Printable Riddle Worksheets for Kids

A printable riddle worksheet should be usable before the printer finishes warming up. These sets are formatted so you can print the page, copy one section into a document, or separate the answer keys for independent work.

How to Print These Riddle Worksheets

Use your browser’s print command for the full page, or copy only the worksheet section you want into a document before printing. Keep the answer keys on a separate page if students are solving independently.

For younger students, use ten questions at a time. For older kids, mix wordplay, reading, math, and logic so the worksheet rewards more than one kind of thinking.

Worksheet 1: Easy Riddles

1. What has teeth but cannot bite?
2. What gets wetter the more it dries?
3. What has one eye but cannot see?
4. What has a neck but no head?
5. What has hands but cannot clap?
6. What has black and white keys but no locks?
7. What follows you in sunshine?
8. What has a spine but no bones?
9. What has ears but cannot hear?
10. What has a bark but cannot bite?

Answer key: 1. Comb. 2. Towel. 3. Needle. 4. Bottle. 5. Clock. 6. Piano. 7. Shadow. 8. Book. 9. Corn. 10. Tree.

Worksheet 2: Everyday Objects

11. I keep food cold. What am I?
12. I show your face but take no photo. What am I?
13. I carry books on your back. What am I?
14. I go under your head at night. What am I?
15. You look through me to see outside. What am I?
16. You open me to enter a room. What am I?
17. I hold a drink and have a rim. What am I?
18. You use me to eat soup. What am I?
19. I have a point and make marks on paper. What am I?
20. I remove pencil marks. What am I?

Answer key: 11. Refrigerator. 12. Mirror. 13. Backpack. 14. Pillow. 15. Window. 16. Door. 17. Cup. 18. Spoon. 19. Pencil. 20. Eraser.

Worksheet 3: Wordplay

21. What belongs to you but others use more?
22. What becomes shorter when two letters are added?
23. What is at the end of rainbow?
24. What kind of room has no doors?
25. What kind of bank has no money?
26. What can be given and still kept?
27. What can be broken without touching it?
28. What is so fragile that speaking changes it?
29. What five-letter word becomes ONE after its first two letters are removed?
30. What word sounds the same after four of its five letters are removed?

Answer key: 21. Name. 22. Short. 23. W. 24. Mushroom. 25. Riverbank. 26. Your word. 27. Promise. 28. Silence. 29. Stone. 30. Queue.

Worksheet 4: Reading and Vocabulary

31. What word means nearly the same as another word?
32. What word means the opposite of another word?
33. What word sounds like another word but has a different meaning?
34. What part comes before a base word and changes meaning?
35. What part comes after a base word and changes meaning?
36. What do we call the person who writes a book?
37. What do we call where and when a story happens?
38. What do we call the main events of a story?
39. What text feature lists sections and page numbers near the front?
40. What text feature explains symbols on a map?

Answer key: 31. Synonym. 32. Antonym. 33. Homophone. 34. Prefix. 35. Suffix. 36. Author. 37. Setting. 38. Plot. 39. Table of contents. 40. Legend or key.

Worksheet 5: Math and Science

41. A farmer has 14 sheep and all but five leave. How many remain?
42. You take three apples from eight. How many do you have?
43. How many months have 28 days?
44. What two numbers add to 10 and multiply to 21?
45. What three positive whole numbers have equal sum and product?
46. A dozen cookies are split among four kids. How many each?
47. What is 25% of 80?
48. A clock strikes five times in four seconds. How long for ten strikes?
49. What force pulls objects toward Earth?
50. What process turns liquid water into water vapor?

Answer key: 41. Five. 42. Three. 43. Twelve. 44. 3 and 7. 45. 1, 2, and 3. 46. Three. 47. 20. 48. Nine seconds. 49. Gravity. 50. Evaporation.

Worksheet 6: More Math and Science

51. What is ¾ of 28?
52. What two numbers add to 15 and multiply to 56?
53. A rectangle is 8 units long and 5 units wide. What is its area?
54. What planet is the largest in our solar system?
55. What organ pumps blood through the body?
56. What plant part usually absorbs water from soil?
57. What state of matter has fixed volume but no fixed shape?
58. What is the process plants use to make sugar using light energy?
59. What is mass divided by volume?
60. What force resists sliding between surfaces?

Answer key: 51. 21. 52. 7 and 8. 53. 40 square units. 54. Jupiter. 55. Heart. 56. Roots. 57. Liquid. 58. Photosynthesis. 59. Density. 60. Friction.

Worksheet 7: Challenge Round

61. Two fathers and two sons are only three people. How?
62. A woman has four daughters and each has one brother. How many children?
63. A ball returns without hitting anything. How?
64. A dog crosses a river dry without a bridge or boat. How?
65. A person reads in total darkness. How?
66. What grows larger as more is removed?
67. What can answer without listening?
68. What can travel the world while staying in one corner?
69. Three mislabeled boxes say Pens, Pencils, Mixed. Which should you sample first?
70. A painted cube is cut into 27 equal cubes. How many have exactly two painted faces?

Answer key: 61. Grandfather, father, son. 62. Five. 63. Throw it upward. 64. Frozen river. 65. Braille. 66. Hole. 67. Echo. 68. Stamp. 69. Mixed. 70. Twelve.

Ways to Reuse the Worksheets

Cut one ten-question section into task cards, use it as a morning warm-up, or let students choose five questions to solve and explain. The same list can become several activities without creating new material.

For independent work, print or copy the answer key separately. A visible answer key has roughly the security level of a cookie on an unattended plate.

These are print-ready question sets rather than a separate downloadable PDF, so you can choose exactly which sections fit the age and lesson instead of printing pages you do not need.