Sixth Visit- Poetry: "NOISE DAY"

Today the students created a short dance based off a poem by the one and only Shel Silverstein.

NOISE DAY

Let’s have one day for girls and boyses

When you can make the grandest noises.

Screech, scream, holler, and yell—

Buzz a buzzer, clang a bell,

Sneeze—hiccup—whistle—shout,

Laugh until your lungs wear out,

Toot a whistle, kick, a can,

Bang a spoon against a pan,

Sing, yodel, bellow, hum,

Blow a horn, beat a drum,

Rattle a window, slam a door,

Scrape a rake across the floor,

Use a drill, drive a nail,

Turn the hose on the garbage pail,

Shout Yahoo—Hurrah—Hooray,

Turn up the music all the way,

Try and bounce your bowling ball,

Ride a skateboard up the wall,

Chomp your food with a smack and a slurp,

Chew—chomp—hiccup—burp.

One day a year do all of these,

The rest of the days—be quiet please.

~Shel Silverstein

There were a couple objectives with choosing this specific poem. The students were working on creating their own poems in class, and if I had another day with poetry I would have them create movement based off their own individual poem. But for today, I wanted to encourage the third graders to keep their personalities. Their high energy. Their willingness to be loud and crazy; but our society has social standards, and being loud and crazy has its time and place. We created a dance together as a class. We read through the poem and found action words and their choose their own movement with that specific word. They found it challenging to be loud with their bodies and not their mouths, but as they explored more and more they found more interesting ways of moving. They were excited to be involved in the creative process but still have their own role as an individual.