What do racecar, eye, Bob and noon have in common?
What do Do geese see God?, Never odd or even have in common?
What do 353, 1001, and 646 have in common?
All of the above are palindromes, a form of word play. A palindrome is a word, sentence, or numbers that read the same forward and backwards. They are great brain teasers for junior to high school students.
Implementing Palindromes into the Classroom
*Create riddles whose answers are only palindromes.
It is the afternoon: noon
*Create a palindrome alphabet book. It is best to make a palindrome alphabet book as a class. Divide a book into 26 sections for each letter of the alphabet. Incorporate words and sentences in the alphabet book. The longest common English palindrome word is redivider. You may have the students guess the word by playing a game of hangman. As an addition, you may have students include a different language but it must adhere to the palindrome rules.
*Create a story using a variety of palindromes. Give guidelines on the minimum number of palindromes that are words, sentences or numbers in the story. The story can be silly but it must make sense.
Mathematical Palindrome
Mathematical palindromes can be created in three simple steps for a variety of numbers from 1 to 1000. All single digits are palindromes because they read the same forward and backwards.
- Pick a Number (23)
- Reverse the number and add to the original number (32+23=55)
- Repeat step 2 if the final number is not a palindrome.
Other Example
76—67+76=143—341+143=444
Debbie DeSpirt - Debbie DeSpirt is an Elementary Teacher for the York Catholic District School Board in Ontario, Canada. Her post secondary education ...
