Fun Facts for Kids – Crazy, Weird, and Random!

Learning can be challenging for some kids, so it’s important to try and find ways to spice it up a bit!  That’s why we’ve created this list of fun facts for kids.

We’ve also sprinkled in some crazy, random, and interesting facts so that everyone has fun exploring different types of trivia. Remember, you can entertain this list of cool facts outside of the standard school environment. Use them as ice breakers, sprinkle them into a day of e-Learning, or simply discuss them at the dinner table.

We’ve included all sorts of topics into this list, from facts about science, history, and space to information on animals and more. Read on below to get started. See how long it takes you to get through all of these amazing facts.

Related: Explore this list of “would you rather questions for kids” for more family fun!

Geography Facts for Kids

1. Asia is the largest continent on earth. This also means it has the largest population with over 4.46 billion people!
2. The Grand Canyon is the largest canyon in the world. Located in Arizona, it is massive, with an elevation of 2,600 feet and a length of 277 miles.
3. Russia is just 2 miles from Alaska. Who would’ve thought they’d be so close? Crazy!
4. The hottest desert in the world is the Sahara desert. Located in Africa, the average temperature is around 30°C (86°F), but the hottest temperature ever recorded is 58°C (136.4°F).
5. The United States and Canada share the longest border in the world. In total, it spans over 1,538 miles!
6. Hawaii’s Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano in the world.
7. The Andes in South America are the longest mountain range in the world.

Animal Facts for Kids

8. Some fish cough. In order to clear the particles and bacteria out of their gills, the fish’s ventilation cycle is interrupted with a cough.
9. Horses and cows actually sleep standing up.
10. A shark doesn’t contain any bones in its body.
11. Sea sponges are considered the “least evolutionarily advanced” animal on the planet.
12. Scientists believe there are around 6 to 10 million different species of insects.
13. Deer will sometimes flash the white underside of their tail to warn others about nearby danger.
14. Dolphins only shut half their brain off when sleeping. The other half stays at a low level of alertness to protect against predators, obstacles, or other animals.
15. Elephants are the only animal that can’t jump.
16. Most groups of penguins actually live in warm climates.
17. Panthers are not actually a separate species of cats. They’re just leopards or jaguars with a black color mutation.

Science Facts for Kids

18. It would only take one hour to drive to space if you could go straight up in the air.
19. The Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
20. Our average body temperature declines as we age.
21. Mars has lower gravity than Earth. That means a person that weighs 200 pounds on Earth would only weigh 76 pounds on Mars.
22. While most of us think the Earth is shaped like a large sphere, it actually looks more like a “squished ball” that bulges out at the equator. We can thank gravity for that!
23. About 75% of your brain is made of water.
24. Your heart beats about 115,000 times a day.
25. Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in the solar system.
26. The nearest star to Earth is 4.2 light-years away. It’s called the Proxima Centauri.
27. The sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
28. Over one million Earths could fit inside the sun.
29. The average star is between 1 and 10 billion years old.
30. Experts predict that there will be 9.7 billion people on Earth by 2050.
31. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, with temperatures of over 450 degrees Celcius.

Food Facts for Kids

32.  It takes about 50 licks to finish just one scoop of ice cream.
33. Apples are actually part of the rose family.
34. Peaches and nectarines are almost genetically identical.
35. Hawaiian pizza was actually invented in Canada.
36. Cookie Monster isn’t actually eating cookies on Sesame Street – they’re actually painted rice cakes!
37. It takes between two and three years for a pineapple to grow to its full size.
38. Cashews don’t grow like other nuts – they actually grow on cashew apples. The fruit contains a more bitter flesh than other varieties.
39. The earliest menu dates back to the mid-1700s. They first popped up in Europe around then to accommodate high-class residents during dinner parties.
40. Strawberries are the only fruit that sports its seeds on the outside.

History Facts for Kids

41. A lot of Viking men actually dyed their hair blonde. Some even dyed their beards a well!
42. Cleopatra Queen of Egypt during 50 to 30 B.C. She came into power at 12 years old and married two of her brothers during her reign. It sounds crazy today, but this was fairly common practice back then!
43. In 1992, after a record amount of snow, the government of Syracuse, NY, declared any additional snowfall before Christmas Eve illegal. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t take the threat too seriously. It snowed two days after the move was announced.
44. Ketchup used to be sold as medicine. That’s right; the popular condiment was once thought to be a cure for indigestion.
45. Abraham Lincoln was once declared a wrestling champion. He was also a licensed bartender.
46. Thomas Edison didn’t actually invent the light bulb. While it’s true he got a patent for the invention back in 1880, the real credit goes to Warren de la Rue, a British astronomer, and chemist who created the first bulb forty years earlier.

Biology Facts for Kids

47. Your heart beats about 115,000 every day.
48. The human body is made up of about 37 trillion cells.
49. The human eye is comprised of about 2 million working parts.
50. Humans are born with about 300 bones, but some fuse together as we grow older. As a result, we only have around 206 left by the time we reach adulthood.
51. The human brain will triple its size in the first year of life.
52. The brain is actually not capable of multitasking. While we may think we’re doing two things at the same time, we’re actually just quickly switching back and forth between different tasks.
53. Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s.
54. Scientists believe that there are more than 10 million different kinds of life forms on earth.

Random Facts for Kids

55. Your nose gets warmer when you lie.
56. Before there was Beats by Dre, there was something else altogether. In the 60s and 70s, the Beatles teamed up with inventor John C. Koss to create their own brand of headphones. They were known as “Beatlephones.”
57. It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
58. The most expensive book ever purchased was sold for $30.8 million. It was written by Leonardo Da Vinci and was bought by Bill Gates.
59. Speaking of books, there are lots of them to get through. In 2010, Google confirmed that there are over 129,000,000 books in the world.
60. Insects have been around for about 350 million years. To put that in perspective, we’ll note that humans have only been here for 13,000 years.
61. North Korea and Cuba are the only places in the world you can’t buy Coca Cola.
62. Most people start viewing websites from the top left corner. It’s how we’ve been trained to search for data and information.
63. Iron makes up around 5% of the Earth’s crust.
64. We watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day. That’s more than the amount of Netflix and Facebook videos we watch combined!
65. Do you know animals are frequent passengers on rocket ships? The first living creature in space was a dog named Laika.
66. The New Year celebration enjoyed by the ancient Egyptians was known as “Wepet Renpet.”Instead of celebrating the same day every year, they waited until the annual flooding of the Nile River, which usually happened in July.

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We hope you enjoyed our list of fun facts for kids! Feel free to explore it at home on your own, with a few friends or a larger group of people. You can also share this list with friends and family who are social distancing. Review these cool facts over Zoom and quiz each other on what new words, concepts, and ideas you’ve learned.

After you finish going through our list of fun facts for kids, be sure to check out the rest of our website! Each week, we’re delivering our readers a chance to experience something new and exciting while at home with the family. Check out our blog for crafts, learning activities, recipes, and more.