"In Search of the Heroes": Mark Twain's Tragedy in the Graveyard

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that imitate sounds. These include words like hiss, murmur, clash or crunch. Onomatopoeia is often used in poetry to create images from sounds. Consider these lines from Tennyson:

The moan of Doves in immemorial elms and murmuring of innumerable bees.

It can be great fun teaching about onomatopoeia.

Sound images--Have the students create onomatopoeia by writing a sentence about each of the following situations. The sentence should have words with sounds that imitate the action.

The sawing of a board.
(For example, "The saw buzzed, burred, whizzed and whirred as the wood was split and sliced in two.")
The sounds made by the person who is sawing the board.
The smell of the resin in the wood as the board is being cut.
The feel of the hot sun on the sawyer's back.
Sounds of students in the school hallway.
Sounds of students in a play yard or in a game.
Sentences from Words--Write a sentence or a phrase using onomatopoeia with each of the following words (one sentence for each word).

shout
broken
bunch
snap
moon
crunch
gallop
giggle
hiss
sizzle
murmur
bubble
For example, the following sentence is built around the word "sizzle": "The steaks sizzle sweetly over hot hissing coals."
Nonsense words--Have the students create nonsense words that imitate sounds. For example, the sound of a lump of clay thrown against a wall could be flump or wholp. The nonsense word can be a real word with the spelling slightly changed to create a new sound. Here are some sound creation situations:

The sucking sound of a man walking step-by-step through deep mud, with the mud pulling at his rubber boots.
(For example--schlumpk, whuclk, wkhuulp.)
A person clearing his or her throat.
The swishing sound of corduroy pants on a person walking down a hallway.
The grating sound of chalk squealing on a chalkboard.
The sound made by a buzzing (or ringing) alarm clock at 5:00 in the morning.
The sound of a dentist drill working on your mouth.
The taste of the tooth debris in your mouth after the dentist's drilling is done.
The smell of burning toast.
The sound of someone chomping on gum with an open mouth.
The sound of someone biting their fingernails,
The sound of a car being started.
Curves and angles--Which of the following nonsense words describes a curved object and which an angular object? Ask the students to explain why.

taketa
naluma
arumala
flakatak