50 Fun Facts About Trivia for 6 Year Olds

Which African animal, the tallest on land, uses its long neck to reach leaves that others cannot?

A giraffe's neck is long because each neck bone is stretched to over 28 centimetres, not because it has extra bones. Its tongue is about 45 centimetres long too.

Which sea animal has eight arms, three hearts and squirts dark ink to escape from danger?

An octopus has such a soft body that even a large one can squeeze through a gap about 2.5 centimetres wide. Two of its three hearts pump blood through its gills.

Which hopping animal from Australia carries its baby, called a joey, in a pouch on its tummy?

A newborn kangaroo is only about the size of a lima bean. It then rides along with its mother for about nine months before it starts climbing out for short trips.

Which ocean giant, the biggest animal ever known, fills up on tiny shrimp-like animals called krill?

The blue whale has the largest heart known in any animal: one weighed 180 kilograms. The whole animal can grow to about 30 metres long.

Which lizard can change its skin colour and move each eye separately to look two ways at once?

A chameleon catches insects by shooting out a tongue that can be up to twice as long as its body. Some kinds change colour far more than others.

Which wooden puppet, carved by a poor man named Geppetto, has a nose that grows when he lies?

Pinocchio first appeared in an Italian children's magazine in 1881. His writer, Carlo Collodi, at first planned to give the story a sad ending.

Which object in the night sky did twelve Apollo astronauts walk on between 1969 and 1972?

The Moon is the only world beyond Earth that people have ever visited. Neil Armstrong took the first step there in July 1969.

Which red summer fruit wears its tiny seeds on the outside of its skin instead of inside?

Each seed-like speck on a strawberry is really a tiny fruit of its own, with the true seed tucked inside.

Which huge meat-eating dinosaur had a massive skull and short arms with just two clawed fingers?

Tyrannosaurus rex had the strongest bite of any land animal. Its biggest known tooth was about 30 centimetres long, counting the root.

Which organ uses about a fifth of your body's energy and controls what you think, feel and do?

Your brain is protected by your skull and floats in a cushion of liquid. It makes up only about 2% of your body weight.

Which spotted big cat, the fastest animal on land, has black tear-like streaks down its face?

A cheetah can run at about 100 kilometres per hour, and it purrs like a house cat, only much louder.

Which desert animal stores fat, not water, in the hump or humps on its back?

A camel can drink as much as 140 litres of water in one go, and its long eyelashes help to keep out blowing sand.

Which Arctic hunter looks white but has black skin hidden under its thick fur?

A polar bear's outer hairs are hollow and see-through, which helps it trap heat and float in the water.

Which striped big cat is a powerful swimmer that cools off in water on hot days?

The tiger is the national animal of India, and every tiger's stripes form a pattern all of its own.

Which male bird fans out a huge tail of shimmering feathers marked with eye-shaped spots?

The peacock has been the national bird of India since 1963. Only the males are called peacocks; the females are peahens.

Which eight-legged creature spins a sticky silk web to trap flies and other insects?

Some jumping spiders can leap up to 50 times their own length. A spider is not an insect, because insects have only six legs.

Which slow garden creature carries a coiled shell on its back and slides along on a layer of slime?

A snail can pull its whole body back inside its shell. The largest sea snail has a shell up to 90 centimetres long.

Which clever sea mammal breathes through a blowhole and finds fish by making clicking sounds?

Each bottlenose dolphin has its own signature whistle, which works a bit like a name. It keeps the same whistle for its whole life.

Which Australian tree-dweller eats eucalyptus leaves and sleeps for up to 20 hours a day?

A koala rarely needs to drink, because it gets enough water from the leaves it eats.

Which plant-eating dinosaur had long horns on its face and a large bony frill behind its head?

Triceratops means three-horned face. Its skull was among the largest of any land animal, and the biggest one found was about 2.5 metres long.

Which planet is the largest in our solar system and has a giant storm called the Great Red Spot?

Jupiter is so big that more than 1,300 planets the size of Earth could fit inside it. Its Great Red Spot storm has been watched since 1831.

Which icy continent around the South Pole is the coldest, driest and windiest on Earth?

Antarctica gets so little rain that it counts as a desert, and scientists live there in more than 70 research stations.

Which peak in the Himalayas, on the border of Nepal, is the highest mountain on Earth?

Mount Everest rises about 8,849 metres above sea level. Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary were the first people known to reach the top, in 1953.

Which of the four seasons is the coldest and darkest, when some animals go into hibernation?

Winter comes in June, July and August in the southern half of the world, where the seasons are the other way round.

Which two organs in your chest, one on each side of your heart, fill with air as you breathe in?

