These 35 fall riddles are about falling leaves, apples, pumpkins, scarecrows, squirrels and cozy sweaters. Fall and autumn are two names for the same season. Each one has two hints and a hidden answer, and the riddles are sorted by age, from simple clues for little kids to science and number puzzles for older ones.
Short riddles about leaves, apples, pumpkins and animals that little kids see outside.
I am green in summer, then red, orange or yellow. In fall I let go of my branch and float down. What am I?
I grow on trees.
You can crunch me under your boots, and rake me into piles.
A leaf
Why it works: Leaves change color in fall and then drop from the tree.
Did you guess it?
I am round, crunchy and sweet. I grow on a tree and can be red, green or yellow. Farmers pick me in fall. What am I?
People dip me in caramel at a fall fair.
I can be made into juice, sauce and pie.
An apple
Why it works: Apples grow on trees, come in red, green or yellow, and are picked in fall.
Did you guess it?
I am a big, round, orange fruit that grows on a vine along the ground. Families visit a patch to pick me in fall. What am I?
I am hollow inside, with lots of seeds.
My seeds can be roasted for a snack, and I am the star of a pie.
A pumpkin
Why it works: Pumpkins are large orange fruits that grow on vines and are harvested in fall.
Did you guess it?
I am a tiny brown nut with a hat on my head. Squirrels bury me in fall. If I stay in the soil, I might grow into a huge tree. What am I?
My cap comes off easily.
I am the seed of an oak tree.
An acorn
Why it works: An acorn is the nut of an oak tree, with a little cap on top.
Did you guess it?
I have a fluffy tail and I run up trees. In fall I am busy hiding nuts to eat in winter. What am I?
I chatter and leap from branch to branch.
My tail is almost as long as the rest of me, and I love acorns.
A squirrel
Why it works: Squirrels bury nuts in fall and dig them up later to eat.
Did you guess it?
I am cozy and knitted from yarn, with two long sleeves. I go over your head when the air turns chilly. What am I?
You wear me on top of your shirt.
Grandma sometimes knits me.
A sweater
Why it works: A sweater is a warm knitted top that people wear when the weather cools.
Did you guess it?
I have a long handle and many teeth, but I never bite. I gather leaves into a big pile for you to jump in. What am I?
I live in the shed and work in the yard.
I pull leaves into piles with my metal or plastic teeth.
A rake
Why it works: A rake has a row of teeth-like tines that pull leaves into piles.
Did you guess it?
You cannot see me, but you can see leaves dance when I pass. I make kites fly and hats go flying. What am I?
I can blow your hair around.
I rhyme with pinned.
The wind
Why it works: Wind is moving air, which we notice by what it pushes around.
Did you guess it?
I stand in a field in old clothes stuffed with straw. I stand all day without eating, and I keep hungry birds away from the corn. What am I?
I wear a hat and a flannel shirt.
My name says what I do to crows.
A scarecrow
Why it works: A scarecrow's name means it scares crows away from crops.
Did you guess it?
I am a cloud, but I lie low on the ground. On cool fall mornings I hide the trees. What am I?
I make it hard to see far away.
I rhyme with log and frog.
Fog
Why it works: Fog is a cloud that forms at ground level on cool, damp mornings.
Did you guess it?
Puns, rhymes and cozy clues about corn mazes, boots, maple trees and hot chocolate.
In the US, what do people call the cloudy, nonalcoholic juice pressed from orchard fruit and served warm with cinnamon?
It is a drink often sold at American farm stands in autumn.
Its two-word name starts with a fruit and ends with a word that rhymes with wider.
Apple cider
Why it works: In US usage, apple cider is cloudy, nonalcoholic juice pressed from apples.
Did you guess it?
I am the dry outer covering around a chestnut. I open to let the shiny brown nut fall out. What am I?
My outside is covered in many prickles.
Look for my open halves on the ground beneath a chestnut tree.
A burr
Why it works: A chestnut burr is a prickly covering that opens to release the nuts.
Did you guess it?
What does a tree say to a pesky fall breeze?
Think about what trees drop in fall.
Say the first word out loud and it sounds like leave.
