For mixed ages and quick warm-ups

Easy Riddles

These are the riddles to start with. Each one describes something you can find around the house, in the kitchen, the closet or the bathroom, in two or three plain sentences. A six-year-old has a fair shot at them, and an adult can usually get there before the reader finishes the second line.

Easy does not mean boring. A good easy riddle still has a small twist, like teeth that never eat or shoulders with no head, so the solver gets the little click of working something out. What it avoids is long sentences, rare words and answers a child has never seen. They suit grandparents playing with grandkids, the first round of a game night, or a group that is new to riddles.

30 riddles ✓ Every answer tested blind
Print as cards

How to use easy riddles with a mixed group

Let the youngest player answer first. Agree on a rule before you start: anyone over twelve has to wait five seconds before guessing. That one rule keeps a page of easy riddles from turning into a race the adults always win.

For a quick warm-up in a classroom, read two before the bell and let the class vote on which one was harder.

Tips for easy-riddle rounds

  • Ask kids to point at the answer if it is in the room; many of the answers are fixed to a wall or sitting on a shelf within reach.
  • Once a child guesses right, ask which clue gave it away, so they start noticing how riddles are put together.
  • Print the card pack and let a young reader hold the cards and read them aloud to the adults.
  • Move on to a medium set once the group is answering before you finish reading.
Page 1 of the Easy Riddles printable card pack: eight cut-out cards

Print these as cards

All 30 on 4 pages of cut-out cards, eight to a page, with the answers on a separate sheet so nobody peeks. Prints on US Letter or A4.

How this page was checked

Every riddle here went to a second solver without its answer. When they reached a different answer that also fit, the riddle was rewritten and tested again, or cut. Our editorial standards.

Drafted for this page
38
Solved blind
30
Cut as repeats of other pages
7
Original to this site
28

More to try