7 Compound Word Activities for Early Learners
Compound words are a great way to help children learn important language skills and grow their vocabulary. Discover fun activities to help introduce closed compound words to your little ones.
Let’s dive into the fascinating world of compound words – a playful and imaginative way to explore language with our young learners. Learning compound words is not only fun, but it’s also great for building strong literacy skills. These word combinations help children understand how words work together, expand their vocabulary, and enhance their reading and writing abilities.
In this post, we’ll share activities to help you introduce closed compound words in a way that’s sure to captivate curious young minds and nurture their love for language. Closed compound words, where two words blend into one, are like little linguistic puzzles waiting to be solved. We’ve created a great list of excellent closed compound words for kids, that can be found towards the end of this post, or click the link to go to them now. They’re here for your convenience to be used at any time for any of these compound word activities.
Closed compound words are just one type of compound word. If are looking for more information on compound words, the different types, and how they aid in writing and reading, be sure to check out our dedicated post!
Alright, grab your little language explorers, and let’s go on this delightful journey of word discovery.
A Quick Word About Closed Compound Word Activities
Activities that teach closed compound words will focus on three aspects: identifying, constructing, and deconstructing compound words. All the activities you will find below engage learners to focus on one or more of these areas.
Identifying Compounds
In the ‘identifying’ phase, we encourage young learners to spot compound words in everyday reading materials and objects, recognizing how two smaller words can form a single, meaningful word. An example activity is reading a book and identifying compound words in the story.
Constructing Compounds
For the ‘constructing’ part, children can engage with hands-on activities or visuals to help them build compound words from smaller words, encouraging creativity and strengthening their understanding of how words combine. An example activity is doing word build activities, such as a game where they need to come up with a compound word to continue in the game or move their pond closer to the finish line.
Deconstructing Compounds
Lastly, ‘deconstructing’ activities challenge kids to break compound words into their constituent parts, unveiling the smaller words within, thereby enhancing their decoding and comprehension skills. An example activity, such as the reverse compound word activity down below (the seventh activity on this list), gets children to pick from ten to fourteen picture cards and combine two cards to create the correct compound word.
To Kick Things Off, Here’s a Bonus Activity in this Lineup of Compound Word Fun!
Bonus Activity – Reading Books Together
Reading aloud to children is by far the best preliteracy activity you can do with children.
Read-alouds are also the best opportunity to occasionally insert literacy-building strategies, taking these reading experiences a little deeper.
Reading books with your child is great for teaching reading comprehension strategies, drawing attention to rhyming words, doing syllable practice, teaching vocabulary, and helping children recognize compound words too!
Below is a list of books calling attention to compound words and helping build your little one’s vocabulary and understanding of what compound words are.
List of 10 Children’s Picture Books to Use for Teaching Compound Words
- If You Were a Compound Word by Trisha Speed Shaskan
- Thumbtacks, Earwax, Lipstick, Dipstick: What Is a Compound Word? By Brian P. Cleary
- Once there was a Bull…Frog by Rick Walton
- The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
- Thomas’ Snowsuit by Robert Munsch
- Angela’s Airplane by Robert Munsch
- Stephanie’s Ponytail by Robert Munsch
- Flying Butter by Patricia Trattles
- I Saw an Ant on the Railroad Track by Joshua Prince
- It’s a Firefly Night by Dianne Ochiltree
Happy reading!
7 Activities to Teach Compound Words
The best place to start is with familiar closed compound words, especially for young children. Such as the words ‘butterfly’, ‘milkshake’, ‘playground’, and ‘bathroom’. Here are seven engaging compound word activities that make learning language a playful adventure for young children and help them discover the wonder of compound words.
1. Create an Alphabet Compound Word Booklet
‘Catching’ a compound word can be fun!
Children can create their very own collection of compound words and keep them in a booklet.
Throughout the day, especially during language-based activities like reading, singing-songs, performing skits, wordplay, scavenger hunts, and story extension activities, draw your child or student’s attention to familiar compound words that come up and make a visual list to keep track of them all.
At the end of the week, children can add these compound words (or a selection of them) to an alphabet compound word booklet, having fun by adding pictures, stickers, or drawings of these compound words. This is a great letter-awareness activity, helping children identify beginning letter sounds. It also helps them become more familiar with the order of the alphabet. You may even want to include a table of contents at the beginning and teach your pupil how to use this to find the right page quickly.
In time, your child or student may start to identify compound words on their own and will feel immensely proud to have ‘caught’ a compound word to add to the list during these activities.
2. Compound Word Sorting
For this activity,
children simply need to sort out which pictures or flashcards are compound words and which are not, creating two piles.