Leaf me alone
Why it works: Leaf sounds like leave, so the tree says leave me alone.
Did you guess it?
We come as a pair and go on your feet. We keep out puddles on a rainy fall day, and we make a splash and a crunch. What are we?
We are taller than shoes.
We are made of rubber, and you stomp in puddles in us.
Boots
Why it works: Boots cover your feet and ankles, which keeps water out.
Did you guess it?
I am sweet, brown and warm, and I sit in a mug with tiny marshmallows floating on top. Cool evenings are my favorite time. What am I?
I am made from a bean that grows on a tropical tree.
Milk is warmed to make me.
Hot chocolate
Why it works: Hot chocolate is a warm drink made from cocoa and milk, topped with marshmallows.
Did you guess it?
I am a season, and I am also what you do when you trip over your shoelace. What am I?
I come between summer and winter.
Leaves do me from trees, and so does rain.
Fall
Why it works: Fall is the season name and also the word for tumbling down.
Did you guess it?
Why did the autumn tree decide to make a fresh start?
Think of a saying about starting to behave in a better way.
The saying includes something that grows on a branch.
It wanted to turn over a new leaf
Why it works: Turning over a new leaf means making a fresh start, with a literal leaf giving the tree its pun.
Did you guess it?
I am a bumpy ride on a farm wagon. Families sit on scratchy bales of dried grass and bounce along a path. What am I?
The seats are made from bundles of dried grass.
A tractor pulls the wagon along a farm path.
A hayride
Why it works: Hay is dried grass, and families sit on bales of it during the ride.
Did you guess it?
Farms cut twisty paths into a field of tall stalks so that visitors can get lost on purpose. What is it called?
The tall plants in the field have ears and kernels.
You walk through me like a puzzle and try to find the exit.
A corn maze
Why it works: A corn maze is a puzzle path cut through tall corn plants.
Did you guess it?
I am a tree whose leaves turn bright red in fall. My sap is boiled into a sweet syrup for pancakes. What am I?
My leaf has pointy lobes like a hand.
One country has my leaf on its flag.
A maple tree
Why it works: Maple trees have red fall leaves and sweet sap that becomes syrup.
Did you guess it?
Mia rakes 4 piles of leaves. Sam rakes twice as many as Mia. They flatten 3 piles by jumping in them. How many piles are still standing?
Twice as many as 4 is 8.
Add Mia's and Sam's piles, then take away the 3 that were flattened.
9
Why it works: 4 + 8 = 12 piles, and 12 - 3 = 9 still standing.
Did you guess it?
I sneak in at night when the air is cold, and I cover the grass in sparkly white. By noon the sun has made me old, and I melt away from sight. What am I?
I look like icy sugar on the grass and car windows.
I can form when water vapor turns straight into ice crystals on a freezing surface.
Frost
Why it works: Hoar frost forms when water vapor turns directly into ice crystals on a freezing surface.
Did you guess it?
I am a brown spice with a warm, sweet smell, and I come from the bark of a tree. Fall bakers shake me into apple pies and rolls. What am I?
I smell like a cozy bakery in fall.
Sticks of me are used to stir hot cider.
Cinnamon
Why it works: Cinnamon is a spice ground from the bark of a tree.
Did you guess it?
Some animals spend winter in a low-energy state with slower heartbeats and breathing. What is this state called?
It helps animals survive when food is scarce.
Groundhogs enter this state during winter.
Hibernation
Why it works: Hibernation lowers an animal's energy use through slower metabolism, heart rate and breathing.
Did you guess it?
I am a long-handled tool used to loosen garden soil before planting bulbs. My flat blade has a straight cutting edge. What am I?
A gardener presses my blade into the ground with a foot.
I dig planting holes and turn soil.
A spade
Why it works: A spade has a flat blade for digging and turning garden soil.
Did you guess it?
I am a pile of old leaves, apple cores and vegetable peels. I turn dark and crumbly, yet gardeners treat me like treasure. What am I?
Worms and tiny bugs help make me.
I turn scraps into rich food for plants.
Compost
Why it works: Compost is decomposed plant material that gardeners mix into soil to improve it.
Did you guess it?
