I think palindromes are cool and have lots of fun looking for creative palindromes – but especially fun are long ones that also make sense! The easiest way to teach children to spot palindromes is to start with words they know… Pop, Mom, Dad, Tat… the, eventually they’ll get things like madam, level, and radar. Then on to a couple of words like: race car, stack cats… and on to: ” Too bad I hid a boot” or, senile felines. Always encourage children Try New Things – you’ll remember that: TNT!
You can go on to teach palingrams… sentences that read the same backwards or forwards: He was, was he? And then you can distinguish even further a word palingram and palindrome, too: “I did, did I?” See?
Then there are names… Tat, Lil, Elle, Bob…
Speaking of Bob… and I think his name probably got him interested in palindromes a very young age. Kids with names like that do think it’s pretty cool!
Take a look: bob-dylan-palindrome.htm
You’ll like watching this one… especially if you’re a
Palindrome
pa·
pal·in·drom·ic,
pal·in·drom·i·cal, adjective
pal·in·drom·i·cal·ly
* A line that reads the same backward and forward,” c.1629, from Gk. palindromos “a recurrence,” lit. “a running back,” from palin “again, back” (from PIE base *kwel- “move round,” with notion of revolving, cycle) + dromos “a running.”
* A segment of double-stranded DNA in which the nucleotide sequence of one strand reads in reverse order to that of the complementary strand.
Palindromes are fun for children to both see and experiment creating. It’s a great creative writing exercise and great for printing, too.
Palindromic Phrases:
Did I do, O God, did I as I said I’d do? Good, I did!
A car, a man, a maraca.
Sir, I demand, I am a maid named Iris.
Was it a rat I saw?
We’ll let Dad tell Lew.
A dog, a pan, a pagoda.
So may Obadiah, even in Nineveh, aid a boy, Amos.
Madam, in Eden I’m Adam.
Madam, not one man is selfless; I name not one, Madam.
So many dynamos!
A rod, not a bar, a baton, Dora.
Stop, Syrian, I see bees in airy spots.
A Toyota!
Egad an adage!
Marge let a moody baby doom a telegram.
Won’t lovers revolt now?
Yawn a more Roman way.
Yo! Banana boy!
Never odd or even
A man, a plan, a canal. Panama.
A six is a six is a six is a six is a
No, it is open on one position.
No, it is opposed; Art sees Trade’s opposition.
No, it is opposition.My favourite palindrome?
Hannah .
And the of course: Did Hannah say as
Hannah did?
?didhannaH say ashannaH diD
I think palindromes are cool , Stumbled it !
Okay, Pamela, because you think palindromes are cool, I had to share with you the information that just plopped in my lap this evening. I was looking through a book from my childhood by Reader’s Digest. There are two pages in it that are about palindromes. {Trust me, I was *not* looking for this information! ;-)} So, here goes:
This is taken from Reader’s Digest Oddities in Words, Pictures and Figures, 1978.
The palindromic sentence has a long and distinguished history. It is said to have been invented by the Greek poet Sotades in the 3rd century BC, and palindromes are sometimes called ‘Sotadices’ in his honour.
The first English palindrome is believed to have been devised by John Taylor (1580-1653). His masterpiece was acceptable as a palindrome by the spelling standards of his time:
‘Lewd did I live & evil I did dewl’.
A modern version is:
‘Evil I did dewll; lewd did I live’
and it can be expanded to become:
‘Reviled did I live, said I, as evil I did deliver’
Here are some more examples:
live not on evil
was it a car or a cat I saw
do not start at rats to nod
pull up if I pull up
some men interpret nine memos
and my favorite:
sums are not set as a test on Erasmus
There were more in the book, but I’ll stop there. I never gave much thought to palindromes, really. Well, except for Hannah – but then truly because her name isn’t anything weird backwards, like, say . . . . illek. Conjures up a great image doesn’t it . . . . . . .
love you . . . . .