170 Fun Facts About 3rd Grade

How many continents are there on Earth?

The seven are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Some countries teach six by joining Europe and Asia together.

Which is the biggest and deepest of the world's oceans?

The Pacific is so big that all of Earth's land could fit inside it with room to spare.

Which city is the capital of the United States?

The D.C. stands for District of Columbia. It is not part of any state.

Which US state is the biggest by area?

Alaska is bigger than Texas, California and Montana put together, but it has fewer people than most states.

Which is the longest river in the world?

The Nile flows north through Africa for about 4,400 miles before reaching the Mediterranean Sea.

What is the tallest mountain on Earth above sea level?

Everest sits on the border of Nepal and China and is still growing a tiny bit every year.

Which is the largest hot desert in the world?

The Sahara covers most of North Africa and is almost as big as the whole United States.

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

It arrived in 350 pieces packed in more than 200 crates and was put together in New York Harbor.

The Grand Canyon is in which US state?

The Colorado River carved the canyon over millions of years, and it is more than a mile deep in places.

Which continent is the largest?

Asia is home to more than half of all the people on Earth, including everyone in China and India.

Which continent is the smallest?

Australia is also the flattest continent, and it is the only one that is a single country.

Which continent is the coldest?

Antarctica is so cold that it holds the record for the lowest temperature ever measured on Earth.

The Eiffel Tower stands in which city?

It was built for the 1889 World's Fair and was meant to be taken down after 20 years.

Giant pandas eat almost nothing but which plant?

A panda can spend 12 hours a day eating and get through more than 20 pounds of bamboo.

Who was the first president of the United States?

Washington served two terms and then chose to step down, which set an example most presidents followed.

On what date was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

That date is why Americans celebrate Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year.

Abraham Lincoln was which number president of the United States?

Lincoln led the country during the Civil War and his face is on the penny and the five-dollar bill.

Martin Luther King Jr. is famous for which speech, given to a huge crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963?

He spoke for 17 minutes from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd of about 250,000 people.

In which year did Christopher Columbus first sail across the Atlantic Ocean?

He set off from Spain with three ships and reached land in the Bahamas after about two months at sea.

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

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

The Wright brothers are famous for building and flying the first successful what?

Their first flight in 1903 lasted just 12 seconds and covered less than the length of a jumbo jet.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

Buzz Aldrin followed him onto the Moon about 20 minutes later, while Michael Collins stayed in orbit.

The Pilgrims sailed to Plymouth in 1620 aboard which ship?

The trip across the Atlantic took about 66 days, and the first Thanksgiving tradition is traced back to this colony.

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

There is one star for each state; the 50th star was added in 1960 after Hawaii joined.

The Sun is which kind of object?

It looks huge and bright only because it is so close; it is really a medium-sized star.

Which object is Earth's only natural satellite?

The Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth by about an inch and a half every year.

About how many days does it take Earth to travel once around the Sun?

The extra quarter of a day each year is why we add a leap day every four years.

How many planets are in our Solar System?

Pluto used to make it nine, but in 2006 scientists decided it was a dwarf planet instead.

Which is the largest planet in our Solar System?

More than 1,300 Earths could fit inside Jupiter, and its Great Red Spot is a storm bigger than our planet.

Which planet is nicknamed the Red Planet?

Mars looks red because its soil is full of rusty iron dust.

Which planet is famous for its bright, wide rings?

The rings are made mostly of chunks of ice, some as small as dust and some as big as houses.

A magnet will pull on objects made of which metal?

That is why a magnet sticks to a steel refrigerator door but not to a gold ring.

About how many bones does an adult human have?

Babies are born with about 270 bones, but many of them join together as they grow.

Which organ pumps blood around your body?

Your heart beats about 100,000 times a day without you ever having to think about it.

Your lungs take which gas out of the air and pass it into your blood?

You breathe out carbon dioxide, which plants then use to make their food.

At what temperature does water freeze into ice on the Celsius scale?

On the Fahrenheit scale used in the United States, water freezes at 32 degrees.

Plants make their own food using energy from what?

The process is called photosynthesis, and it is also how plants make the oxygen we breathe.

