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53 Fun Earth Facts for Kids (Printables and Video)

Children love learning about our solar system. These Earth facts for kids are perfect for both the younger and older kids.

A large portion of science lessons and curriculum discuss our little part of the universe – Earth. While our planet is not as vast as the entire universe, it is still pretty amazing —and it is constantly changing! So, there is always something new to learn about our planet as well.

Below, there are several sections of earth facts for kids. The first section is a set of simple facts intended for younger children. For older children, you could use the simple fact as a base and dive a little bit deeper into that topic. The second section includes facts about the physical properties of Earth. The last sections are longer, interesting, facts for older elementary students.

Easy Earth Facts for Kids

First, I want to share some simple, easy-to-read facts for a younger crowd. Use these fun facts as a starting point, then have students research a little bit more about the topic!

Earth is our home planet!
Our Earth is around 4.5 billion years old! It has been around a long time!
Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
Earth goes around the sun in a circle!
Our solar system in outer space has 8 planets! (One more if you include Pluto!)
Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system!
Earth is the only known planet with humans!
Over 71% of Earth’s surface is covered in water! That is more than half!
Earth spins like a ball over 365 times each year!
Earth makes one trip around the sun each year!
The first Earth Day was in 1970
Earth is called the blue planet or ocean planet, because we have so much water.
Earth’s inner core is made of iron!

What’s the great thing about our solar system and universe? It seemingly never ends. Scientists say it is constantly expanding! So, by that standard, there will always be something new to learn about and discover. When most parents and teachers were growing up, Pluto was considered a planet! Students used to learn that there were nine planets! Now, it is taught in school that there are only eight (sorry Pluto!). Scientists and experts are constantly learning something new about our planet and solar system.

Get the Earth Facts worksheets HERE or on TPT

These Building Sentences: Earth Facts for Kids are leveled worksheets to incorporate into your space lessons. Kids build the easy fact sentences, write the sentence, then draw a picture. Great for at home or in the classroom.

Quick Fire Earth Facts

Here are some numbers for the physical properties of earth. Your students’ minds will be blown when they learn how much mass our planet is made up of!

Mass: 5,972,190,000,000,000 kg
Diameter: 12,742 km
Surface temperature: -88 to 58 degrees Celsius
Moons: 1
Year: 365.25 days
Day: 23.9 hours
Orbit Length (Time): 365.25 Earth days
Planet Type: Terrestrial

Interesting Earth Facts for Kids

These facts are longer and include more detail, but are constructed in simple sentences. These facts may be best suited for slightly older students, but they will learn a lot going through this list! Ever heard of an “oblate spheroid”? You will learn all about it below!

Earth is 93 million miles away from the sun!
The Earth has a diameter of 7,917.5 miles. The circumference is almost 25,000 miles!
While Earth is covered in water, only 3% of that water is fresh! This means 97% of it is salt water!
The air that we breathe is a mixture of gases. Those gases are nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide. We could not live without them!
Earth’s atmosphere has 6 layers. Those layers are called troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere, and ionosphere.
Earth is a terrestrial planet. This means that it is a planet made up of rocks or metals and has a hard surface. Other terrestrial and rocky planets are: Venus, Mars, and Mercury.
While we may think the Earth’s shape is a perfect sphere, it is not! The North Pole and South Pole are a little flat. This happens because of the force that Earth uses to rotate! Scientists call this shape an “oblate spheroid”.
Earth only has one natural satellite — the Moon!

Where Did the Word Earth Come From

The word Earth has been around for over 1,000 years. It means “the ground” and is German.
While the word is over 1,000 years old, it was not used as the name for our planet until the 16th century.
The lowest point on earth? The Challenger Deep. This is the lowest point in the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench is a gap between two tectonic plates in the western Pacific Ocean. It is known to be the deepest trench in all of the Earth’s oceans.
Earth is the only planet in our solar system that is known to sustain life. This is because our planet has two extremely important requirements for human life: oxygen and water. It is also the perfect distance from the sun. It is not too hot and not too cold.
The body of planet earth is made up of layers. Those layers are the inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust.
Humans live on the outer layer. This is called the Earth’s crust!
The middle of the Earth is called the inner core. It is hotter than the sun!

More Interesting Facts about Earth

The outer core is made up of hot liquid rock!
The largest layer of Earth is the mantle. It is above the outer core and below the crust.
Why do we have seasons? Because Earth’s axis is tilted. The tilt of the axis means that as the Earth rotates, we are a different distance from the sun during different parts of the year!
The tilted axis is caused by the gravity between Earth, Moon, and the Sun. This gravity not only plays a part in the tilted axis, but also our oceans tides! The way sea level rises and then falls is also caused by the tilt of the axis.
The highest point on Earth and Earth’s highest mountain is Mount Everest. This mountain is located in Nepal and Tibet. It is a part of the Himalayan mountain range. It can be seen from space! The Himalayas are one of the high mountain ranges that astronauts can see from the space station.
The farthest distance Earth ever gets from the sun? 94.5 million miles. This is called Earth’s aphelion. The closest distance Earth gets to the sun? 91 million miles. This is called Earth’s perihelion.
Earth’s moon is over 238,000 miles away from us.
Earth is the only planet not named after one of the Greek or Roman gods.
Earth is the most dense of all the planets in our solar system.

What is Earth Made Of

Our Earth is made of many different materials. Aluminum, calcium, nickel, Sulphur, magnesium, silicon, oxygen, and iron are the minerals that our planet is made up of!
Our Earth is estimated to have a surface area of approximately 510 million square kilometers. This is 196,900,000 square miles!
Earth is located in our solar system. Our solar system is located in the “Orion”. Orion is located within the Milk Way Galaxy. It is one of the Milky Way’s four spiral arms! The Universe is huge!
Earth’s moon formed around the time Earth was formed — around 4.5 billion years ago!
The top part of the Earth is called the North Pole and the bottom point is called the South Pole.
The lowest elevation on land are the shores of the Dead Sea. They are 1,412 feet below sea level!
Some microscopic fossils make scientist believe the life on Earth started 3.465 billion years ago!
Many scientists think there are many other Earth-size planets in the Milk Way Galaxy — maybe even billions!

Earth is something many become interested in at a young age and many adults are still fascinated with later in life.