Tip #16: Add Sound Effects [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series.

Tip #16: Add sound effects.

Have kids make sound effects appropriate to the poem. Kids love being sound effects experts, and it give pre-readers, especially, a great way to be part of a poem reading when they don’t actually know the poem yet. Today, I’m visiting three schools/libraries, and kids will be barking, monkey noising, and being roaring/blowing tornadoes. Here’s a poem that kids have loved adding sounds to. Make sure to preview the sound effects ahead of time and then have them do the sound as you leave a space after the word/phrase. Here’s one poem I often have students do sound effects with.

Here I am reading it aloud. Notice that I kind of emphasize the sound effect words and then leave time for the kids to do the sounds.