Fun with Anagrams and Block Play

Let’s have some fun with anagrams and block play. For a seasonal example, let’s take a closer look at the Uncle Goose Valentine Letter Blocks. 

It's a 14 block set. The blocks read BE ♥ MY VALENTINE — or do they?

Jumble the blocks around, and they could just as easily spell

• I AM EVENLY BENT
• NAMELY EVEN BET
• INVENT EYE BALM

Each of these phrases is an anagram of BE MY VALENTINE. Anagrams are words or phrases you can make by rearranging letters.

Anagram play has been with us for hundreds — if not thousands — of years. Many believe that anagram play first started in ancient Greece. The anagram is the basis for many current games and puzzles.

Scrabble, Boggle, and Jumble? These are three popular games/puzzles based on the humble anagram. 

But did you know that you can also invent and play your own anagram-based games with a set of letter blocks? Playing with alphabet blocks can help you form anagrams more easily than looking at words on a page.

That’s because you can move, sort, and stack the blocks to spell anything you wish. A word on a page is static - but moving blocks around can bring those words to life!

Anagrams also underscore why block play is essential for learning. Moving blocks around to form words can help children — and others -- better visualize and conceptualize word formation.

Try inventing your own anagram-based games and puzzles. For example, why not see how many words you can make out of the 13 letters of BE MY VALENTINE? How many 3 letter words? Four letter words? Five letter words?

Or if you add the heart symbol as a wild card, how many more words could you create? Or what if you used the heart as an emoji? What other phrases could you form?

If BE MY VALENTINE is a question, how could you answer it using the available letters?

• MAYBE
• YEA
• NAY

Get creative! What other anagram-based games can you play with blocks? How many other games and puzzles can you invent?