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High school isn’t all fun and games, but it can have a few jokes and riddles! Keep students guessing and thinking with a set of riddles for high school students. From riddles you can use as icebreakers and bell ringers to riddles made just for science and math, we’ve got plenty of head scratchers and brain teasers to keep the learning going (with a few giggles in between!).
9 Classic Riddles for High School Students
Start your class with a smirk when you put these high school riddles on the board. Have students solve them independently or work together with partners before the lesson begins!
- What has keys but no doors, space but no rooms, and lets you enter but not leave?
- A man shaves every hour but still has a beard at the end of the day. How is this possible?
- A man went out walking in the rain for an hour. When he got back home, not a single hair on his head was wet. How is this possible?
- Jorge and Nora were playing chess. They both won. How was this possible?
- They were playing against other people
- What has 18 legs and catches flies all day?
- I’m great to taste, but bad to smell. What am I?”
- What has rings but no fingers?
- What must you break in order to use it?
- I lose a head every morning, but get it back at night. What am I?
14 ELA Enigmas and Wordplay Puzzles
Need a brain break for high school students between chapters of your latest novel unit? Try out these ELA riddles that focus on wordplay and grammar to get students in a word-friendly mindset.
- I like coffee, but I don’t like tea. I like cheese, but I don’t like chips. I like doors, but I don’t like windows. What category of things do I like?
- I like things with double letters.
- What breaks as soon as you say its name?
- What disappears as soon as it’s spoken?
- What word has three consecutive pairs of double letters?
- What is the center of gravity?
- What did the active sentence say to the passive sentence?
- Don’t change the subject
- What becomes shorter when you add more letters to it?
- When you spell me forwards, I’m heavy, but when you spell me backwards, I’m not. What am I?
- Golf, rugby, diving, cycling. What sport comes next?
- Football, baseball, or lacrosse (or any 8-letter sport, as the words go up in letter count)
- What building has the most stories in the whole town?
- What word is always spelled wrong in the dictionary?
- What word starts with “e,” ends with “e,” and only has one letter in it?
- What word has all 26 letters?
- How can you spell “candy” in only two words?
Challenge high schoolers with daily class riddles
Get high schoolers answering (and asking!) intriguing questions before the period even begins. Students can answer the riddle in a daily journal or chat with a partner before you start the day’s lesson, letting them settle in and practice using important critical thinking skills.
ELA Bell Ringers Riddles Brain Teasers | For Teens | Vol. #2 | EDITABLE
By Lana’s Classroom
Grades: 6th-12th
Subjects: English Language Arts
Fifty riddles and accompanying solutions make it easy to incorporate daily riddles into your class period. The resource includes editable slides in a U.S. or U.K. version, depending on your preference and location, as well as a daily agenda with riddles.
Turn clever riddles into team tournaments
Two heads are better than one, and four heads are better than two! Encourage students to work together on riddle-solving teams to compete with their classmates.
ELA Bell Ringers – Collaborative Team ELA Trivia, Puzzles, Riddles (Bundle)
By Nouvelle ELA
Grades: 7th-10th
Subjects: English Language Arts
How much do your students know about popular movies, books, and video games? With more than 80 riddles and pop culture questions, a student answer sheet, and a teacher’s answer key, this resource puts students into teams to win a class riddle competition.
10 Riddles for High School Student Scientists
When you experiment with science riddles, the results are easy to predict. Test your students’ funny bones and critical thinking skills with these science-themed riddles and jokes.
- What weighs more: a pound of feathers or a pound of steel?
- They weigh the same (a pound)
- What kind of room has no windows, doors, floors, or ceilings?
- What has a mouth but never eats and runs all day but never gets tired?
- Even the strongest person in the world can only hold this for a short time. What is it?
- What do cats have that no other animal has?
- What happens to your body if you go eight days without sleep?
- Nothing, you sleep at night
- If it has food, it lives. If it has water, it dies. What is it?
- I burn your mouth, I sting your eye. If you have too much of me, you’ll die. What am I?
- You can roll this ball, but you can’t bounce it or throw it. What is it?
- I’m sometimes full, sometimes blue, sometimes hidden, sometimes new. What am I?
