60 Fun Facts About First Grade

What is a baby horse called?

A foal. It can stand within about an hour of being born and soon runs beside its mother, because wild horses stay safe by fleeing and a newborn has to keep up with the herd.

What is a baby sheep called?

A lamb. A healthy one struggles to its feet within about an hour of being born and starts to feed from its mother, because that first feed protects it from illness.

Which animal are dogs descended from?

Wolves. At least 14,000 years ago some of them began living close to people, and over many generations the tamest of them turned into dogs.

What does a caterpillar turn into?

A butterfly. Inside its chrysalis most of the caterpillar's body is broken down and built again, so the creature that climbs out has wings and a completely new shape.

How many legs does a spider have?

Eight. Counting them is the quick way to tell a spider from an insect, which has only six legs, and it is one of several differences that mean spiders are not insects at all.

What is the long nose of an elephant called?

A trunk is an elephant's nose and hand in one: it picks up food, sucks up water to squirt into the mouth, and even works as a snorkel when the elephant wades through deep water.

Which is the tallest animal that lives on land?

The giraffe is so tall that it cannot just bend down for a drink: it has to spread its front legs wide or bend its knees to get its mouth down to the water.

What is a group of lions called?

A pride is a lion family of related mothers and cubs with one or a few males; the lionesses often hunt as a team, each taking her own position to surround the prey.

What do bees make from the nectar of flowers?

Honey begins as thin, watery nectar; back in the hive, the bees beat their wings to make a warm breeze that dries it until it turns thick and sticky.

What do all birds have on their bodies that no other animal has?

Feathers grow only on birds, and they are not just for flying: the fluffy ones underneath trap air and stop a bird's body heat from escaping, like a puffy jacket.

What do we call a sheep's woolly coat after it has been cut off?

Fleece is the name for the whole woolly coat once it is shorn; most sheep get this haircut once a year, just before the warm weather, so they are not stuck in a heavy coat.

Which farm animal digs in the soil with its nose to find food?

The pig hunts for food by smell and touch: the tip of its leathery snout is very sensitive, so it can sniff out a snack hidden underground and nudge the soil aside to reach it.

What is a turtle's shell mostly made of?

Bone makes up most of the shell, which is joined to the turtle's backbone and ribs; that is why a turtle can never crawl out of its shell.

Which bird cannot fly but is a great swimmer?

The penguin swims instead of flying: over a very long time its wings turned into stiff flippers, useless in the air but perfect for speeding through the sea.

What kind of animal is a frog?

An amphibian begins life in water and moves onto land: a frog hatches as a tadpole with gills and a tail, then grows legs and lungs as it gets older.

Which bird is the most common in the world, with more of them alive than there are people?

The chicken is the world's most numerous bird, with well over 20 billion alive at any time, because people raise it on farms almost everywhere for its eggs and meat.

Which farm animal has a four-part stomach and chews its food twice?

The cow swallows grass barely chewed, brings it back up as 'cud' to chew a second time, and sends it through all four parts of its stomach; that is how it lives on tough grass.

What is the Sun?

A star, and only a medium-sized one: the Sun looks far bigger and brighter than all the other stars because it is so much closer to us.

Which planet do we live on?

Earth is the only planet not named after a Greek or Roman god; its name comes from an Old English word that simply meant 'the ground'.

What covers most of our planet's surface?

Oceans cover about 70% of the surface, and the biggest of them, the Pacific, is larger than all the land on the planet put together.

What is the Moon?

A big ball of rock that circles our planet about once a month, the Moon makes no light of its own; it only seems to glow because sunlight bounces off it.

What happens to water if it gets very cold?

It turns into ice at 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) and swells a little as it freezes, which is why ice cubes float in a drink and frozen water pipes can burst.

What is snow made of?

Tiny ice crystals form high in the sky around a speck of dust; as each crystal falls, more ice builds on it and it grows the six arms of a snowflake.

Where does rain fall from?

Clouds are made of tiny drops of water that bump into each other and join up; when the drops get big and heavy enough, they fall as rain.

What shape does a rainbow make when you see it from the ground?

An arc is all we see from the ground, but a rainbow is really a full circle: the ground hides the lower part, and people in aeroplanes sometimes see the whole ring.

What three things does a fire need to burn?

Fuel, heat and oxygen all have to be there: take any one away and the fire goes out, which is why water (it cools) or a thick blanket (it shuts out the air) can stop a blaze.

What is the rough outer covering of a tree called?

Bark is a tree's armour, keeping insects out and water in; its inner layer is also the pipeline that carries food down from the leaves, so a tree stripped of it all the way round will die.

What are the colourful parts of a flower called that attract bees?

Petals are bright so that bees can spot them; while a bee sips nectar, pollen sticks to its body and rides along to the next flower, which is how the plant gets to make seeds.

Which group of animals makes milk to feed its babies?

Mammals all make milk for their young, from tiny bats to the blue whale; even the platypus, a mammal that lays eggs, feeds its babies on milk once they hatch.

What is bread mostly made from?

Flour and water are all some flat breads need; most loaves also get yeast, a tiny living fungus that feeds on the dough and gives off gas bubbles that puff it up.

