We have lots of free printable brain teasers for kids and adults, all with the answers provided. These head-scratchers are fun and challenging. All worksheets are free to print (PDFs). They include riddles, puzzles, anagrams, chronograms, connected squares, mazes, and more.
These riddles and brain teasers for kids are perfect for an icebreaker at the beginning of a class, for keeping kids busy on a road trip, or trying to stump each other at a family game night! Plus, solving riddles is good for developing thinking skills, and the riddles will spark good discussion.We love all kinds of funny jokes for kids! Since we posted, we’ve been saving and accumulating riddles for kids. My boys are so into this kind of thing right now.
In fact, I decided to put these riddles in printable form also – maybe they’ll buy you a few minutes of peace on a road trip or while waiting at the doctor’s office. Either read them from this post, or scroll to the bottom of the post and print!This post was originally published in May 2015 and updated October 2019. Q: What gets wetter the more it dries? A towel.
Q: When you look for something, why is it always in the last place you look? Because when you find it, you stop looking!. Q: A cowboy rode into town on Friday. He stayed in town for three days and rode out on Friday. How was that possible?
Friday was the name of his horse. Q: One night, a king and a queen went into a castle.
There was nobody in the castle, and no one came out of the castle. In the morning, three people came out of the castle.
Who were they? The knight (night), the king, and the queen!. Q: Railroad crossing, watch out of cars. Can you spell that without any “r’s”? T-H-A-T. Q: What has a face and two hands, but no arms or legs? A clock.
Q: What has to be broken before you can use it? An egg. Q: Lives in winter, dies in summer, and grows with its roots upward. An icicle.
Q: It starts out tall, but the longer it stands, the shorter it grows. A candle. Q: What belongs to you but is used more by others? Your name. Q: What goes up and never comes down?
Your age. Q: How can a man go 8 days without sleep?
He only sleeps at night. Q: I’m full of keys but I can’t open any door. A piano. Q: What has a thumb and four fingers but is not alive?
A glove. Q: A man found an old coin and declared that the date on it was 150 B.C. This could not be true. Is counting backwards from the birth of Christ. If Christ hadn’t been born yet, there were no dates in B.C. Yet!.
Q: Which is heavier, a pound of bricks or a pound of feathers? The same – a pound is a pound!. Q: I’m light as a feather, yet the strongest man can’t hold me for more than 5 minutes. Breath.
Q: Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday? Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Q: Timmy’s mother had three children.
The first was named April, the next was named May. What was the name of the third child? Timmy of course!. Q: What kind of coat can only be put on when wet? A coat of paint. Q: What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment, and never in one thousand years?
The letter M. Q: What has three feet but cannot walk? A yardstick. Q: What runs, but never walks, often murmurs – never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats? A river.
Q: If you are running in a race and you pass the person in second place, what place are you in? Second place. Q: What gets sharper the more you use it? Your brain. Q: If I have it, I don’t share it. If I share it, I don’t have it. A secret.
Q: What can you catch but not throw? A cold. Q: How many months have 28 days? All 12 months!. Q: They come out at night without being called, and are lost in the day without being stolen.
What are they? Stars. Q: What is full of holes but can still hold water? A sponge.
Q: Two in front, two in behind, and one in the middle. How many are there? ( 1 2 ) 3 1 (2 3) 1 (2) 3. Q: What word is spelled wrong in every dictionary? The word “wrong!”. Q: What is easy to get into, but hard to get out of? Trouble!.
Q: The more you take away, the bigger this becomes. A hole!. Q: What word contains 26 letters, but only three syllables? Alphabet!.
Q: A girl fell off a long staircase. She wasn’t hurt.
She fell off the bottom step. Q: It follows you and copies your every move. But you can’t touch it or catch it.
Your shadow. Q: What building has thousands of stories? The library!. Q: What has a neck but no head?
A bottle!. Q: A bat and a ball cost $1.10. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? 5 cents. Q: What invention allows you to look right through a wall?
A window!. Q: What are two things you can NEVER eat for breakfast? Lunch and dinner!. Q: What goes up and down but never moves? The temperature!(Alternative answer – a flight of stairs!). Q: The more you take, the more you leave behind?
What are they? Footprints!. Q: I have no eyes, no ears, and legs, and yet I help move the earth. What am I? An earthworm!.
Q: If there are three cookies and you take away two, how many do you have? If you take two, then of course you have two!. Q: What do dogs have that no other animal has? Puppies!. Q: A man was walking in the middle of nowhere and it started to rain. He had no umbrella and no hat, but not a single hair on his head got wet. How can this be?
The man was bald!. Q: Give me food, and I will live. Give me water, and I will die. Fire!. Q: First, I threw away the outside and cooked the inside.
