KS2 Onomatopoeia KS2 SPaG Worksheets

These bright, appealing grammar worksheets are a great help for practising and revising the use of onomatopoeia at KS2. There are three worksheets in total, covering the following five sections – ‘understand’, ‘challenge’, ‘test’, ‘explain’ and ‘apply’.

• Understand
  Students identify examples of onomatopoeia, then replace a word in an existing sentence with an onomatopoeic one of their choosing.
• Challenge
  Working from an ‘animals and music’-themed image prompt, students are tasked with writing three short, descriptive sentences, each containing an instance of onomatopoeia.
• Test
  Students distinguish between true and false examples of onomatopoeia, infer meaning from several onomatopoeic words and suggest five words of their own that extend said meaning.
• Explain
  ‘Explain, in your own words, what onomatopoeia is; how many letters of the alphabet can you create an onomatopoeic word for?’
• Apply
  ‘Write a poem about this one-man band [reference to adjacent image prompt]. Include examples of onomatopoeia in your poem.’

What is onomatopoeia?

Onomatopoeia describes when a word sounds like the thing to which it refers. Each onomatopoeic word is like an imitation of the noise it describes. It is one of a number of poetic techniques with which children should be familiar by the end of KS2.

Examples of onomatopoeia

• Bang
• Clang
• Thump
• Roar
• Hiss
• Buzz
• Smash
• Crash
• Click
• Boom
• Cough
• Gargle

National Curriculum English programme of study links

Pupils should continue to add to their knowledge of linguistic terms, including those to describe grammar, so that they can discuss their writing and reading.

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