80 free 4th Grade trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This set is written for fourth graders, which means the questions lean on what a nine or ten year old is actually learning: US state capitals and the biggest and smallest states, the planets and the Moon, how the heart and skeleton work, animal facts, famous Americans like Lincoln, Rosa Parks and the Wright brothers, and a few shape and number questions from the math book. Use it for a classroom warm-up, a road trip, or family trivia night where the kids get to win for once. Most questions sit at an easy or medium level for the grade; a handful at the end are harder so there is something to stretch for. Every question has four choices and a short explanation that adds one extra fact, so a wrong answer still teaches something. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the state, animal, planet or person in question, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Younger kids can try our First Grade and Second Graders sets; older ones can move on to Sixth and Eighth Grade Trivia.
30 of 80 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital city of California?
Sacramento
Sacramento is much smaller than Los Angeles, but it has been the seat of California's government since 1854.
Q 02Which city is the capital of Texas?
Austin
Houston, Dallas and San Antonio are all bigger, but the state government sits in Austin.
Q 03Which city is the capital of Florida?
Tallahassee
Tallahassee sits in the Florida Panhandle and became the capital in 1824, long before Miami or Orlando were big cities.
Q 04New York City is the biggest city in New York, but which city is the state capital?
Albany
Albany is the oldest city in the state and sits on the Hudson River about 150 miles north of New York City.
Q 05Which is the largest US state by area?
Alaska
It is bigger than Texas, California and Montana put together, and its capital, Juneau, cannot be reached by road.
Q 06Which is the smallest US state by area?
Rhode Island
Even though it is tiny, it is one of the most crowded states, second only to New Jersey in population density.
Q 07Which US state is made up entirely of islands?
Hawaii
The state has 137 volcanic islands; the eight main ones include Oahu, Maui and the Big Island the state is named after.
Q 08The Mississippi River flows south and empties into which body of water?
The Gulf of Mexico
It starts at Lake Itasca in Minnesota and runs 2,340 miles before it reaches the sea near New Orleans.
Q 09How many Great Lakes are there?
Five
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario are so big and stormy they are sometimes called inland seas.
Q 10Which Great Lake is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area?
Superior
Only Lake Baikal in Siberia and Lake Tanganyika in Africa hold more water, because they are far deeper.
Q 11The Grand Canyon in Arizona was carved by which river?
The Colorado
The river cut down through layer after layer of rock, exposing nearly two billion years of Earth's history in the canyon walls.
Q 12Denali, the highest mountain in North America, is in which state?
Alaska
Its summit is 20,310 feet above sea level, and it is also officially known as Mount McKinley.
Q 13How many stripes are on the flag of the United States?
13
The stripes stand for the original colonies that won independence from Britain, while the 50 stars stand for today's states.
Q 21In what year did Christopher Columbus first sail across the Atlantic and reach the Americas?
1492
He left Spain in August with three ships and made landfall on October 12, believing he had reached Asia.
Q 22Who was the first person to walk on the Moon?
Neil Armstrong
He commanded Apollo 11 in July 1969, and Michael Collins stayed in orbit around the Moon while the other two astronauts went down to the surface.
Q 23Rosa Parks became famous in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in which city?
Montgomery, Alabama
Her arrest sparked a bus boycott that lasted more than a year and helped launch the civil rights movement.
Q 14Which city is the capital of the whole United States?
Washington, D.C.
It is not part of any state; it is a special federal district named after the first president.
Q 15Who was the first president of the United States?
George Washington
He served from 1789 to 1797 and lived at Mount Vernon in Virginia, where he grew tobacco and wheat.
Q 16Which president issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863?
Abraham Lincoln
The 16th president declared enslaved people in the rebelling states free during the middle of the Civil War.
Q 17Who was the main author of the Declaration of Independence?
Thomas Jefferson
He later became the third president, and he died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration was adopted.
Q 18The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from the people of which country?
France
It was built in Paris, shipped across the ocean in crates, and put together on an island in New York Harbor; its frame was made by Gustave Eiffel.
Q 19In which city can you visit the Liberty Bell?
Philadelphia
The bell cracked the very first time it was rung after arriving, and it was recast twice by local workmen John Pass and John Stow.
Q 20Which bird is the national bird of the United States?
Bald eagle
It appears on the Great Seal, coins and stamps, and it is not really bald; its head is covered in white feathers.
Q 24Which famous speech did Martin Luther King Jr. give to a huge crowd in 1963?
"I Have a Dream"
The speech lasted about 17 minutes, and the next year King won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Q 25What was the last name of the two brothers who made the first successful airplane flight in 1903?
Wright
Orville and Wilbur flew their Wright Flyer near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.
Q 26Which Founding Father invented the lightning rod and bifocal glasses?
Benjamin Franklin
He also invented a heating stove that is still named after him, and he never patented any of his inventions.
Q 27The Pilgrims sailed to America in 1620 aboard which ship?
The Mayflower
About 102 passengers spent ten weeks at sea before dropping anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Q 28Harriet Tubman helped about 70 people escape slavery via which network of safe houses?
The Underground Railroad
It was not underground and had no trains; the name was a code for the people and hiding places along the route north.
Q 29Which was the first national park in the United States?
Yellowstone
It was created in 1872 and is famous for the Old Faithful geyser, which erupts every hour or two.
Q 30How many planets are in our Solar System?
Eight
Pluto used to be counted as the ninth planet until astronomers reclassified it as a dwarf planet in 2006.