Use science riddles in scavenger hunt review activities
Take your class humor down to a cellular level when you combine science review and class riddles! Students can work on their own or in teams to test their knowledge of facts while solving subject-specific riddles.
Cell Organelle Riddles – School Wide Scavenger Hunt
By The Trendy Science Teacher
Grades: 7th-10th
Subjects: Biology, Other (Science), Science
How much do your middle and high schoolers know about the parts of a cell? Test their knowledge of organelles and their functions with scavenger hunt activities. This editable resource includes editable cards and answer keys for seven different scavenger hunts.
Lab Equipment Chemistry Lab Safety Riddles Scavenger Hunt Activity 10th Grade
By The Canadian Chemist
Grades: 8th-11th
Subjects: Chemistry, Science
Lab safety doesn’t need to be puzzling to understand. Take students through an immersive scavenger hunt that poses questions on lab equipment for teams to answer. With a quick recording sheet, two versions of the 16 riddles, and an extra challenge for fast finishers, this riddle-based resource makes an excellent first day of school activity.
11 Math Riddles and Number Puzzles
Every math problem is a brain teaser, but not every math problem leaves a smile on your students’ faces! Raise the humor quotient in your math class with these delightful math riddles.
- A pear costs 40 cents, a banana costs 60 cents, and a tangerine costs 80 cents. How much does a pomegranate cost?
- One dollar (multiply each vowel by 20 cents)
- What did the odd teenager say to his teacher?
- When can you add 6 to 11 and get 5 as the correct answer?
- When you’re adding hours on a clock
- How many times can you subtract 5 from 100?
- Once (after that, it’s not 100 anymore)
- How do you get to 1,000 by adding eight 8s together?
- 8, 5, 4, 9, 1. What number comes next in this sequence?
- 7 (it’s the next number in alphabetical order)
- A 37-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man have three children. When you add the children’s ages together, you get 13. When you multiply the ages, you get 36. The oldest child has played tennis for two years. How old is each child?
- A man buys a guitar and a guitar case for $110 total. The guitar costs $100 more than the case. How much did the guitar cost?
- How do you get 45 only using 4s?
- John was 15 in 1990 but 10 in 1995. How is this possible?
- He was born in 2005 B.C.E.
- If A plus B is 76, and A minus B is 38, what’s A divided by B?
Algebra riddles that make math less mysterious
Combine algebra skills practice with math riddles when you assign worksheets that include fun puzzle activities. Perfect for advanced middle schoolers or high school algebra students, these resources cover a range of important concepts (and treat students to a hidden riddle, too!)
Solving Absolute Value Equations and Inequalities Riddle Activity
By Math Beach Solutions
Grades: 9th-11th
Subjects: Algebra, Algebra 2, Math
Three versions of practice worksheets encourage students to match absolute value equations with their solution sets. When they put the corresponding letters to the correct answers at the bottom of the page, they solve an algebraic riddle!
Negative Exponent Riddle Me Worksheet by Learning Made Radical
By Learning Made Radical
Grades: 8th-9th
Subjects: Algebra, Math
Standards: CCSS 8.EE.A.1
Aligned to CCSS for expressions and equations, this algebra resource focuses on negative exponent rules. A straightforward worksheet guides algebra students through 25 problems, which they then use to fill in the blanks of a secret math puzzle.
Tips for Using High School Riddles in Class
Now that you’ve got a list of high school riddles and resources, how can you use them in class? Follow these tips to brighten up your curriculum and your students’ days.
- If you usually use writing prompts for high school to start class, add riddles to the rotation (maybe on Funny Friday or Witty Wednesday).
- Assign riddles on the first day of school as an icebreaker for students to get to know each other in a more relaxed setting.
- Add a riddle as an extra credit question to a test or weekly quiz.
- Put a challenging riddle on your board at the beginning of the week and offer a homework pass to the first student in the period who can solve it.
- See if students can come up with their own riddles, and use those in class, too!
Learning Can Be a Laughing Matter with TPT
When students are having fun, it’s easier for them to learn — and easier for you to teach! Use more high school riddle activities to intrigue high schoolers at the beginning or end of class. If you’ve got a little more time, try out some “Would you rather” questions for high school students to answer in their journals or spirited class discussions!