Onoma...What?

Basically, onomatopoeia is used to describe words that look like the sound they are describing.  For instance:

buzz, ratchet, crackle, hoot, creak, flush, whoosh, zip, boom, bang, meow, slurp, gurgle, moo, kiss, oink, meow, click, rustle, cuckoo, slurp, crunch, ring, clang, hiss, ...

Well, you get the idea.

I introduced this concept yesterday during our poetry time (each week I pick a poem from Nancy Atwell's Naming the World which the class reads and discusses a few minutes each day).  The poem "Night Songs" uses onomatopoeia extensively, so I wanted my students to understand how it works and how to use it in their own writing.  The lesson must have resonated with some of my students, for today, as class started, they began sharing other onomatopoetic words they had thought of the previous evening.  They might not be able to pronounce onomatopoeia (I find it difficult!), but my students now understand the concept.