Sound Effects

The weather outside school walls happened to be warm and springlike, contrasting with the scene set in Robert Frost’s famous poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Arguably, the opposite environment intensified its chilly setting, where an unnamed speaker halts their horse in mid journey “to watch his woods fill up with snow” on “the darkest evening of the year.” Whose woods? The same person who lives in the nearby farmhouse? No—”his house is in the village,” where the speaker also seems to dwell. The horse, anyway, senses that something is amiss, his “harness bells” the only sound aside from an “easy wind.” The speaker thinks the woods are “lovely, dark and deep,” confessing they have “promises to keep,” then ending with a cryptic couplet: “And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep.” We discussed the importance of repeating that simple line, as well as Frost’s twisty rhyme scheme. The poem’s lofty reputation seems well earned!

Its sonic details are few, but vital, so for their own writing, students were asked to focus on sound.

Ms. Kawa 4th Grade

The Dog Jolin C.

Crash, bang, boom

up the stairs he goes

bumping into the table here
and there.
Break a vase and chandelier.

He finally arrives in record
breaking time.

Nom nom nom he goes.

Then back to sleep he goes.

Sound asleep.
Sound asleep.

Untitled David H.

When the bells ring
the door opens.
When the oven dongs
the TV songs.
When the FBI breaches your house
run for your life.

When I Watch YouTube Josephine P.

When I watch YouTube I try to make
the sound loud but quiet. When there
is a sad video, I silently cry,
one of the only times I
cry. Somehow my brother and
sister find me watching it
in my grandma’s bathroom.
I get very mad at them.
I watch for less than an hour,
then I am done.

Sound Malcolm S.

Sound is everything
you might be hearing sound right now
sound is life
we sound
we hear
YAAA

Bing Bingg Liam T.

Bing bingg
the timer wakes you up

Bing bingg you’re late for school
your mom yells.

You wake up; you change, you eat.
You go downstairs and see your mom
doing the dishes
bang

she cracked a plate and
sadly, the plate dies

Untitled Kylie W.

yelling

bang

scream

sounds

Untitled Rylan W.

Once I could hear everything. I
could hear dogs, I could hear cats.
Now look at me not hearing anything.

Now I have to walk miles
and miles to hear and I need
to hear to understand.

Ms. Makris 4th Grade

Sound John B.

Sound is so cool you can make boom,
pow, crash and so many more. You can
learn onomatopoeia like boom, crash,
and so many.

My Sound Ally C.

Oh my sound so loud.
So quiet. The sound is
both. It can be
sad or happy. I love
it, when it is laughingly.
It is sound joyful!
Can you guess what
sound it is? Me! I
can be loud and quiet,
happy or sad. That
sound is joyful!
I can go

Boom

Clap

Smack

and even more, but it’s all for
here.

Untitled Andrew D.

It was quiet but then the
sound broke. Maybe a cow, a duck,
or not. They by far are too loud.

It
was the sound
the sound
was it
it was
a breeze but too hard
a gust but too slow.

All it was was a cat
making a hairball
it was just a cat after
all the search.

Sound Test Chase E.

It was a normal
Friday afternoon.
We had a big AIR
test. We didn’t get
any breaks. We
only got to
eat and go
to the bathroom.
It was very
quiet in the rest of testing.

The Annoying Sound Sway K.

Me and my friend went on a
road trip. Once we were there
I heard something drop on
to metal. I look up, it was
still doing it. When my friends
came to play tag and more
when we went to the room
it was still doing. When
I got up to the 2nd floor found a
broken ice machine still
on. That annoying sound
was just ice.

Untitled Jackson L.

One time I heard a loud bang!
So I went downstairs to see
what it was. It was a scary
looking monster and I said
AHH!

Why? Addie P.

I woke up
hearing a
BOM BOM!!?!
I told myself
it’s OK there’s
probably nothing
happening

again

BOM!
Bang!?

Why is this
happening to
me? What
did I do? Why?
Why? Why? Then
next something very strange
Oink? Oink!
Is that a pig?
Why? Why? Why?
Is it a dream or what? Do I
have a drum in my house?
What did I do?
Why is this happening?
I think my house is broken.

Next day?
Going downstairs.

Oink (sees pig). What happened
down here?

The Sound of Nature Milan P.

I love the sound of the ocean,
banging on my feet, and the sound of my
feet
scrunching in the sand. I
think of me toiling with the
trees. I listen to the leaves falling
down on my head as they put me
to bed.

Untitled Carrie S.

I don’t like when people scream at
and dogs bark
I don’t like ASMR

Mr. O'Brien 4th Grade

Untitled Niko H.

I went in the forest and
I heard haar! And I was like
Freddy Fazbear. Then Angel said eeee
eeeeek bells ringing
DOOOOOOONG then I forgot.
What am I?

Untitled Maximo T.

Sound in a quiet
peaceful room all you
now hear is yourself
and maybe water flowing
in a river stream or
a waterfall and quiet screen
on TV

Sounds Abrielle W.

there can be a sound in a classroom

there can be a sound when you go to
sleep

there is a sound when people are sick

there is sound when people talk

there is sound when people play

there is sound when people walk

there is sound when eat

there is sound everywhere!

Ms. Nelson 4th Grade

Death and Anxiety Zoe B.

Death sounds like everything
everything is clear, then muffled
then it’s nothing.

Anxiety sounds like everything attacking you
everything is muffled as well as blurry.
With anxiety you feel like passing out.
When you feel like that you hear nothing.

With death you feel like nothing.

And you hear nothing.

Untitled Grant B.

Buzzz
My haircut

Beep
The cash register scanner

Cha ching
The ATM

Clap clap
The class

Vroom
A car

Gulp
Drinking water

Untitled Vivian B.

Sound! It’s too loud.
It hurts my ears.
My friends bow down.

I have fallen
due to the
bad noise.

Now everyone is
in a panic. I can’t
even hear my own

voice. Ringing in
my ears. An ambulance
I hear.

I hear the paramedics
but I don’t open
my eyes. They seem

to be glued shut.
Suddenly everything
goes quiet.

I wake up in
a hospital. The
noise is gone.

I feel like
singing. Now
there is no singing.

Untitled Ari R.

“I love to hear the fans roar at United Center.”

The Paycheck

Ch-Ching

Ari the GOAT

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

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