About Hands on Stanzas

Hands on Stanzas, the educational outreach program of the Poetry Center of Chicago places professional, teaching Poets in residence at Chicago Public Schools across the city. Poets teach the reading, discussion, and writing of poetry to 3 classes over the course of 20 classroom visits, typically from October through April. Students improve their reading, writing, and public speaking skills, and participating teachers report improved motivation and academic confidence. You can contact Cassie Sparkman, Director of the Hands on Stanzas program, by phone: 312.629.1665 or by email: csparkman(at)poetrycenter.org for more information.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Onomatopoeia

This week at Belding, students read Edgar Allan Poe's Bells and talked about the many examples of onomatopoeia we use in daily speech. Each class created a list of onomatopoeic words, and filled the classroom blackboard with examples. Students then wrote their own onomatopoeic poems, focusing on the ways in which sound and musicality could be used to heighten the impact of their work.

Some student examples are below:

from Mr. Merrill's class

***

Bees Say

by Devanta

1. A bee that's kind and careful
that says all the time buzz buzz
buzz that have big eyes
as a fudge bar that have buzz
buzz buzz

2. A girl bee that is big as a whale
that says all the time the roof the roof
the roof is on fire so buzz buzz
buzz!!!

3. An old woman that was a bee bee bee
who said all the time that James
Brown is something that said
get on up get on up then after that
she says thank you thank you.

***

by Fardosa

Bang bang bang
is what I hear
drumming sounds
around the house
mailman humming down
the street, children
playing, laughing, growing
peacefully across the street
in my neighborhood. I am really bored but I
am glad to see and hear
these things today.

***

In the Pool

by Justine

When you are in the pool
you hear splash and boom
you hear laughing ha ha ha
then we go under water
and we make bubbles
you hear a pop pop pop.
When we go around in a crowd
we make a whirlpool you
hear it swooshing around water.

***

From Mr. Aivizian's class:

***

by Daniela

When say ring to
house-my aunt
dog-woof
ring-house
meow-cat
whisper-person
chime-mom
Shh-I

***

by Charmaine

The ding-dong show me it is a door bell.
The shhs show me how to be quiet.
The bang show me stop banging on my door bell.
Whisper show me you got to whisper in people's ears.
Woof like a dog barking at people and other cats.

***

by Warren

When someone rings
the door bell to come
to visit I let them in.
I love when the door bell goes
ding dong. It sound beautiful.
The people like to ring the doorbell.
And that's how the doorbell goes
ding dong.

***

from Ms. Navrocki's class:

***

Ching

by Sasha

I listen to the ching on the grandfather
clock...ching! Every hour...ching!
The chinging and ringing from the
pendulum. It is almost annoying but
then it stops and I hear a piano. It
was coming from the attic. I go up and
it stopped and I fell into a coffin. It
was over.

***

My Day in the City

by Loreyn

Hear the water in the sea, splash
splash, splash.

And the air in the sky woosh
woosh woosh

In the sea friendly sharks please
don't make the fish as a dish.

Cars in the city, pretty pretty but if
they crash dump, dump, dump.

Stars in the sky very very light then I wish
for a dish so I can eat tonight.

***

Splish splash bell

by Nathaniel

A well by the sea shore
the crab stole my sea shells

The shells sound like the bell of the
something sea floor

When the crab fell I got
back my shells

Now I can listen to my
sea shell bells.


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