Which part of a plant takes in water from the soil?

Roots also hold the plant firmly in the ground so it does not blow over.

A caterpillar goes into which stage before it comes out as a butterfly?

Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar's body is almost completely rebuilt into a butterfly.

Baby frogs that hatch from eggs and swim with tails are called what?

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

Evaporation, clouds forming and rain falling are all steps in which natural process?

The same water keeps going around, so a raindrop today may once have been drunk by a dinosaur.

Which group of animals has fur or hair and feeds milk to its babies?

Whales and dolphins are mammals too, even though they live in the sea and have almost no hair.

Penguins are birds that cannot do what?

Their wings work as flippers instead, and some penguins can swim faster than 20 miles per hour.

Which is the largest animal that has ever lived?

A blue whale's heart is about the size of a small car, and its tongue can weigh as much as an elephant.

Which is the fastest land animal?

A cheetah can go from standing still to 60 miles per hour in about three seconds.

Which is the tallest land animal?

A giraffe's neck alone can be six feet long, yet it has the same number of neck bones as you do: seven.

How many legs does a spider have?

Spiders are not insects; insects have six legs and three body parts, spiders have eight legs and two.

At what temperature does water boil on the Celsius scale?

On a high mountain, water boils at a lower temperature because the air pressure is lower.

How many sides does a hexagon have?

Honeybees build their honeycomb out of hexagons because the shape fits together with no gaps.

How many minutes are in one hour?

There are also 60 seconds in a minute, an idea that goes all the way back to ancient Babylon.

How many inches are in one foot?

Three feet make a yard, and 5,280 feet make a mile.

How many cents is a US quarter worth?

Four quarters make one dollar, which is why the coin is called a quarter.

How many things are in a dozen?

Eggs are usually sold by the dozen, and a baker's dozen is one extra: 13.

How many degrees are in a right angle?

The corner of a square or a sheet of paper is a right angle; a full circle is 360 degrees.

How many years are in a century?

A period of ten years is a decade, and a thousand years is a millennium.

How many days are in a leap year?

The extra day is February 29, and it comes around once every four years.

In Roman numerals, what number does the letter X stand for?

V is 5, so XV is 15 and XX is 20. You can still see Roman numerals on clocks and in movie credits.

In art class, which three colors are usually taught as the primary colors?

Mixing two primaries makes a secondary color: red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green.

In the book Charlotte's Web, what is the name of the pig?

Charlotte the spider writes words like "Some Pig" in her web to save him from becoming bacon.

Which brother and sister travel through time in the Magic Tree House books?

Their tree house is sent on adventures by Morgan le Fay, and later by the wizard Merlin.

Who wrote and illustrated The Cat in the Hat?

He wrote it using only about 236 different words so that first graders could read it themselves.

Author Dav Pilkey created which book series?

He dreamed up the character in elementary school while sitting in the hallway for being disruptive in class.

Who is the main character in Diary of a Wimpy Kid?

Greg insists that his book is a journal, not a diary, because a diary sounds too girly to him.

Who wrote the Junie B. Jones books?

Junie B. starts the series in kindergarten and moves up to first grade partway through the 31 books.

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

That includes the goalkeeper, the only player allowed to use their hands.

How many innings are in a regular baseball game?

Little League games are shorter, usually six innings, and a tied game keeps going into extra innings.

How many keys does a modern piano have?

There are 52 white keys and 36 black keys, and the biggest pianos are more than nine feet long.

What is the only group of mammals that can truly fly?

Their wings are long fingers covered by thin skin.

Which bird is the smallest kind of bird in the world?

Hummingbirds measure only 7.5 to 13 cm long.

Which is the biggest and heaviest bird alive today?

Ostriches cannot fly but can run at 70 km/h.

Kangaroos live in the wild on which continent?

Baby kangaroos, called joeys, grow up in their mother's pouch.

Koalas eat mostly the leaves of which tree?

Koalas are marsupials, not bears, and live in Australia.

Sloths spend most of their lives doing what?

They live in the rainforests of Central and South America.

Which is the largest animal that lives on land?

Elephants have a long trunk, tusks and big ear flaps.

