Sound Poems

First class at JFK Elementary in Winooski. We played with noisy words (onomatopoeia) like squish, meow, and crumple. "What does this sound like?" I asked, stomping my feet on the floor. Some thought it sounded like thunder, others like a stampede. When asked what word it sounded like, they had lots of ideas: boom, doom, thump, thunk, dunk-a-dunk. I repeated these questions after crinkling a plastic bag and tapping a ruler, then introduced other ways to play with sound, like rhyme and alliteration.

I told them to write the noisiest poem that they could. They were free to wander the classroom with pen and paper, making noises with the materials around them. Jacob produced the class's favorite sound by smacking a hanging laminated pumpkin with his palm, a cartoonish noise he described as "bibble-bibble-bibble." After everyone was finished writing and sharing, we played acrostic games and "poetry telephone."

Here are two poems from class:

Prehistoric puppies
ripped my pants!
Eee! Eee! Eee!
I itch my iguana.
Opa-hopa octopus.
Needle cheese!
-Collaboration

The boom-box dances to
the boom-boom. My room
has some wind that goes
whir-whir. When I eat
my snack I go chew-chew.
When a chair falls
it goes BOOM!
-Rainbow