Addition Math Riddles
Free printable addition riddle worksheets. Solve each sum, find it in the decoder and write the letter to spell the answer to a riddle. A new riddle each time.
Solve each addition fact, find its answer in the decoder, and write the letter in the blank with the same number. When every blank is filled, the letters spell the answer to a riddle. A child who gets a sum wrong finds out without asking anyone: the answer is not in the decoder, or the word does not read.
Every sheet is one riddle from a bank of thirty, with one problem for each letter of the answer. The decoder lists every letter the answer needs, ordered by number, and a few letters it does not need. Where a letter comes up twice it gets two different sums if the numbers allow.
Narrow the numbers and the sheet picks a riddle with fewer different letters, so a range that makes few different sums still works. Set Pages for a stack with a different riddle on each sheet.
What this worksheet covers
- Solve single-digit addition facts
- Decode each answer into a letter to read a riddle
Common Core standards
- 2.OA.B.2 Fluently add and subtract within 20; know all sums of two one-digit numbers from memory.
Frequently asked questions
How does a riddle worksheet check itself?
Each answer in the decoder stands for one letter. If a child's answer is not in the decoder, or the letters they write do not make words, a sum is wrong. They can find it and fix it before anyone looks.
Why does the decoder have letters the riddle does not use?
They are decoys. A decoder with only the riddle's own letters would give the answer away before a single sum was solved, and a wrong sum would seldom land on a letter that looks out of place.
Do the sheets repeat a riddle?
Not within one print, while the bank has more riddles that fit the numbers you chose. Each sheet draws a riddle and new sums from the seed in the footer, so the same code gives the same sheet again.