SOUND SENSATIONS

Georgia Standards

South Carolina Standards

Key Vocabulary

Materials

• Onomatopoeia review song 
• The Listening Walk, by Paul Showers
• Three note cards per group
• Pencils

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

• Listen to the onomatopoeia song to review with students.
• Create sounds with a few classroom items. Ask students what sounds these could represent in nature or otherwise? (Ex. shaking pom poms in a cup could be wind, drumming on a desk could be thunder).

Work Session

• Students will listen to a story that has lots of rich examples of onomatopoeia, The Listening Walk, by Paul Showers. 
• Students will discuss some of the sounds they saw written out in the story; as students name them, write them down on an onomatopoeia anchor chart. 
• Students will then create a brief soundscape of the story. 
• Read the story again (either in full, or just parts of the story). 
• Tell students that when a sound comes, the students will make the sound aloud.  For example, the text reads, “I hear my father’s shoes on the sidewalk.  My father walks slowly and his shoes go dop dup dop dup”.  As the written word is read aloud, students will tap on the floor with their feet.
• Split students into small groups or partners. Tell the students they will be creating their own listening walks. 
• Students will need a main character and at least three things that the character will hear as he/she walks along a path. One student will be the main character, and the other student(s) in the group will make the sounds as the character comes across them in the story.
• Ask, “What are some things the main character could come across that would make noise?”. 
• Hand out three index cards to each group. The students will write the onomatopoeia word of the sounds they will be hearing in their scene.  
• For example, the main character might say, “I was walking along and a bee came buzzing by my ear.” The students will write “buzz” on the card and say buzz as they hold it up during their performance. 
• The character might say, “Then, a car zoomed by me very fast”. The students will write “vroom” on the card, and say vroom as they hold it up during their performance.
• Allow time for students to practice acting out the scenes with their group.
• Circulate the room to assist students as needed. 
• Tell students that they will be performing their soundscapes for the class. Review audience and performer expectations.
• Students will act out scenes for the class.

Closing Reflection

• Students will tape up their index cards to the onomatopoeia anchor chart.  
• Review additions that were made to the chart.
• Discuss how using onomatopoeia engaged and impacted the audience.

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess student learning by observing students’ participation in the soundscape exercises, onomatopoeia review, and contributions to small group soundscape creation.

Summative

CHECKLIST:

• Students can create a soundscape and produce examples of onomatopoeia using their voices and/or bodies.
• Students can identify and create examples of onomatopoeia.

DIFFERENTIATION 

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Chelsea Moore

Revised and copyright:  May 2024 @ ArtsNOW