130 Fun Facts About Trivia Questions for Second Graders

How many legs does a spider have?

That is one reason spiders are not insects: insects have six legs and three body parts.

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 have tails and breathe with gills, 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?

Its long neck helps it eat leaves from the tops of trees that other animals cannot reach.

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?

One heart pumps blood around the body and the other two pump it through the gills.

What do giant pandas eat almost all the time?

Pandas even have a special thumb-like bone on each front paw to help them hold the stalks.

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

Zebras live in Africa and are related to horses and donkeys.

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?

Only male lions grow the big shaggy mane around their heads.

What do bees make honey from?

Bees store the honey in wax cells shaped like hexagons.

A dog is a tame descendant of which wild animal?

Dogs were the very first animal people ever tamed, more than 14,000 years ago.

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 only planet we know of that has life, and oceans cover about 70 percent of it.

The Sun is actually what kind of object?

It sits at the centre of our Solar System, and its light takes about eight minutes to reach us.

Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?

He landed with the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.

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 days are in a week?

A leap year has 366 days instead of 365, with the extra day added to February.

A leap year has how many days?

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

Which is the coldest continent on Earth?

It is also the driest and windiest, and hardly anyone lives there except scientists.

Which is the largest ocean in the world?

It is also the deepest and covers almost a third of the whole planet.

Which is the tallest mountain on Earth?

It sits on the border between Nepal and China and is about 29,000 feet high.

Which is the longest river in the world?

It flows north through Africa and empties into the Mediterranean Sea.

Which is the largest hot desert in the world?

It stretches across North Africa and is bigger than the whole United States.

How many continents are there, the way most schools teach it?

Asia is the biggest and Australia is the smallest.

About how many bones does a grown-up have?

Babies are born with about 270, but some of them join together as we grow.

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

It has four chambers and pumps blood all around your body.

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

Those first baby teeth are also called milk teeth, and they fall out to make room for grown-up 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.

How many sides does a hexagon have?

Honeybees build their honeycomb out of little hexagons.

How many squares are on a chessboard?

Each player starts with 16 pieces, and the goal is to trap the other king in checkmate.

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?

Runners have to touch four bases to score a run.

Who was the first president of the United States?

He served from 1789 to 1797 and was chosen by everyone who voted in the Electoral College.

Abraham Lincoln was president during which war?

He was the 16th president and helped bring an end to 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?

It is made of copper, which is why it has turned green over the years.

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

There are 13 stripes too, one for each of the original colonies.

Which two brothers flew the first successful airplane in 1903?

Their first flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, lasted only a few seconds.

Alexander Graham Bell is famous for inventing which machine?

He also helped start the phone company AT&T in 1885.

What does the needle of a compass always point toward?

It works because the needle is a tiny magnet that lines up with the Earth's magnetic field.

The 'rex' in Tyrannosaurus rex means what?

T. rex was one of the last dinosaurs alive before they all died out 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 Very Hungry Caterpillar, what does the caterpillar become at the end?

Eric Carle wrote and illustrated the book in 1969, and on Saturday the caterpillar eats ten different foods.

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

Dr. Seuss wrote the whole book using only 50 different words to win a bet with his editor.

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

Maurice Sendak's 1963 book won the Caldecott Medal for the best American picture book of the year.

What is a spider's web used for?

Most spiders spin silk from special organs called spinnerets at the back of their bodies.

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

It is the only place beyond Earth that people have ever visited.

In which year did people first walk on the Moon?

Apollo 11 landed on July 20 that year.

Which is the biggest planet in our Solar System?

You could fit more than 1,300 Earths inside it.

Which planet is famous for its bright rings?

The rings are made mostly of pieces of ice.

Which planet is nicknamed the Red Planet?

It looks orange-red because of rusty dust on its surface.

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

It zips around the Sun in just 88 days.

Which is the largest animal that lives on land?

Its long nose is called a trunk.

Which is the biggest and heaviest bird in the world?

It also lays the largest eggs of any land animal.

Which are the smallest birds in the world?

They can hover in the air, and their fast wingbeats make a humming sound.

A dolphin is what kind of animal?

Dolphins breathe air, just like whales.

What does a snail carry on its back?

A snail is a kind of animal called a gastropod.

Some giant tortoises are known to live for more than how many years?

One tortoise called Adwaita may have lived about 255 years.

How do sloths spend most of their lives?

They live in the rainforests of Central and South America and move very slowly.

Koalas eat the leaves of which tree?

The leaves are poisonous to most other animals.

Which bird is the national bird of the United States?

It appears on the country's seal.

A frog is what type of animal?

Frogs have no tails; the word for their group means 'without tail'.

What is the chemical formula for water?

It means two hydrogen atoms joined to one oxygen atom.

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

Most of that water is in the seas and oceans.

How many baby teeth do children usually have?

Grown-ups usually have 32 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 Arctic is the smallest of the five oceans.

How many letters are in the English alphabet?

Each letter has a big (uppercase) and small (lowercase) form.

How many keys does a modern piano have?

The keys are black and white.

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?

A baker named Raffaele Esposito is often given the credit.

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?

The wool is cut off in a haircut called shearing.

Beavers are famous for building what across streams?

They chew down trees to get their building materials.

How do flamingos usually stand?

The other leg is tucked up under the body.

Parrots are famous for being able to do what?

Their bright colours make people want to buy them as pets.

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

It helps them hide from other animals.

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?

They help make soil healthy for plants.

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?

Squirrels love to bury them.

Wind is the natural movement of what?

Wind can be a gentle breeze or a powerful storm.

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

Islands can be tiny or as big as a country.

What is the chemical symbol for iron?

It comes from the Latin word ferrum.

What is the chemical symbol for gold?

It comes from the Latin word aurum.

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?

Steel, nickel and cobalt are magnetic too.

Which number means 'nothing at all'?

It is written as 0.

How many sides does a pentagon have?

Its name comes from the Greek word for five.

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 are built for running away from predators.

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?

In some places it brings lots of snow.

On what date is Christmas Day celebrated?

It celebrates the birth of Jesus.

On what date is Halloween?

It is the night before All Hallows' Day.

What are Cinderella's special slippers made of?

Her fairy godmother also turns her rags into a jewelled gown.

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

The second pig uses sticks and the third uses bricks.

What does Goldilocks eat at the three bears' house?

She also breaks a chair and falls asleep in a bed.

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

His best friend Charlotte is a barn spider.

What kind of animal is Curious George?

His books were written by Margret and H. A. Rey.

Who wrote the stories about Peter Rabbit?

Peter sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden.

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

He is a wooden puppet who wants to be a real boy.

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

She lives with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em.

Which planet was Superman born on?

His birth name was Kal-El.

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

President Roosevelt fixed the date in 1941.

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

It also had spikes on its tail.

What does the dinosaur name Triceratops mean?

It lived about 66 million years ago.

What is the coloured part of your eye called?

It controls how much light gets into your eye.

How many lungs do people have?

They sit on either side of your heart.

What hot melted rock pours out of a volcano?

Ash and gases come out too.

The Amazon River is on which continent?

It carries more water than any other river on Earth.

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

They stand at Giza.

What shape are the cells in a honeycomb?

Bees make the cells from wax.

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

Ants live together in big groups called colonies.

Winnie-the-Pooh is what kind of animal?

He was created by the English author A. A. Milne.

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.

How many wings does a bee have?

A bee's thorax has three parts, with a pair of legs on each and a pair of thin wings on the back two parts.

About how far around can an owl turn its head?

Owls have 14 neck bones, twice as many as people, which lets them twist 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.