Mini Lesson

Figures of Speech- Onomatopoeia

Objective(s):
Knowledge: The students will be able to identify onomatopoeia
Comprehension: The students will be able to explain how to use an onomatopoeia
Application: The students will be able to use onomatopoeia in their own writing

Anticipatory set (2 minutes): We have been learning about various figures of speech
and how to use these in our writing in order to make our stories more interesting. Who
can tell me one type of figure of speech you added to your narrative last week? (Choose
a student to answer. Ask if other students used anything different. Allow others to
answer as needed.) Those are all good ways to make our writing more fun to read.
Today we are going to learn about another tool we can use. It is called an onomatopoeia.
Say that with me: Ono-mato-poeia.

Instructional Input (7 minutes):

1. The teacher will explain to the students that an onomatopoeia is a word that represents
a sound. In other words, it is a word that makes noise.
2. The teacher will explain that, for example, a cow does not actually say the word
“moo.” The teacher will make a cow sound without using the word “moo.” She will then
explain that we can’t write that on paper, so we have to give it a word.
3. The teacher will ask students to give examples of other sound words (crash, bang,
beep, honk, buzz, crunch).
4. The teacher will begin to read a story that has onomatopoeias in it. (Some good
examples include Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault,
and Lois Ehlert, Marsh Music by Marianne Collins Berkes, Bravo, Maurice! by Rebecca
Bonds, or The Louds Move In by Carolyn Crimi.) She will have instructed the students to
raise their hands every time they hear an onomatopoeia.

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