Answer:
What is lengthened by being cut at both ends?
In your fire you hear me scream, creaking and whining, yet I am dead before you lay me in your hearth.
Up on high I wave away but not a word can I say.
I work when I play and play when I work.
What has roots that nobody sees, and is taller than trees. Up, up it goes, and yet it never grows.
You use it between your head and your toes, the more it works the thinner it grows.
Difficult
Animal
Easy
Food
Funny
Kids
Logic
What am I?