Countries

The United States is a country,

and the United Kingdom is a country.

How many countries are there?

About 195—this many.

There are giant countries, like Russia,

and Canada.

And there are really tiny countries, like Monaco, on the Mediterranean Sea,

and the island country of Nauru.

Populous means having a lot of people. Two countries, China and India, have over a billion people. That’s a lot of people!

Here is one billion pennies. A billion is a lot!

So China is very populous,

and India is very populous.

The citizens of a country are the people who live there.

We are citizens of the United States.

Here are some citizens of France.

The citizens of a country usually speak the national language of the country. In the U.S., we mostly speak English.

This is the outside of a U.S. passport.

This is the inside of a U.S. passport.

Passports from other countries look different.

The passport says what country you are a citizen of.

(Our passports say we are citizens of the United States of America.)

The border of a country is where it meets another country.

In some places, people can walk right across the borders—no one cares.

But usually, you have to show your passport before you can cross the border to another country.

The capital of a country is where the main government of the country is.

The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C.

Often, the capital of a country is the biggest city in the country.

Moscow is the capital of Russia, and it is also the biggest city in Russia.

A country is made up of two things: the land and the people who live there.

When we learn about a country, we learn about its biggest cities,

like New York City,

Los Angeles,

and Chicago.

When we learn about a country, we also learn about its land. The land includes its mountain ranges

(like the Rocky Mountains),

its plains

(like the Great Plains),

its rivers

(like the Mississippi River),

its lakes

(like the Great Lakes),

and its deserts

(like the Mojave Desert).

Countries have flags,

like the U.S. flag,

and songs called national anthems. Here is the U.S. national anthem, called “The Star Spangled Banner.”

There is also the money of the country, called the national currency,

like our dollar.

The End