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Back to School Trivia Questions and Answers for the First Week

On day one, ask the class why the school bus is yellow.

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A huge find of very pure graphite in the 1500s made the first pencils possible. In which country was it?

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with any school, exam board or quiz show. Bank checked September 20, 2026.

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All 80 questions with answers

School supplies and where they came from 16

  • A hornbook was a small paddle with the alphabet on it. What covered its lesson sheet to keep it clean? Answer: A thin see-through sheet of animal horn. Source: Wikipedia: Hornbook
  • A huge find of very pure graphite in the 1500s made the first pencils possible. In which country was it? Answer: England. Source: Wikipedia: Pencil
  • Before rubber erasers, which food did people use to rub out pencil marks? Answer: Bread without the crust. Source: Wikipedia: Eraser
  • The first recorded use of chalk on a blackboard in the United States was in 1801. Which subject was being taught? Answer: Mathematics. Source: Wikipedia: Blackboard
  • How long is a typical desk ruler? Answer: 12 inches. Source: Wikipedia: Ruler
  • Laszlo Biro was tired of smudged ink and of filling fountain pens, so he worked on the ballpoint pen. What was his job? Answer: Newspaper editor. Source: Wikipedia: Ballpoint pen
  • Long ago people wrote with quill pens made from feathers. Which bird gave some of the best quills? Answer: The goose. Source: Wikipedia: Quill
  • Look at the flat end of a common wooden pencil. Which shape do you most often see? Answer: A hexagon, with six sides. Source: Wikipedia: Pencil
  • Natural chalk is a soft white rock. What is it mostly made from? Answer: The tiny shells of sea plankton. Source: Wikipedia: Chalk
  • The oldest globe of the Earth that still survives was made in Germany in the early 1490s. What is missing from it? Answer: North and South America. Source: Wikipedia: Erdapfel
  • Pencil makers mix clay into the core of a pencil. What does more or less clay change? Answer: How hard or soft the core is. Source: Wikipedia: Pencil
  • What are crayons mostly made of? Answer: Wax. Source: Wikipedia: Crayon
  • What color are most pencils made in the United States painted? Answer: Yellow. Source: Wikipedia: Pencil
  • What is a book of maps called? Answer: An atlas. Source: Wikipedia: Atlas
  • Which stone were the first classroom blackboards made of? Answer: Slate. Source: Wikipedia: Blackboard
  • Why did a meeting of school bus experts pick yellow for the buses? Answer: Black letters on it were the easiest to read in dim light. Source: Wikipedia: School bus yellow

School around the world 15

  • A randoseru is a firm backpack given to a child who is starting school. In which country? Answer: Japan. Source: Wikipedia: Randoseru
  • At show and tell, what does a child bring to class to talk about? Answer: Something from home. Source: Wikipedia: Show and tell (education)
  • For about 1,300 years, people in China who wanted a government job had to pass what? Answer: A very hard written test. Source: Wikipedia: Imperial examination
  • In Germany a Gymnasium is not a sports hall. What is it? Answer: A secondary school that prepares students for university. Source: Wikipedia: Gymnasium (school)
  • In Germany, children get a big paper cone on their first day of school. What is inside it? Answer: Sweets, toys and school supplies. Source: Wikipedia: Schultüte
  • In Japan, who sets and cleans the tables for school lunch? Answer: The students. Source: Wikipedia: School meal
  • In Russia the school year traditionally starts on the same date each year, called Knowledge Day. Which date is it? Answer: September 1. Source: Wikipedia: Knowledge Day
  • In South Korea the school year begins early in which month? Answer: March. Source: Wikipedia: Academic term
  • In which month does the school year begin in Japan? Answer: April. Source: Wikipedia: Education in Japan
  • Kindergarten is a German word. What does it mean? Answer: Garden of children. Source: Wiktionary: kindergarten
  • On Knowledge Day in Russia, first graders take part in a ceremony named after a sound. What is it called? Answer: The First Bell. Source: Wikipedia: Knowledge Day
  • Recess is the American word. What is that time of the school day called in the United Kingdom? Answer: Break or playtime. Source: Wikipedia: Recess (break)
  • Some children in the Australian outback live very far from any school. How did the School of the Air first bring them lessons? Answer: By radio. Source: Wikipedia: School of the Air
  • When does the school year begin in most of Australia? Answer: Late January or early February. Source: Wikipedia: Academic term
  • World Teachers' Day is held every year on which date? Answer: October 5. Source: Wikipedia: World Teachers' Day