Then I ate the outside and threw away the inside. What did I eat? Corn on the cob!Ready to print your riddles and brain teasers? Click here to print:Or click here for46 Comments. Tove Maren Jun 2, 2015.
Wednesday’s guest post about from pediatric occupational therapist Loren Shlaes was so popular that I decided to follow it up with a list of Brain Breaks you can use with your students. These are great to use anytime your students are feeling restless and are struggling to pay attention. Most of these will only take a few minutes, and then you can get back to the lesson with your students ready to focus on the lesson at hand. 5-4-3-2-1 In this simple game, students stand up and the teacher (or leader) has them do five different movements in descending order. For example the teacher would say: “Do five jumping jacks, spin around four times, hop on one foot three times, walk all the way around the classroom two times, give your neighbor one high-five (pausing in between each task for students to do it). Trading Places Have students stand behind their pushed-in chairs.
Call out a trait, and everyone who has that trait must change places with someone else (students who do not have the trait stay where they are). Examples: “Everyone with curly hair.” “Everyone who ate cereal for breakfast.” “Everyone who is wearing stripes.”. Six Spots Number six spots around your room from 1-6. Have students each go to a spot of their choice. Choose a student to roll a die (if you can make a big one out of foam, it adds to the fun).
All the students at the number rolled must go back to their seats. Students that are left go to a new spot, and the die is rolled again. Continue until only a few students are left. Mingle, Mingle, Group! In this game students mill about the classroom saying, “mingle, mingle, mingle” in soft voices until the teacher says, “Groups of 5,” at which point the students must quickly group themselves into groups with the correct number of people. Students who are left over must do three jumping jacks before the next round starts. The teacher can call out any number for the group size.
You can also add rules such as: as soon as a group is complete, all members must sit down in a line. Dance Party! Put on some rockin’ music and dance! If you can make the room semi-dark and have a black light or other special effect, your kids will love it!. Freeze Dance! Similar to Dance Party, except that every so often the music stops, and students must freeze and hold the position they are in until the music begins again. Name Moves Students stand behind their chairs. In turn, each student says his or her name accompanied by a special movement. For example a student might say, “Kayla!” while dramatically dropping to one knee and doing Jazz Hands.
After the student does his or her move, the rest of the class says the student’s name in unison and imitates the move. Then it is the next student’s turn.
Keep It Up Students must keep a beach ball from hitting the ground. Add two or three balls to make it even more fun. Simon Says An oldie but a goody!.
Movement Songs Sing a song with whole-body movements, such as, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” “Father Abraham,” “Toe-Knee Chest-Nut,” “Shake Your Sillies Out (Raffie),” “Grand Old Duke of York,” “My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean,” etc. Recorded Movement Songs Older students might enjoy a simple Zumba routine, YMCA, or the Macarena. Littler ones will love. Animal Pretend Younger children will enjoy pretending to be various animals (or even objects such as lawn mowers or airplanes). Call out a few in sequence. Would You Rather Ask a “would you rather” question and have students show their choice by moving to one end of the room or the other. Have a few kids share why.
Here are to get you started. Find It Fast Call out a color or other trait (e.g. Something round, something made of wood), and students must find an object in the room that fits the trait and get to it quickly.
Physical Challenges Challenge students to do something physically difficult, such as standing on one foot with arms extended, or this one: Grab your nose with left hand, and grab your left earlobe with your right hand, and then quickly switch so that your right hand is on your nose and your left hand is grabbing your right earlobe. Yoga poses could also be a good variation. Plates Give each student a paper plate. Students must walk around the room balancing the plates on their heads. If a student drops his or her plate, the student must freeze until another student picks it up and places it back on the student’s head (while keeping his or her own plate in place, of course). Line Up! Have students line up using a specific criteria, such as age (use day and month, not just year), height, alphabetically by middle name, hair length, etc.
Limbo All you need is a long stick and a pair of kids to hold it. Music is nice, too. Human Knot Divide students into groups of about eight students. Have students each grab right hands with someone who is not directly next to them. Then do the same with left hands. The challenge is to untangle and become a circle without releasing hands. Jump Skip Counting Have students count by twos, fives, tens etc.
While jumping with each count. You could also practice spelling words this way.Looking for more Brain Breaks? You can get 60 of them in a! Thanks for sharing.The Six Spot activity is similar to Four Corners that I have done with kids. It occurred to me when reading this that having kids sit down when their number came up kind of defeated the purpose of a brain break. Maybe two dice could be rolled, one with the spot numbers and one with six different movements: jumping jacks, touch toes, etc.
The kids in the numbered spot would have to do that number of the movement. Nobody sits down but the break 0nly goes on for about 3 minutes.
Keeps all engaged.