Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
100 free Elementary School trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
These grade school trivia questions cover what kids in kindergarten through fifth grade are actually learning: the eight planets, the seven continents, shapes and Roman numerals, the water cycle, the human body, famous books and the first American president. Each question has four choices, so a child can make a smart guess even when they are not sure, and every answer comes with a short explanation that teaches one extra fact. They work as trivia questions for elementary school students in the classroom, for a family quiz night, or for a car ride. Younger kids will find the early questions comfortable; the harder ones give fourth and fifth graders something to reach for. Every answer was checked against an encyclopedia or primary source before it was published, so parents and teachers can trust what they read aloud. Play online and get a score, or read them off the screen and keep count yourselves.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many sides does a hexagon have?
6
The word comes from Greek: hex means six and gonia means corner. Honeycomb cells and most pencils are hexagons.
Q 02How many planets are in our Solar System?
8
There were nine on classroom posters until 2006, when Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
Q 03Which planet is closest to the Sun?
Mercury
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.
Q 04Which is the largest planet in the Solar System?
Jupiter
Jupiter is so big that more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside it.
Q 05Which planet is nicknamed the Red Planet?
Mars
Mars looks red because of rust: iron oxide in the dust and rocks that cover most of its surface.
Q 06Which planet is famous for its bright rings?
Saturn
Saturn's rings are made mostly of water ice, in chunks ranging from grains of sand up to the size of a house.
Q 07What kind of object is the Sun?
A star
It is a very ordinary star that only looks huge and bright because it is so much closer to us than any other.
Q 08How many natural moons does Earth have?
1
Mars has two tiny ones and the giant outer planets have dozens each, but Earth makes do with a single large Moon.
Q 09About how many hours does it take Earth to spin around once?
24
Earth spins once in about 24 hours, which gives us day and night; a full trip around the Sun takes about 365 days.
Q 10Which star is called the North Star?
Polaris
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.
Q 11Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?
Neil Armstrong
Neil Armstrong stepped off Apollo 11's ladder in July 1969, followed by Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins circled overhead in the command module.
Q 12How many continents are there?
7
Asia is the biggest by far, and roughly 60 percent of all the people on Earth live there.
Q 13Which is the smallest continent?
Australia
Greenland is big, but it counts as an island, which leaves Australia as the smallest continent.
Q 14Which is the largest ocean on Earth?
Q 21On which continent is the Amazon rainforest?
South America
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.
Q 22What is the capital city of Canada?
Ottawa
Many people guess Toronto because it is the biggest city, but the government sits in Ottawa, on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River.
Q 23What is the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth called?
The equator
The equator splits Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and is about 40,075 kilometers long.
Pacific
The Pacific covers about 165 million square kilometers, more than all the land on Earth put together, and it is also the deepest ocean.
Q 15Which ocean lies between North America and Europe?
Atlantic
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.
Q 16Which is the longest river in the world?
The Nile
The Nile runs about 6,650 km north through northeast Africa, from the Lake Victoria region to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt.
Q 17What is the largest hot desert in the world?
Sahara
The Sahara covers about 9 million square kilometers of northern Africa, nearly as big as the whole United States.
Q 18What is the tallest mountain on Earth above sea level?
Mount Everest
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.
Q 19Which is the largest country in the world by area?
Russia
Russia covers about 17 million square kilometers, against Canada's 10 million, and stretches across eleven time zones.
Q 20Which country has the most people?
India
India passed China in 2023 to become the most populous country, with more than 1.4 billion people.
Q 24Which of the Great Lakes has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake on Earth?
Superior
Lake Superior's surface spans about 82,000 square kilometers, and it holds enough water to cover both American continents roughly a foot deep.
Q 25How many states are in the United States?
50
There are 50 states; Alaska and Hawaii were the last two to join, both in 1959.
Q 26Who was the first president of the United States?
George Washington
George Washington served two terms, from 1789 to 1797, and then chose to step down instead of running again.
Q 27In what year was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
1776
The Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, which is why Americans set off fireworks on that date.
Q 28Which president's face is on the U.S. penny?
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln has appeared on the one-cent coin since 1909, the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Q 29The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from which country?
France
France gave the statue; French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed it, and it was dedicated in New York Harbor in October 1886.
Q 30Who painted the Mona Lisa?
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci painted it in the early 1500s; the small portrait has been displayed at the Louvre in Paris since 1797.