There are many benefits to incorporating riddles into your classroom. Riddles are wonderful ways for children to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Solving riddles together emphasizes teamwork, social skills, and language development.
Whether you’re looking to challenge your students to think critically, develop their language skills, or just break the ice and get them laughing, these 100 riddles are sure to keep kids engaged and entertained, all while learning!
Math Riddles
1. What can you put between a 7 and an 8 so that the result is greater than a 7, but less than an 8?
Math riddles are a great way for students to practice basic arithmetic and more complex problem-solving skills.
Answer: A decimal.
2. A man is twice as old as his little sister and half as old as their dad. Over a period of 50 years, the age of the sister will become half of their dad’s age. What is the age of the man now?
Answer: 50
3. 2 mothers and 2 daughters spent the day baking, but only baked 3 cakes. How is it possible?
Answer: There were only 3 people baking – 1 mother, her daughter, and her daughter’s daughter.
4. Molly has a bag full of cotton, which weighs 1 pound, and another bag of rocks, which weighs 1 pound. Which bag will be heavier?
Answer: Both weigh the same. 1 pound is 1 pound, no matter what the object is.
5. Derek has a really big family. He has 10 aunts, 10 uncles, and 30 cousins. Each cousin has 1 aunt who is not Derek’s aunt. How is this possible?
Answer: Their aunt is Derek’s mother.
6. Johnny is painting door numbers on all the doors of a new apartment building. He painted 100 numbers on 100 apartments, which means he painted from number 1 to 100. How many times will he have to paint the number 7?
Answer: 20 times (7, 17, 27, 37, 47, 57, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 87, 97).
7. When Josh was 8, his brother was half his age. Now that Josh is 14, how old is his brother?
Answer: 10
8. A grandmother, 2 mothers, and 2 daughters went to a baseball game together and bought 1 ticket each. How many tickets did they buy in total?
Answer: 3 tickets because the grandmother is the mother of the 2 daughters, who are mothers.
9. I am a 3-digit number. My second digit is 4 times bigger than the 3rd digit. My 1st digit is 3 less than my 2nd digit. What number am I?
Answer: 141
10. How can we make 8 number 8s add up to one thousand?
Answer: 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1000.
Food Riddles
Food riddles are great opportunities for younger children and second language learners to practice vocabulary and talk about their favorite foods!
11. You throw away my outside, eat my inside, then throw away the inside. What am I?
Answer: Corn on the cob.
12. Kate’s mother has three children: Snap, Crackle, and ___?
Answer: Kate!
13. I am green on the outside, red on the inside, and when you eat me you spit out something black. What am I?
Answer: A watermelon.
14. I am the father of all fruits. What am I?
Answer: Papaya.
15. What begins with T, finishes with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
16. I’m always at the dinner table, but you don’t eat me. What am I?
Answer: Plates and silverware.
17. I have many layers, and if you get too close I’ll make you cry. What am I?
Answer: An onion.
18. You have to break me before you can eat me. What am I?
Answer: An egg.
19. What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
Answer: Lunch and dinner.
20. If you took 2 apples from a pile of 3 apples, how many apples would you have?
Answer: 2
Color Riddles
These riddles are great for younger students learning about primary and secondary colors.
21. There’s a 1-story house where everything is yellow. The walls are yellow, the doors are yellow, all the couches and beds are yellow. What color are the stairs?
Answer: There aren’t any stairs – it’s a 1-story house.
22. If you drop a white hat in the Red Sea, what does it become?
Answer: Wet!
23. There are purple, orange, and yellow crayons in a crayon box. The total number of crayons is 60. There are 4 times as many orange crayons as yellow crayons. There are also 6 more purple crayons than orange crayons. How many crayons of each color are there?
Answer: 30 purple, 24 orange, and 6 yellow crayons.
24. I have every color in me, and some people think I even have gold. What am I?
Answer: A rainbow.
25. I am the only color that is also a food. What am I?
Answer: Orange
26. I am the color you get when you win a race, but second place.
Answer: Silver
27. Some say you are this color when you’re feeling down
Your eyes might be this color if they’re not green or brown
Answer: Blue
28. I am the color you get when you’ve done your very best, or when you discover a treasure chest.
Answer: Gold
29. A man sits on his blue couch in his brown house in the North Pole sees a bear from his window. What color is the bear?
Answer: White because it’s a polar bear.
30. What’s black and white and has many keys?
Answer: A piano.
Challenging Riddles
The difficulty level of these riddles makes them ideal for older students or those who really like to be challenged!
31. What word in the English language does the following: the first 2 letters signify a male, the first 3 letters signify a female, the first 4 letters signify greatness, while the entire word signifies a great woman.
Answer: Heroine
32. What 8-letter word can have consecutive letters taken out and still remain a word until only one letter is left?
Answer: Starting (starting – staring – string – sting – sing – sin – in).
33. 2 in a corner, 1 in a room, 0 in a house, but 1 in a shelter. What is it?
Answer: The letter ‘r’
34. Give me food, and I will live. Give me water, and I will die. What am I?
Answer: Fire
35. You are running a race with 25 people and you pass the person in 2nd place. What place are you in?
Answer: 2nd place.
36. Give me food, and I will live and get stronger. Give me water, and I will die. What am I?
Answer: Fire
37. If you have it, you don’t share it. If you share it, you don’t have it. What is it?
Answer: A secret.
38. I can fill a room, but I take up no space. What am I?
Answer: Light
39. Grandpa went for a walk in the rain. He didn’t bring an umbrella or a hat. His clothes got soaked, but not a hair on his head was wet. How is this possible?
