No misses ordered roses, Simon.
Marge Lets Norah see Sharon’s telegram.
Rise to Vote, Sir!
At first look, these sentences have nothing in common but turn them around and you’ll see that they are each palindromes.
Warning: this post contains the word palindrome at least 42,000 times. Give or take…
A palindrome is a word, sentence or number that is exactly the same forwards and backwards.
We celebrated Newt’s eleventh birthday last week. Since 11 is a palindrome and so is Newt’s real name, Hannah, we spent some time talking about this funny phenomenon. In the course of our discussion, I realized that there is a special palindromic date coming up just next week: November 2, 2011. In the US, that date is written as 11-02-2011. Turn it backwards and you have… 11-02-2011!
Palindromic dates are a pretty rare event; there are only 38 in the entire 21st century. Since the next date like this isn’t until 2020, I think this is a perfect occasion to play around with palindromes.

Here are some ideas Newt and I came up with:

Read Too Hot to Hoot: Funny Palindrome Riddles and solve the riddles together.
They start out easy.
What is a three letter word for Mother?
Don’t let those early ones fool you, though. Can you figure this one out?
When a patient needs help in a hurry, what do the women in white do?*

Edited to Add: One more for your reading list – We just read Mom and Dad Are Palindromes and really enjoyed it. There are lots of palinromes hidden in the story. It’s fun trying to find them all.

Play with Palindromic Numbers
Talk about palindromic numbers, like 33, 212, or 46,064. If a number is not a palindrome, did you know you turn it into one by adding? Here’s how: Take a number, say 42, and add it’s reverse, 24. Is the product a palindrome?
42 + 24 = 66
Yes. That is a one-step palindrome.
Now let’s try 468.
468 + 864 = 1332
1332 is not a palindrome, yet. Add it’s reverse.
1332 + 2331 = 3663
That would be a two step palindrome.
I think that every number will eventually reach a palindromic sum, but some may take awhile.
789 takes four steps.
56,814 takes seven.
196 takes 4,147 steps to reach its eventual palindrome!
After playing around with numbers for awhile, try charting them as suggested in Family Math: Print out a 100s chart. Color all the palindromes one color: all the one digit numbers, 11, 22, etc. Then find and color all the one step palindromes a different color: 12 + 21 = 33 – one step. Continue through as many numbers/steps you like. Try to figure out which number will take the most steps to become a palindrome.

Palindromic Names
Tell your kids that Mom, Dad, sis, Elle, and Bob are all palindromes. Try to find more names that are the same forwards and backwards. Ask, does anyone you know have a palindromic name?

Eat a Palidrome
Make your meals palindromic that day. You could start the day with ice-cream, then eggs and toast for breakfast, an apple for a mid-morning snack, soup and sandwiches for lunch, another apple for an afternoon snack, eggs and toast for dinner and ice-cream for dessert. Be sure to chart your meals and watch for the palindrome. Ask your kids, does it matter what we have for lunch? Why or why not?
Depending on their ages, this could also lead into a discussion of odd and even.
If you don’t want to spend the whole day’s meals on palindromes, try making a palindromic sandwich: bread, peanut-butter, jam, peanut-butter, bread.

Palindromes vs. Symmetry
Discuss how palindromes and symmetry are similar concepts.

Read up on more palindromes. and challenge your children to make up their their own.

Do a Palindrome word-search.

Allow me to leave you with this one final thought: As I pee, sir, I see Pisa!

What ideas do you have?

*Nurses hurry run. Thanks to Kelly for catching my error. I could use a good editor. 🙂