How many arms does an octopus have?

Octopuses can squirt ink to escape predators.

What shape are the wax cells that honey bees build in their hives?

Bees store honey in the cells as food.

A crocodile is what kind of animal?

Crocodiles live in warm, tropical parts of the world.

What does a tortoise use its shell for?

Tortoises pull their heads straight back into their shells.

A dolphin is what kind of animal?

Dolphins have a layer of blubber to keep warm.

A frog is what kind of animal?

The word for the frog group, Anura, means 'without tail'.

A snake's body is covered in what?

Most snakes are not venomous.

Penguins live almost only in which half of the world?

The biggest penguin is the emperor penguin.

Owls mostly hunt at what time?

Their feathers let them fly silently.

Which bird is the national bird of the United States?

It appears on the Great Seal of the United States.

What does a whale like the blue whale eat?

The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived.

What gas do plants give off that we need to breathe?

Plants make food from sunlight in a process called photosynthesis.

The Sun is mostly made of which gas?

Hydrogen makes up about 73% of the Sun's surface, and helium about 25%.

In which year did people first walk on the Moon?

Apollo 11 landed on July 20, 1969.

How many moons does Mars have?

They are called Phobos and Deimos.

Saturn's rings are made mostly of what?

There is also a little rocky dust mixed in.

Which planet is closest to the Sun?

Even so, Venus is hotter because it has a thick atmosphere.

Which planet is the hottest in the Solar System?

Its surface is about 464 °C.

Which planet is the farthest from the Sun?

Neptune is the eighth planet.

Since 2006, Pluto has been classified as what kind of object?

It lives in the Kuiper belt beyond Neptune.

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

From Earth it looks like a hazy band of light in the night sky.

Thomas Edison is famous for his work on which invention that lights our homes?

He also invented the phonograph for playing recorded sound.

Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing what?

He received his patent in 1876.

In which US state did the Wright brothers fly the first airplane in 1903?

It happened near Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903.

Isaac Newton is famous for explaining what force that pulls things to the ground?

His ideas appeared in a 1687 book called the Principia.

George Washington led which side's soldiers in the American Revolutionary War?

He later became the first US president.

Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin in which state?

He grew up on the frontier and became the 16th president.

Who was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776?

Jefferson later became the third president.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955 in which city?

Her action sparked the Montgomery bus boycott.

Harriet Tubman helped enslaved people escape using a secret network called what?

She made about 13 rescue missions.

Susan B. Anthony worked hard so that women could do what?

This movement was called women's suffrage.

Who was the first American woman to fly in space, in 1983?

She flew on the Space Shuttle Challenger.

How many ships did Columbus sail with in 1492?

He first landed on an island in the Bahamas.

What does the Statue of Liberty hold up high over her head?

In her left hand she holds a tablet with the date July 4, 1776.

In which city can you see the Liberty Bell?

It once hung in the steeple of Independence Hall.

What is the street address of the White House?

Every president since John Adams has lived there.

Mount Rushmore is in which US state?

It shows the faces of four presidents carved in granite.

Which river carved the Grand Canyon?

The canyon is 277 miles long.

How many Great Lakes are there?

They are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario.

Old Faithful, a famous geyser, is in which national park?

Yellowstone was the world's first national park.

Mount Everest is part of which mountain range?

It sits on the border between Nepal and China.

The Sahara Desert is in which part of its continent?

It is the largest hot desert in the world.

The Great Barrier Reef is off the coast of which Australian state?

It is the biggest structure in the world made by living things.

What is the capital city of Canada?

Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are its biggest cities.

What is the capital city of China?

Shanghai is its most populous city.

What is the capital city of Japan?

Japan has four main islands and thousands of smaller ones.

What is the capital city of Egypt?

Egypt's history along the Nile goes back thousands of years.

What is the capital city of Brazil?

Brazil is the largest country in South America.

The Colosseum, an ancient arena, is in which city?

It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built.

The Taj Mahal is in which country?

It is a white marble building in the city of Agra.

The Great Wall is in which country?

Its best-known parts were built by the Ming dynasty.

The Eiffel Tower is made mainly of which material?