Answer: Grandpa was bald.
40. A girl fell off a 20-foot ladder. She wasn’t hurt. Why?
Answer: She fell off the bottom step.
Geography Riddles
These riddles help students remember and practice concepts related to the world and physical geography.
41. What would you find in the middle of Toronto?
Answer: The letter ‘o’.
42. What is the laziest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest (Ever-rest).
43. What part of London is in France?
Answer: The letter ‘n’.
44. I go over rivers and all through towns, up down and all around. What am I?
Answer: Roads
45. I travel around the world but I always stay in 1 corner. What am I?
Answer: A stamp.
46. I have seas but no water, forests but no wood, deserts but no sand. What am I?
Answer: A map.
47. What was the largest island in the world before Australia was discovered.
Answer: Australia!
48. An elephant in Africa is called Lala. An elephant in Asia is called Lulu. What do you call an elephant in Antarctica?
Answer: Lost
49. How do mountains see?
Answer: They peek (peak).
50. Where do fish keep their money?
Answer: In river banks.
51. What animal is always at a baseball game?
Answer: A bat.
52. What kind of dog keeps the best time?
Answer: A watchdog.
53. I have a tail. I can fly. I’m not a bird. What am I?
Answer: A kite.
54. I have keys but open no locks. I have space but no room. I allow you to enter but not go in. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
55. What has one horn and gives milk?
Answer: A milk truck.
56. What bird can lift the most?
Answer: A crane.
57. What kind of cat should you never play cards with?
Answer: A cheetah.
58. What animal dresses up as other animals for Halloween?
Answer: A zebra, because it can dress up as a barcode.
Miscellaneous Riddles
This category contains a wide range of riddles that don’t fall into our other specific categories. They center on everything from everyday objects and popular culture to geography, food, and much more; providing a diverse array of questions to intrigue students and spark non-traditional thought!
59. What goes up and down, but still remains in the same place?
Answer: A thermometer.
60. I am a type of vehicle. I spell the same forwards and backwards. What am I?
Answer: Racecar.
61. If you throw a white stone into the Red Sea, what does it become?
Answer: Wet.
62. What type of wave makes the most noise?
Answer: A wave at a stadium.
63. Which letter of the alphabet has the most water?
Answer: C.
64. What goes up, but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
65. What gets sharper the more you use it?
Answer: Your brain.
66. What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name.
67. What kind of fish is famous?
Answer: A starfish.
68. What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
Answer: A palm.
69. Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?
Answer: Grant.
70. When was Rome built?
Answer: In the daytime.
71. What is black and white and read all over?
Answer: A newspaper.
72. I am taken from a mine, and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost every person. What am I?
Answer: Pencil lead.
73. What is as light as a feather, but even the world’s strongest man couldn’t hold it for more than a minute?
Answer: His breath.
74. What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
75. Why did the scarecrow win an award?
Answer: Because he was outstanding in his field.
76. Who can shave 25 times a day and still have a beard?
Answer: A barber.
77. You see a house with two doors. One door leads to certain death and the other door leads to freedom. There are two guards, one in front of each door. One guard always tells the truth, and the other always lies. You do not know which guard is which, nor which door leads to freedom. You can ask one guard one question to determine the door to freedom. What do you ask?
Answer: You ask one guard what the other guard would say if you asked him which door leads to freedom, and then choose the opposite door.
78. Which months of the year have 28 days?
Answer: All of them.
79. What has many keys but can’t open any doors?
Answer: A piano.
80. What runs around the house but doesn’t move?
Answer: A fence.
81. What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock.
82. You walk into a room with a match. There is a stove, a heater, and a candle. What do you light first?
Answer: The match.
83. What’s full of holes but can still hold water?
Answer: A sponge.
84. What starts with “e” and ends with “e” but only has one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
85. What is seen in the middle of March and April that can’t be seen at the beginning or end of either month?
Answer: The letter ‘r’
86. I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest person can’t hold me for more than 5 minutes. What am I?
Answer: Your breath.
87. I have keys, but no locks. I have space, but no room. You can enter, but can’t go outside. What am I?
Answer: A keyboard.
88. I run, but I don’t walk. I have a mouth, but I don’t talk. I have a bed, but I never sleep. What am I?
Answer: A river.
89. What gets bigger when more is taken away?
Answer: A hole.
90. What is so fragile that saying its name breaks it?
Answer: Silence.
91. What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?
Answer: The letter ‘m’.
92. I can be cracked, made, told, and played. What am I?
Answer: A joke.
93. What loses its head in the morning and gets it back at night?
Answer: A pillow.
94. I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with the wind. What am I?
Answer: An echo.
95. I fly without wings, I cry without eyes. Wherever I go, darkness follows me. What am I?
Answer: A cloud.
96. The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?
Answer: Footsteps.
97. What can be broken, but is never held?
Answer: A promise.
98. What begins and has no end? What is the ending of all that begins?
Answer: The letter ‘e’.
99. What is in seasons, seconds, centuries, and minutes but not in decades, years or days?
Answer: The letter ‘n’.
100. I am a word of letters three. Add two and fewer there will be!
Answer: Few.
Did your students enjoy the riddles? Let us know which ones they found most baffling or hilarious in the comment section below. If your students really enjoy solving riddles, have them come up with their own to stump the adults in their life!
Resources
From: https://kidadl.com/articles/food-riddles-for-your-little-chefs
from https://parade.com/947956/parade/riddles/
35 Meaningful and Engaging Kwanzaa Activities