Science clues, number puzzles and wordplay for older kids who like to think a little longer.
Leaves turn yellow and orange in fall, but those colors were hiding in the leaf all summer. What covered them up?
It helps the leaf make food from sunlight.
When the days get short, the leaf stops making it.
Green chlorophyll
Why it works: Green chlorophyll hides the yellow and orange colors until it breaks down in fall.
Did you guess it?
In autumn I can mean gathering ripe crops, or the crops gathered. What word has both meanings?
Farmers do this when fields are ready.
A good one can fill barns with food.
Harvest
Why it works: Harvest names both the act of gathering crops and the crops that are gathered.
Did you guess it?
A tree drops 5 leaves on Monday. Each day after that it drops double the number from the day before. How many leaves have fallen by the end of Thursday?
Monday is 5 leaves and Tuesday is 10. Keep doubling.
Thursday's number is 40. Add up all four days.
75
Why it works: 5 + 10 + 20 + 40 = 75 leaves.
Did you guess it?
Three apples sit in a row: one red, one green and one yellow. The red and green apples are not next to each other. Where does the yellow apple sit in the row?
The apple at the end touches only one neighbor, and the one between the others touches two.
Red and green cannot be neighbors, so something must sit between them.
In the middle
Why it works: Red and green must be kept apart, so the yellow apple sits between them.
Did you guess it?
Why could nobody say no to the farmer's sweet corn?
Corn grows these on its stalks, but they are not for hearing.
Make a corn pun from a word meaning too tempting to refuse.
It was ear-resistible
Why it works: Ear-resistible plays on irresistible, because corn grows ears.
Did you guess it?
A farmer packs 17 pumpkins in crates that each hold 4. What is the fewest crates needed to pack them all?
Count how many pumpkins fit in four full crates.
A partly filled crate still counts as a crate.
5
Why it works: Four crates hold 16 pumpkins, so the seventeenth needs a fifth crate.
Did you guess it?
On one day each fall, day and night last about the same time. My name joins the words equal and night. What am I?
On this date the sun crosses the equator in the sky.
I mark the start of astronomical fall, in September in the north and March in the south.
The autumn equinox
Why it works: The autumn equinox marks astronomical fall, with day and night approximately equal in length.
Did you guess it?
Which month is named from the Latin word for eight, even though it is the tenth month?
It comes right before November.
Its name starts like octopus, and an octopus has eight arms.
October
Why it works: Oct- means eight, from the old Roman calendar that started in March.
Did you guess it?
I am the full phase nearest the autumn equinox. For several evenings I rise soon after sunset, helping farmers finish gathering crops. What am I?
My extra evening light once helped farmers work in their fields.
My first name means gathering ripe crops.
The harvest moon
Why it works: The harvest moon rises with relatively short delays on successive evenings near the autumn equinox.
Did you guess it?
No riddles match both filters. Try another age or difficulty.
Take a few riddles on a leaf walk. Read one, then let the kids look around for the answer: a leaf, an acorn, a squirrel.
Put one riddle on a card in each lunchbox for a week. The answer can be revealed at the dinner table.
Run a pumpkin patch or apple orchard scavenger hunt. Read a riddle at each stop and let the answer lead to the next spot.
Use the 10 to 12 riddles as a classroom warm-up when you teach seasons, trees or the harvest.
Let kids write their own fall riddle: pick an object, list three clues, then try it on a friend.
No. Read them aloud on a car trip, at the dinner table or on a walk. For a game, print the cards and keep the answer key separate, so the person reading can check each answer and give the hints.
The first group, for ages 4 to 6, has the easiest riddles. They use things children can see on a walk, such as leaves, apples, acorns and squirrels. Read them aloud and show the hints one at a time.
Yes. In Australia the season runs from March to May, and the leaves, apples, pumpkins and woolly jumpers still fit. A couple of riddles mention a month name, but the clues still work in any hemisphere.
Read one riddle as a daily warm-up, or print the cards and let pairs of students solve them. The riddles connect to science topics such as leaf color, day length and hibernation. The printable answer key is separate.
Show hint one, give them a moment, then show hint two. If they are still stuck, reveal the answer and read the short explanation together.