Famous firsts in education 16

  • A famous school in ancient Athens stood beside a sacred grove planted for the goddess Athena. Which trees grew in it? Answer: Olive trees. Source: Wikipedia: Platonic Academy
  • A normal school was a special kind of college. Whom did it train? Answer: Teachers. Source: Wikipedia: Normal school
  • About 120 million copies of these schoolbooks were sold between 1836 and 1960. What were they? Answer: McGuffey's Readers. Source: Wikipedia: McGuffey Readers
  • Before Maria Montessori became famous for her schools, which profession did she train for? Answer: Doctor. Source: Wikipedia: Maria Montessori
  • Boston Latin School has been open since 1635. What does its Latin motto, Sumus Primi, mean? Answer: We are first. Source: Wikipedia: Boston Latin School
  • Elizabeth Peabody opened the first kindergarten in the United States to teach in English. In which city? Answer: Boston. Source: Wikipedia: Elizabeth Peabody
  • The first kindergarten in the United States opened in Watertown, Wisconsin. In which language was it taught? Answer: German. Source: Wikipedia: Kindergarten
  • The flat square cap worn at graduation is nicknamed the mortarboard. Why? Answer: It looks like the board a bricklayer holds mortar on. Source: Wikipedia: Square academic cap
  • Horace Mann worked so hard for public schools that he is known by which nickname? Answer: The Father of American Education. Source: Wikipedia: Horace Mann
  • In 1658 John Amos Comenius made a schoolbook for children that was new in one big way. What did it have? Answer: Pictures. Source: Wikipedia: Orbis Pictus
  • In 1763 which kingdom set up a modern system that made children go to school? Answer: Prussia. Source: Wikipedia: Compulsory education
  • In an old one-room school, how many teachers usually taught all the grades? Answer: One. Source: Wikipedia: One-room school
  • Maria Montessori opened her first school in Rome in 1907. What does its name, Casa dei Bambini, mean? Answer: Children's House. Source: Wikipedia: Maria Montessori
  • Nalanda was a great center of learning that was built in 427 and lasted for many centuries. In which present-day country are its ruins? Answer: India. Source: Wikipedia: Nalanda mahavihara
  • Oberlin College in Ohio was founded in 1833. It is the oldest college in the United States of which kind? Answer: One that teaches men and women together. Source: Wikipedia: Oberlin College
  • Schools are said to teach the Three Rs. What are they? Answer: Reading, writing and arithmetic. Source: Wikipedia: The three Rs

School words 17

  • A class trip may go to a museum. The word museum goes back to a Greek shrine for whom? Answer: The Muses. Source: Wiktionary: museum
  • A semester is what part of a school year? Answer: Half. Source: Wiktionary: semester
  • A thesaurus is a book of words with similar meanings. Its name comes from a Greek word for what? Answer: Treasure. Source: Wiktionary: thesaurus
  • Cafeteria was borrowed from Mexican Spanish. What did the word mean there? Answer: Coffeehouse. Source: Wiktionary: cafeteria
  • Campus, the grounds of a school or college, is a Latin word. What does it mean? Answer: Field. Source: Wiktionary: campus
  • Curriculum, the plan of what a school teaches, comes from a Latin verb. What does the verb mean? Answer: To run. Source: Wiktionary: curriculum
  • In French, the word crayon means which school tool? Answer: A pencil. Source: Wiktionary: crayon
  • Janitor comes from the Latin word ianitor. What was a ianitor? Answer: A doorkeeper. Source: Wiktionary: janitor
  • Library comes from the Latin word liber. What did liber mean? Answer: Book. Source: Wiktionary: library
  • School sports have a varsity team. Varsity is a clipped form of an old way of saying which word? Answer: University. Source: Wiktionary: varsity
  • What do dictionaries say about where the word quiz came from? Answer: Nobody knows its origin. Source: Wiktionary: quiz
  • The word alphabet is made from the names of the first two Greek letters. What are they? Answer: Alpha and beta. Source: Wiktionary: alphabet
  • The word bus is a short form of which longer word? Answer: Omnibus. Source: Wiktionary: bus
  • The word pencil goes back to a Latin word for which painter's tool? Answer: A little brush. Source: Wiktionary: pencil
  • The word school goes back to an ancient Greek word. What did it mean? Answer: Spare time. Source: Wiktionary: school
  • The word syllabus, the list of what a class will cover, was born by accident. How? Answer: From a mistake in a 1470s printing of an old Roman writer. Source: Wiktionary: syllabus
  • You get a diploma when you graduate. The word comes from Greek. What did it first mean? Answer: Folded paper. Source: Wiktionary: diploma

