Riddles for Upper Elementary Kids: A Fun Collection That Adults Can Enjoy Too

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.

As children reach the upper grades of elementary school, they learn a lot and develop stronger thinking skills.

They spend more time playing with friends and expressing their opinions.

A distinctive feature of this stage is strong curiosity, and many children start discovering their own hobbies.

It’s also an important time for nurturing the ability to think deeply about things.

With that in mind, here we’ll introduce riddles that match the upper-grade level and help cultivate thinking skills while having fun.

Riddles use logical thinking and can be enjoyed together with friends.

There are plenty that adults can enjoy too, so be sure to give them a try together!

Riddles for Upper Elementary Students! A Fun Collection Adults Can Enjoy Too (21–30)

A truck loaded with watermelon, bananas, and apples dropped something. What did it drop?

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speed

What the truck dropped was not the fruit it was carrying, but its speed (velocity). This indicates that the truck suddenly slowed down. In other words, even if it was loaded with watermelons, bananas, and apples, what actually gets dropped isn’t the cargo, but the speed of its movement.

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mutō

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An elderly person carrying large luggage got on the train. But no one offered their seat. Why do you think that is?

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Because there were many seats available.

The reason the people around didn’t offer their seats when an elderly person carrying large luggage got on the train was that there were plenty of empty seats to begin with. In other words, the elderly person could sit wherever they liked, so there was no need for anyone to go out of their way to give up a seat.

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Taro and Jiro are brothers born on the same day in the same year, but they are not twins. Why is that?

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Actually, I'm a triplet.

Taro and Jiro were born on the same day in the same year and are siblings, but they are not twins. That’s because they are actually two of a set of triplets. In the case of triplets or larger sibling sets, two of them alone are not called “twins,” which leads to this answer.

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Among kindergarteners, elementary school students, and adults, which is the biggest?

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kindergarten

A kindergarten isn’t a person; it’s the name of a building. Elementary school students and adults are people, but a kindergarten is a large building that many people can enter. So if you compare sizes, the kindergarten is the biggest. The key to this riddle is noticing the meanings of the words.

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What are the two things a younger brother has but a younger sister has only one of?

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The hiragana “to”

The word otōto (younger brother) contains two instances of the syllable “to,” while imōto (younger sister) contains only one. Both are family terms, but in this riddle the key is not their meanings—it’s the letters within the words. If you look closely at the words and consider which characters appear and how many times, you’ll arrive at the answer.

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What is something you can see but can’t touch?

Something you can see but can’t touch… Huh? A ghost? That might be the kind of answer you’d think of, but that’s not it.

Don’t worry, it’s not a scary question—feel free to give it a try.

The answer to this riddle is something unique to elementary schoolers, or rather, it even comes up in lower grades’ classes.

If you have a flash of insight, even a first-grader could solve it.

The hint: it’s something you can usually find in a classroom or a room.

Try solving it while thinking, “What is it that I’m always looking at?” The answer is “time.” You can see it, but since it isn’t a physical object like a clock, you can’t touch it—that’s the trick.

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