Our World in Seven Pieces

Imagine you are an astronaut looking down at Earth from space. You see huge patches of land separated by enormous oceans. How many big patches of land can you count? Scientists and geographers have agreed on seven. These giant pieces of land are called continents. Can you already name any of them?

A continent is one of the seven very large areas of land on Earth. Each continent is home to many different countries. Let's meet them one by one. 1. AFRICA is the second largest continent. It sits mostly in the middle of the world map. You might know countries there like Egypt or Kenya. 2. ANTARCTICA is the frozen continent at the very bottom of the world. Almost no people live there — it is covered in thick ice all year. 3. ASIA is the largest continent of all. It stretches from the Middle East to Japan. More than half of all the people on Earth live in Asia. 4. AUSTRALIA (sometimes called Oceania) is the smallest continent. It is also a country! It sits in the southern part of the world, surrounded by the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 5. EUROPE is a smaller continent in the northern part of the world. Countries like France, Germany, and Spain are all in Europe. 6. NORTH AMERICA is in the northern half of the world on the left side of the map. The USA, Canada, and Mexico are all here. 7. SOUTH AMERICA is just below North America. Brazil and Peru are countries found there. It is famous for the Amazon rainforest. A handy way to remember them is to say: 'Ants Are Amazing, Every Nice Student Agrees!' — the first letter of each word matches a continent: Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, South America, Africa.