Calendar and number puzzles 16

  • A box holds 12 crayons. You have 2 boxes. How many crayons do you have? Answer: 24. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • A class has 26 students. Half ride the bus and 5 walk. The rest come by car. How many come by car? Answer: 8. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • A school year has 180 days. 45 of them are over. How many school days are left? Answer: 135. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • A teacher needs 60 pencils. Pencils come in packs of 12. How many packs must she buy? Answer: 5. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • The first day of school is a Wednesday. Which day of the week is it 10 days later? Answer: Saturday. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • In a year when September 1 is a Tuesday, how many Tuesdays does September have? Answer: 5. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • It is 7 o'clock in the morning. The school bus comes at 8 o'clock. How long until the bus comes? Answer: One hour. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • The lockers in a hall are numbered from 1 to 100. How many of the numbers end in a 7? Answer: 10. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • Notebooks cost $3 each and folders cost $2 each. How much do 4 notebooks and 3 folders cost? Answer: $18. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • School runs from 8:30 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. How long is the school day? Answer: 6 and a half hours. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • School starts on a Monday and there are no days off. On which day of the week does the 100th school day fall? Answer: Friday. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • September has 30 days and October has 31. How many days is that in all? Answer: 61. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • Today is Friday, September 13. What is the date next Friday? Answer: September 20. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • You go to school on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. How many school days is that? Answer: 5. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • You must read a book of 120 pages. You read 15 pages each night. How many nights will it take? Answer: 8. Source: Own work: checked by working it
  • Your class has 10 girls and 9 boys. How many children are in the class? Answer: 19. Source: Own work: checked by working it

How it works

Why are school buses yellow? Which food rubbed out pencil marks before erasers? These 80 back to school trivia questions and answers are about school itself, from pencils to the first day in Japan.

Read the full guide

Five topics, 80 questions

School supplies and where they came from has 16 questions, from yellow pencils to the oldest globe that survives. School around the world has 15, such as the paper cone German children get on day one. Famous firsts in education has 16, School words 17, and Calendar and number puzzles 16.

Pick a topic by age

A question with three choices is an easy one, written for kindergarten to grade 2, such as what crayons are made of. School supplies and where they came from has the most of those, so start the youngest classes there. Famous firsts in education is the hardest topic: 7 of its 16 were written for grades 6 to 8. The levels are our estimate.

  • First-day warm-up: open School around the world and let the class vote with raised hands before you tap a choice.
  • Math warm-up: Calendar and number puzzles needs no facts, only sums. School starts on a Monday, so which weekday is the 100th school day?
  • For tomorrow, pick a round under Start from, play it and press Print, then tick With answer key. Every topic has 15 to 17 questions, and the last row of the list adds any not yet on it.

Questions and answers

What did people use before erasers?

Bread without the crust. A student in Tokyo in the Meiji period, from 1868 to 1912, wrote that bread erasers were handed out in place of rubber ones.

Why are school buses yellow?

The yellow-orange color was picked because black lettering on it was the easiest to read in semi-darkness. It also stood out at a distance and was unusual enough to become linked with school buses. The question sits in the first topic.

What did the word school first mean?

Spare time. School goes back to the ancient Greek skhole, which meant spare time or leisure. School words has 16 more: pencil comes from the Latin for a little brush, and cafeteria from the Mexican Spanish for coffeehouse.

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