Lovely Play & Recreation

For elementary school kids! Fun riddles recommended for lower grades

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.

Lively, curious lower-grade elementary school children.

They love learning new things and playing with friends.

Their thinking is still flexible, and they’re great at coming up with fun ideas.

Here, we’ll introduce riddles for elementary school kids that lower graders can enjoy.

Riddles help develop thinking skills and let you enjoy wordplay.

Have a wonderful time using your heads together with friends and family as you enjoy all kinds of fun riddles featuring familiar things!

For Elementary School Kids! Fun Riddles Recommended for Lower Grades (11–20)

Piece of cake!? Riddles for first graders

Easy win!? If it’s riddles for first graders, you can solve them easily, right?

Piece of cake!? Riddles for first graders

If you’re enjoying riddles with your family, we recommend including ones that first graders can solve easily.

When you do riddles with a large group, you often end up chatting with the people around you, right? Through riddles, there are moments where you share what you’re thinking or say your answers out loud—opportunities to express each other’s thoughts and feelings.

Riddles are a great chance to increase this kind of communication.

Even in households where you’re busy and don’t have much time to talk with your children, why not try simple riddles for first graders as an easy way to connect?

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Why are there sneakers whose laces never come undone no matter how much you run around?

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Translation Trick quiz Igossou
♪ Original Song – Igossou [YouTube] – Igossou [YouTube]

Sneaker laces sometimes come undone while you’re wearing them, right? You can just retie them when they come loose, but if your hands are full, you end up walking with untied laces—your shoes feel like they’re about to slip off, and you might even trip over the laces.

A lot of people probably have those quietly annoying memories.

Here’s a quiz about lace-up sneakers! Sneakers whose laces never come undone no matter how much you run around… sounds like a dream product, doesn’t it? But in fact, kids are already wearing this dream-like item.

You might figure out the answer just by looking at your own sneakers!

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Turn a kitten upside down and it’s still a kitten. What do you get if you turn a puppy upside down?

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Translation Trick quiz Igossou
♪ Original Song – Igossou [YouTube] – Igossou [YouTube]

Let’s try a quiz about animals.

If you turn a kitten upside down, it’s still a kitten; if you turn a puppy upside down, it becomes… what? You’ll probably think, “Kitten is ‘koneko’… sure, even read backwards it’s still ‘koneko,’” and then tackle the question.

But if you follow that line of thinking, a puppy is ‘koinu,’ which can’t be read the other way around, and you’ll get stuck.

That’s when you should remember it’s a trick question.

That very line of thinking is the trick.

If you simply state the fact as it is, that’s the correct answer.

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What gets hotter as it gets colder?

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You're a genius if you get it!Translation Trick quiz Igossou
♪ Original Song – Igossou [YouTube] – Igossou [YouTube]

This puzzle is tricky because there are many possible answers.

Things that get hotter as it gets colder… You might be thinking of hand warmers or clothing, but the correct answer is something else.

First, try picturing a winter scene.

List a few things you associate with it, and think about “getting hot” as the keyword.

Also pay close attention to the fact that it’s written in hiragana! The answer is something everyone knows, and you’re likely to see it at least once in summer.

Here’s a hint: it’s something that melts in heat.

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What vehicle do you pedal and pedal but end up going back and forth in the same place?

When you row a boat or pedal a bicycle, you move forward, right? But the answer to this riddle seems to be something that goes back and forth in the same place no matter how much you push.

The key to solving it is to focus on “going back and forth.” If you’re an elementary school student, that phrase might make something click.

Here’s a hint: the park.

Think back to your time playing at the park—there was a fun piece of playground equipment that goes back and forth! That’s right, the answer is a swing.

Did you get it right?

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What do you hold while eating rice?

Something you “hold” while eating… A busy mother might hold her child while eating something safe even if it’s dropped, but normally you don’t hold anything in your arms during a meal, right? So no matter how much you think about what you could hold while eating, you won’t reach the answer.

The key to solving this riddle is to recall what you always do during a meal, and to try expressing “dakko” (to hold/hug) with a different word.

The correct answer is “ita” (board)! Because you say “ita, dakimasu”—a pun on “Itadakimasu.”

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For Elementary School Kids! Fun Riddles Recommended for Lower Grades (21–30)

What bug is in the center of the world?

What insect is in the middle of the world? You might be tempted to wonder, “Where is the center of the world?” but this is a riddle you can solve with a flash of insight—no geography knowledge needed.

The key point is that “sekai” (world) is intentionally written in hiragana as せかい.

It could have been written in kanji, which makes this suspicious.

By the way, the correct answer is “a mosquito” (ka).

It’s that blood-sucking pest we all hate in summer.

Why? Because the middle letter of せかい (se-kai) is か (ka)!

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