Our world is very big. To help us find our way, we split the land into seven big pieces called continents, and the water into five big pieces called oceans.
Why this matters: Knowing the continents and oceans helps you read any map or globe. It is the first step to understanding where every country in the world sits.
The seven continents
A continent is a very large area of land. There are seven of them:
| Continent | A fact |
|---|---|
| Asia | The biggest continent of all |
| Africa | The equator crosses it |
| North America | Has the country of Canada |
| South America | Has the huge Amazon rainforest |
| Antarctica | The coldest, at the very bottom |
| Europe | Where the United Kingdom is |
| Australia | The smallest continent |
The five oceans
An ocean is a huge area of salty water. The five oceans are the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern and the Arctic. The Pacific is the biggest, and the Arctic, at the top of the world, is the smallest and coldest.
Put these oceans in order, biggest first:
- Pacific Ocean
- Atlantic Ocean
- Indian Ocean
- Arctic Ocean
The equator and the poles
The equator is an imaginary line around the middle of the world — places near it are usually hot. The North Pole is at the very top of the world and the South Pole at the very bottom; places near the poles are cold and often covered in ice.
Remember: Hot in the middle, cold at the top and bottom. That is a quick way to guess a place's weather on a map.