What is cheese made from?

Milk is made to go lumpy on purpose: the solid lumps, called curds, are pressed together into cheese, and the watery part, called whey, is drained off.

What colour are most carrots?

Orange carrots get their colour from beta-carotene, which your body turns into vitamin A, a vitamin your eyes need for seeing in dim light.

Which part of the plant is a carrot?

The root is where a carrot plant stores food for its second year, when it would flower and make seeds; farmers pull it up after the first, while the store is still full.

Which shape has exactly three sides and three corners?

A triangle is a very strong shape: its sides lock each other in place, so it holds firm when pushed, which is why bridges and roofs are built out of triangles.

Which shape has four equal sides and four equal corners?

A square is really a special kind of rectangle, one whose sides all happen to be the same length; so every square is a rectangle, but most rectangles are not squares.

How many days are in a week?

Seven days make a week, and some of them still show what they were named after: Sunday for the Sun, Monday for the Moon and Saturday for the planet Saturn.

Roughly how many days are in a year?

365 days is about how long our planet takes to travel once round the Sun; the trip really takes about a quarter of a day longer, so roughly every four years February gets an extra 'leap day'.

What is the deep winter sleep of animals such as hedgehogs and bats called?

Hibernation is how some animals get through the cold months without eating: their breathing and heartbeat slow right down, and they live off fat they built up beforehand.

Which month is the middle of summer in the world's northern half?

July is midsummer north of the equator, but in southern countries such as Australia it is the middle of winter: the two halves of the world always have opposite seasons.

In which season of the year do the leaves on many trees change colour and fall off?

Autumn got its American name from this: 'fall' is short for 'the fall of the leaf', an old English phrase that settlers carried to America, where it stuck.

Whose job is it to rescue people from burning buildings?

A firefighter is called to other emergencies far more often than to fires: in the United States, most calls to fire departments are for medical help, and only a small share are for fires.

Which doctor looks after your teeth?

A dentist guards the hardest stuff in your whole body: the enamel on your teeth, which germs can still eat holes in when sugary food helps them make acid.

What does a farmer do?

Grows food and keeps animals sums up the job, and a careful farmer changes what is planted in each field from year to year, because growing the same crop again and again wears out the soil.

What does a teacher do?

Helps students learn, whatever their age: 'kindergarten' is German for 'children's garden', a name its founder chose for a place where the young could grow.

Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States?

France built the statue, took it apart and shipped it across the Atlantic in crates to be put together again in New York; its copper skin has slowly turned green in the open air.

Who lives and works in the White House?

The US President has lived there since John Adams moved in, although the house had to be rebuilt after British soldiers set it on fire during the War of 1812.

Who was the very first leader elected to run the United States, in 1789?

George Washington led the army that won independence and was the unanimous choice for the job; after two terms he chose to step down and go home, setting a custom that later leaders followed.

How many stars are on the American flag?

50 stars stand for the 50 states, so the flag changes whenever a state joins: the last star was added in 1960, for Hawaii, while the 13 stripes recall the first colonies.

What do people traditionally do on Halloween?

Dress up and trick-or-treat is the heart of the holiday, along with pumpkin lanterns; Irish families brought that custom to America, where pumpkins took the place of the turnips carved back home.

On what date is Christmas Day?

December 25 marks the birth of Jesus, although the Bible never says what day he was born; church leaders settled on the date about 300 years later.

On what date is Valentine's Day?

February 14 has been a day for love notes for hundreds of years: the oldest valentine still kept is a poem a captured duke wrote to his wife while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London.

The Pilgrims' 1621 harvest feast is remembered by which American holiday?

Thanksgiving looks back to a days-long feast the Pilgrims shared with the Wampanoag people after their first good harvest, but it only became a national holiday in 1863, when Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it.

What is a baby cat called?

A kitten is born with its eyes shut and cannot see at all for a week or more; even after they open, its eyesight stays blurry for a while, so it relies on its mother for everything.

What is a young dog called?

A puppy spends most of the day asleep, and for a good reason: sleep is when its fast-growing body and brain do much of their building.

What is the name for a cycle with three wheels?

A tricycle has one wheel more than a bicycle and two more than a unicycle; that extra wheel lets it stand up without help, which is why small children learn on one.

What colours are the stripes on a zebra?

Black and white stripes are different on every zebra, like fingerprints on people, so researchers can tell one animal from another just by its pattern.

When are most owls awake and hunting?

At night an owl's wings make almost no sound, which is thought to help in two ways: its prey cannot hear it coming, and the owl can keep listening for the faintest rustle.

How many months are there in a year?

Twelve months make a year now, but the first Roman calendar is said to have had only ten, beginning in March: that is why December, named from the Latin for 'ten', is month number twelve.

In Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, the 'ugly duckling' grows up to be which bird?

A swan: the 'duckling' was never a duck at all but a baby swan, a cygnet, hatched among a duck's eggs; an old duck in the story even insists the big odd egg must be a turkey's.

How many snowballs are usually stacked to build a snowman in North America?

Three snowballs make the classic snowman, rolled in order of size: the biggest stays on the ground as the base, so only the two smaller ones, the body and the head, ever have to be lifted.