Its nickname is 'the Iron Lady'.

Big Ben in London is really the name of what?

The clock tower it hangs in is called the Elizabeth Tower.

Which animals alive today are actually a kind of dinosaur?

They are the only dinosaurs that survived the big extinction.

What does the name Triceratops mean?

It had a large bony frill and walked on four legs.

What is the hot melted rock that pours out of a volcano called?

Underground, before it erupts, it is called magma.

What sound does lightning cause?

Lightning heats the air to about 30,000 °C.

In a rainbow, which color is on the outside of the arc?

Violet is on the inside.

How many degrees do the three angles of a triangle add up to?

A triangle has three sides and three corners.

How many sides does an octagon have?

Stop signs are shaped like octagons.

How many sides does a pentagon have?

The word comes from the Greek for 'five angles'.

Which word can take the place of a noun, like 'he' or 'she'?

Pronouns stand in for nouns or noun phrases.

Words that mean the same or almost the same thing are called what?

'Big' and 'large' are synonyms.

In Charlotte's Web, what does Charlotte write in her web to save Wilbur?

E. B. White's book came out in 1952.

Who wrote the children's book Matilda?

Matilda's school is run by the mean Miss Trunchbull.

In The BFG, what is the name of the girl the giant befriends?

BFG stands for Big Friendly Giant.

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, who owns the chocolate factory?

Charlie wins a Golden Ticket to visit the factory.

In the first Harry Potter book, Harry gets his Hogwarts letter on which birthday?

It was J. K. Rowling's first novel.

Who is the main character in The Hobbit?

He joins a quest to take treasure back from the dragon Smaug.

In Where the Wild Things Are, what costume does Max wear?

Max is sent to bed without supper for making mischief.

Who wrote and illustrated The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

The caterpillar eats lots of food and turns into a butterfly.

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

The book uses only 50 different words.

How many strings does a violin usually have?

It is played by drawing a bow across the strings.

The composer Beethoven came from which country?

He was born in the city of Bonn.

Which famous artist painted the Mona Lisa?

The painting hangs in the Louvre museum in Paris.

The painter Vincent van Gogh came from which country?

He made about 2,100 artworks in just over ten years.

How often are the Summer Olympic Games held?

The Winter Games are also held every four years, two years apart from the Summer Games.

How many players from each team are on a basketball court at one time?

Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith.

How many players are on a baseball team on the field?

Players run around four bases to score runs.

In soccer, which players are allowed to use their hands?

Soccer is the world's most popular sport.

Golf was first played in the 15th century in which country?

Scotland is often called 'the home of golf'.

Paper was first made about 2,000 years ago in which country?

Before paper, people wrote on papyrus, parchment and bamboo.

Which nutrient, named with a letter, is found in oranges and other citrus fruits?

Not getting enough of it causes a disease called scurvy.

What does blood carry to all the cells in your body?

It also carries waste away from the cells.

How much of Earth's surface is covered by water?

Most of that water is in the seas and oceans.

What is the chemical formula for water?

Each molecule has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.

What is the chemical symbol for gold?

It comes from the Latin word aurum.

Helium, the gas used in party balloons, is what kind of gas?

It is colorless, odorless and does not burn.

DNA, found in living things, has a twisted shape called what?

It is made of two chains that coil around each other.

The imaginary line around the middle of Earth is called what?

It divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Which scientist is famous for the idea of evolution by natural selection?

He sailed around the world on HMS Beagle.

What is the hardest natural material on the Mohs scale?

Diamond packs more atoms into each bit of space than any other known substance, which is why it is so hard and so difficult to squeeze.

Which is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceans?

It covers about 14 million square kilometres around the North Pole and is mostly covered by sea ice in winter.

Which bird is often called the fastest animal on Earth because of its high-speed dive?

In a dive called a stoop it can top 320 km/h (200 mph); one was once clocked at 389 km/h.

What is a baby kangaroo called?

Joeys finish growing inside their mother's pouch; a group of kangaroos is called a mob, court or troupe.

How many lungs does a person have?

The right lung is bigger than the left, which leaves room for the heart; the diaphragm muscle does most of the work of breathing.