Your lungs are not the same size: the right one is bigger, because the left one has to share its space with your heart.

Which body parts help you keep your balance and contain the smallest bone in your whole body?

Your ears each hold a tiny bone called the stapes, the smallest in the body, which helps to pass sound along to the inner ear.

Which tall yellow flower turns its young head from east to west each day as it grows?

A sunflower head is really made of many tiny flowers packed together. Once it is fully grown, it stops turning and faces east all day.

Which nut grows on oak trees and is buried by squirrels and jays to eat later?

An acorn that a squirrel buries and forgets can sprout into a new oak, so squirrels help to plant new trees.

Which dark shape appears on the ground when your body blocks the light from the Sun?

Your shadow stretches out long whenever the Sun is low in the sky, such as near sunrise and sunset.

Which object pulls iron and steel things toward it and has a north pole and a south pole?

A magnet snapped in half does not lose a pole: each piece becomes a new magnet with a north end and a south end.

In the tale of Goldilocks, which food does she taste in three bowls before finishing the smallest?

The porridge thief in the earliest version of the tale was a rude old woman. The little girl with golden hair was added later.

Which boy who can fly lives on the island of Neverland with the fairy Tinker Bell and the Lost Boys?

Peter Pan helps sick children in real life: his author, J. M. Barrie, gave the rights to the story to a children's hospital in London in 1929.

In Disney's The Lion King, which cub, the son of Mufasa, returns to become king of the Pride Lands?

Simba is the Swahili word for lion, so the hero of the film is quite simply named Lion.

In the Pixar film Finding Nemo, what kind of fish are Nemo and his worried dad Marlin?

Clownfish make their homes among the tentacles of sea anemones, which protect them from hunters. In return, they keep the anemone clean.

Which storybook character from Peru is found at a London station and loves marmalade sandwiches?

Paddington was inspired by a lonely toy that writer Michael Bond bought for his wife on Christmas Eve in 1956.

Which yellow Pokémon with red cheeks and a lightning-bolt tail travels with the trainer Ash Ketchum?

Pikachu gets its name from two Japanese sound words: pika for a sparkle and chu for the noise a mouse makes.

Which reindeer uses a glowing red nose to guide Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve?

Rudolph first appeared in 1939 in a booklet from an American department store, which handed out 2.4 million copies that year.

Which fairy-tale girl is locked in a tower with no stairs or door and lets down her very long hair?

Rapunzel is named after a leafy plant that her mother craved before she was born. Disney retold her story in the film Tangled.

Which cartoon character loves jumping in muddy puddles and has a little brother named George?

Peppa Pig first aired in 2004, and her cartoon has since been shown in more than 180 countries.

Which nursery rhyme character, usually drawn as an egg, tumbles off a wall and cannot be mended?

Humpty Dumpty is never actually called an egg in the rhyme, which probably began as a riddle for listeners to solve.

Which sweet treat is made from the roasted and ground seeds of the cacao tree?

Chocolate was only a drink until the 19th century. In ancient Mexico and Central America it was served bitter and spiced with chili.

Which six-sided shape do honey bees use for the wax cells in their honeycomb?

Hexagon cells fit together using the least wax. That matters, because bees must eat about eight pounds of honey to make one pound of wax.

Which famous building in Agra, India, did the emperor Shah Jahan build in memory of his wife?

The Taj Mahal is a white marble tomb for the emperor's wife, Mumtaz, and more than 20,000 workers and artists helped to build it.

Which country on the River Nile is home to the Great Pyramid, built as a tomb for a pharaoh?

Egypt's Great Pyramid stood as the tallest thing ever built by people for more than 3,700 years.

Which month has only 28 days in most years and gains a 29th day in a leap year?

February gains its extra day about every four years, because a real year is almost six hours longer than 365 days.

Which musical instrument has 88 black and white keys that make hammers strike strings inside?

The piano has a longer full name, pianoforte, from the Italian words for soft and loud, because it can play both quietly and loudly.

Which party decoration, full of sweets, do blindfolded children hit with a stick until it breaks?

The piñata is most often linked with Mexico, where a traditional one is shaped like a star with seven points.

Which bat-and-ball sport, the most popular in India, has bowlers aiming at three wooden stumps?

Cricket is played between two teams of eleven. The three stumps, with two small sticks balanced on top, are called a wicket.

Which sports event, held in a different host city each time, has a flag with five linked rings?

The Olympics use five rings to stand for the inhabited continents of the world joined together, with the Americas counted as one.

Which country built a great wall, thousands of kilometres long, to guard its northern borders?

China built its Great Wall bit by bit over many centuries, and all of its sections together stretch more than 21,000 kilometres.