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 50 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!
1. You throw away my outside, eat my inside, then throw away the inside. What am I?
Answer: Corn on the cob.
2. Kate’s mother has three children: Snap, Crackle, and ___?
Answer: Kate!
3. 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.
4. I am the father of all fruits. What am I?
Answer: Papaya.
5. What begins with T, finishes with T, and has T in it?
Answer: A teapot.
6. I’m always at the dinner table, but you don’t eat me. What am I?
Answer: Plates and silverware.
7. I have many layers, and if you get too close I’ll make you cry. What am I?
Answer: An onion.
8. You have to break me before you can eat me. What am I?
Answer: An egg.
9. What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
Answer: Lunch and dinner.
10. 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.
1. 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.
2. If you drop a white hat in the Red Sea, what does it become?
Answer: Wet!
3. 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.
4. I have every color in me, and some people think I even have gold. What am I?
Answer: A rainbow.
5. I am the only color that is also a food. What am I?
Answer: Orange
6. I am the color you get when you win a race, but second place.
Answer: Silver
7. 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
8. I am the color you get when you've done your very best, or when you discover a treasure chest.
Answer: Gold
9. 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.
10. 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!
1. 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
2. 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).
3. 2 in a corner, 1 in a room, 0 in a house, but 1 in a shelter. What is it?
Answer: The letter 'r'
4. Give me food, and I will live. Give me water, and I will die. What am I?
Answer: Fire
5. You are running a race with 25 people and you pass the person in 2nd place. What place are you in?
Answer: 2nd place.
6. Give me food, and I will live and get stronger. Give me water, and I will die. What am I?
Answer: Fire
7. If you have it, you don’t share it. If you share it, you don’t have it. What is it?
Answer: A secret.
8. I can fill a room, but I take up no space. What am I?
Answer: Light
9. 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.
10. 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.
1. What would you find in the middle of Toronto?
Answer: The letter 'o'.
2. What is the laziest mountain in the world?
Answer: Mount Everest (Ever-rest).
3. What part of London is in France?
Answer: The letter 'n'.
4. I go over rivers and all through towns, up down and all around. What am I?
Answer: Roads
5. I travel around the world but I always stay in 1 corner. What am I?
Answer: A stamp.
6. I have seas but no water, forests but no wood, deserts but no sand. What am I?
Answer: A map.
7. What was the largest island in the world before Australia was discovered.
Answer: Australia!
8. An elephant in Africa is called Lala. An elephant in Asia is called Lulu. What do you call an elephant in Antarctica?
Answer: Lost
9. How do mountains see?
Answer: They peek (peak).
10. Where do fish keep their money?
Answer: In river banks.
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
https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/riddles-for-kids/
https://kidadl.com/articles/best-math-riddles-for-kids
From: https://kidadl.com/articles/food-riddles-for-your-little-chefs
https://www.imom.com/math-riddles-for-kids/
https://www.riddles.nu/topics/color
from https://parade.com/947956/parade/riddles/
https://www.brainzilla.com/brain-teasers/riddles/1gyZDXV4/i-am-black-and-white-i-have-strings-i-have-keys-i-make-sound-without/
https://www.readersdigest.ca/culture/best-riddles-for-kids/
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