Compound Words Teaching Resources
If you’re digging into compound words with your primary students, dig into printables, worksheets and more to bring the study of these fun words to life! This teaching resource collection was created by teachers to save your lesson planning time so you can spend more time doing what you love — actually teaching!
Haven’t taught this part of the English curriculum before or in a few years? Our teacher team has put together a quick refresher to get you started! Feel free to skip ahead to the resources if you have all this covered, and you’re just looking to save time on your lesson plans!
What Is a Compound Word?
A compound word merges two or more root words into a new and different word. There are three kinds of compound words:
- Open compound words — These have a space between the words, such as school bus or living room.
- Closed compound words — These have no spaces between them, such as classroom or homework.
- Hyphenated compound words — These have — you guessed it — hyphens between the words, such as dry-erase or forty-four.
Compound Words for Kids
Compound words are a pretty simple concept to teach, but it’s all too common for teachers to skip over the types of compound words. Take it from our English teachers: Break down each type for your students!
Open, closed, and hyphenated compound words all have different features, and we’ve put together a collection to help you teach them all!
Take a walk through our compound word collection, and you’ll find a host of resources for teaching open and closed compound words, along with other types.
Compound Words for Year 2 and Up
Our collection is home to hundreds of compound word worksheets, open and closed compound word PDF files, instructional slides for compound words, and more. Here are a few of our favorites!
- Compound words anchor chart
- Compound words list
- Combining Words Cut and Paste Activity
- Compound Words Game
- and more!
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Compound Words - Worksheet Pack
Practise using compound words in sentences with. a pair of printable compound word worksheets for older students.
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Compound Words With Pictures - Word Wall
Combine words to make compound words and boost vocabulary skills with a printable combining words word wall.s.
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Compound Words Matching Game
Combine words to make compound words with a fun, printable Compound word game.
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Connecting Compound Words Worksheet
A worksheet to consolidate students' understanding of compound words.
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Read and Write Compound Words Worksheet
Explore compound words with these differentiated worksheets for early learners.
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Building Compound Words - Cut and Paste Worksheet
Cut, paste, and write to form open and closed compound words with a word-building worksheet.
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Compound Words Poster Pack
Show your students examples of compound words with a pair of printable Compound Word Anchor Charts.
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Match and Write Compound Words - Worksheet
Match and write to form compound words with a compound word worksheet.
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Growing Compound Words Interactive Activity
Build compound words with an interactive compound word game.