For elementary school kids! Fun riddles recommended for the middle 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.

Children in the middle grades of elementary school are growing rapidly.

It’s also a time when friendships deepen and play with friends becomes very active.

At this age, their thinking and expressive abilities develop, and their curiosity grows stronger.

They learn many things and absorb new knowledge.

Here, we introduce riddles perfect for middle-grade elementary school children to enjoy with their friends.

Riddles help nurture thinking skills while having fun, making them great for communication with friends and family, too.

By all means, let both kids and adults give them a try together!

For Elementary Students! Fun Riddles Recommended for Middle Grades (21–30)

Daddy frog goes ribbit-ribbit-ribbit, Mommy frog goes ribbit-ribbit, so what sound does the baby frog make?

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I won’t cry.

Young frogs are still in the tadpole stage, so they can’t croak like adult frogs. That’s why the answer is “they don’t cry/make sounds.” Comparing them to the calls of their father and mother helps you notice the differences in development. Not only appearance but also whether they can make sounds is a point of growth.

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What can go anywhere but doesn’t move?

Do many kids love traveling? Just going somewhere different from usual makes you feel excited, doesn’t it? So let’s try this riddle: “What can go anywhere but doesn’t move?” When you think of going anywhere, vehicles like cars, bicycles, and trains come to mind, but they all move, right? So those aren’t the answer.

If you think about something that makes you feel like you’ve gone somewhere without actually going, you might reach the answer.

The correct answer is “a map.” On a map, you can go to various countries, but the map itself doesn’t move.

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sasashina

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For Elementary School Kids! Fun Riddles Recommended for Middle Grades (31–40)

There are 5 candies. If you lick one, how many are there?

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

It seems like a question that would trip up adults more than children.

When you read the problem statement, you instinctively want to treat it like an arithmetic problem and think, “5 – 1 = 4, so the answer is 4!” But remember, it’s a trick question.

The hint to solving it is that the candy wasn’t given to someone else, nor did it disappear.

If you think about how many candies you have after you lick one, you should arrive at the correct answer.

An elementary school student with a flexible mind might solve it right away!

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sasashina

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A turtle, a camel, and a rhinoceros are shopping. What will they buy?

A turtle, a camel, and a rhino go shopping…

When you imagine it, you can’t help but wonder what on earth is going on—sounds like a riddle, right? But let’s set that aside for now! Since they’re shopping, they must each have something they want to buy.

Still, thinking about items related to each animal won’t solve this puzzle.

You need to approach it from a completely different angle.

The key is to read the question repeatedly.

If you connect ‘kame’ (turtle), ‘rakuda’ (camel), and ‘sai’ (rhino), you get ‘kamera kudasai’ (which means ‘a camera, please’ in Japanese).

So the answer is ‘camera’!

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sasashina

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What animal is bigger than a whale but smaller than a killifish?

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dolphin

To say that there’s no animal bigger than a whale and smaller than a killifish, we use a pun: we say “iruka” (which means dolphin) as a play on words with “inai” (there isn’t). The trick is to change the intonation when you say the comeback line, like “Sonna no iruka!” (which can sound like “Is that a dolphin?” or “Who would buy that?” depending on intonation). The correct answer is “iruka” (dolphin).

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mayumi

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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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A taxi driver is going the wrong way down the road, but the police don’t stop him. Why is that?

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Because it’s the driver who’s running

The reason the taxi driver is going the wrong way down the road is that he isn’t driving a car—he’s walking or running himself. In other words, it’s a person running, not a car, so the police don’t stop him. The key is that it’s a play on the meaning of the words.

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