cover a butterfly's wings and give them their colours?

The group name Lepidoptera comes from Greek words meaning 'scale' and 'wing'; each scale grows from a single cell.