Anagrams for spelling - A sponger flings alarm

What do these have in common?

• Challenging Spite
• Angelic Penlights
• Glistening Chapel
• Lightening Places

They are all anagrams of the same pair of words that are related to this blog. But which words?

And can you work out these anagrams? Again all on the same theme, but this time anagrams of three different words or phrases.

• Clean lips
• Holographic Rat
• Legible pens

Put your answers in the Comments.

I really like this phrase made out of two anagrams of each other:

Create fluidly, edit carefully.

Good advice, I’d say.

Should we use anagrams to teach spelling?

It depends. People who spell quite well often enjoy the challenge of them. It encourages them to look at words carefully and to think about the spelling. So this may be helpful in moderation.

People who have big problems with spelling usually don’t enjoy them. They have enough trouble with spelling – they just don’t need someone to go messing up the letters deliberately, thank you very much! Those with serious spelling problems may feel that every written word is like a puzzle to be solved anyway.

Much more useful for these learners is finding letter sequences in words that make new words. Finding ‘a rat’ in ‘separate’ really helps with the spelling. I wrote a post about this (with activities) at http://thespellingblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/spelling-long-words-1.html

Did it take ages to make those anagrams?

No, I cheated! Just go to http://wordsmith.org/anagram/ , which is an internet anagram server (I, rearrangement servant), put in your word or phrase, and a list of anagrams, mostly meaningless, is offered up. Great fun ... if you can spell. But, be careful, it's addictive!

Bye for now
Alright, no Ninjas.