This activity is best done using some form of manipulatives children can engage with. They can use picture cutouts, picture magnets, story stones, or flashcards. You can even get more creative and have pictures on bean bags or balls that need to be tossed into either the compound word bin or another bin if it is not a compound word.
You might also have a cheat sheet they can use to check their work to see if they got them all.
3. Compound Word Riddles
Kids are sure to love this one!
In this activity, children have to guess the correct compound word being described.
Riddles are a great way to tickle the brain and create a fun challenge.
For preschool and kindergarten-aged children, it can be helpful to do these riddles in small batches of about 5 to 7 and to lay out a few picture options of compound words to help trigger the right word as they listen to the riddle. Once you feel your child has this level mastered, you can use the same compound riddles without using any picture prompts.
Compound riddles are also quite fun to make up! You can use the compound list above this section for inspiration for making up compound word riddles of your own. Or even better, get an older sibling to help make up some compound riddles! For schools, higher-grade elementary students can be challenged to create compound word riddles their younger schoolmates would be able to figure out.
You might even take your best riddle makers and have them create a compound word riddle scavenger hunt for all of the classes in the school or for a special activity day.
4. Compound Word Building
This activity is a prime way to see how one word is used in combination with other words to create many new words, such as how the word ‘ fire’ is found in the compound words firefighter, fireworks, firewood, fireflies, and fireplace.
Compound word building can also take the shape of a board game, the one who makes it to the other side the quickest wins. Boardgames are also great for practicing turn-taking, and showing good sportsmanship (which happens to be a 3-word compound word!).
Simply take one frequent word used in combination with many compound words. Then have your child or student brainstorm as many words as they can containing the word you picked. The list of closed compound words near the bottom of this post can provide help with picking high-frequency words. To get you started, however, some common ones are snow, ball, fish, fire, book, eye, water, rain, bug, and sea.
5. Whole Word Deletion and Substitution
Keep kids on their toes… and bring in some silliness.
In this activity, the kids get to test YOU!
Will they catch your errors? When you say “stinkbug” instead of “ladybug” will they catch your mistake?
This activity is perfect for practicing listening skills, where children get to play teacher and have the opportunity to call out your mistakes (the part of the compound word you didn’t say or the incorrect word you substituted).
How to Play:
It’s a fun way to shake things up and create some laughs!
6. Compound Word Puzzles, Games, Activity Books, and Printables
These activities can be used for some independent work or partner work. They’re also great to take on car rides or into a restaurant to help keep your little one entertained and learning!
Activities like these help provide exposure and the necessary repetition of compound words. They also allow children to work with compound words in a variety of ways. This helps build connections with the words, making them easier to recall in the future.
7. Deciphering Reverse Compound Words
In this activity, children have to find the correct words that make up the compound word.
This deconstructing compound word exercise helps children break a compound word apart, into its individual parts.
How to Play:
Did you know that in Australia, cotton candy is often called fairy floss?
This is an example of an open compound word, and in my opinion, a better word combination! Encourage your child to play around and get creative!
You can get more information about different types of compound words by clicking the link.
List of Closed Compound Words Perfect for Compound Word Activities for Kids
This list is here to help brainstorm compound words for activities you want to do to help build their skills and continue to expose them to new words as their language abilities continue to mature.
A-C
- afternoon
- airplane
- airport
- angelfish
- anteater
- applesauce
- armchair
- armpit
- background
- backpack
- bagpipes
- ballroom
- barefoot
- barnyard
- baseball
- basketball
- bathroom
- brainstorm
- bathtub
- beachball
- bedroom
- beehive
- birthday
- blueberry
- bluebird
- bookcase
- bookmark
- bookshelf
- bookstore
- bulldozer
- butterfly
- campfire
- cardboard
- cartwheel
- catfish
- chestnut
- chickpea
- chopstick
- citizenship
- classmate
- classroom
- clipboard
- clockwise
- cobweb
- copycat
- cowboy
- crawfish
- crossbones
- crosswalk
- crossword
- cupcake
D-F
- daredevil
- daydream
- daylight
- daytime
- dishwasher
- doghouse
- doorbell
- doormat
- doughnut
- dragonfly
- driveway
- drumbeat
- dustpan
- earache
- eardrum
- earring
- earwax
- earthquake
- earthworm
- eggnog
- eggplant
- eyeball
- eyebrow
- eyeglasses
- eyelash
- eyelid
- fiddlesticks
- fingernail
- fingerprint
- firecracker
- firefighter
- firefly
- fireman
- fireplace
- firewood
- fireworks
- fishbowl
- fishcake
- fisherman
- fishhook
- flagpole
- flashlight
- flowerpot
- football
- footprint
- footprints
- footstep
- forecast
- forehead
- friendship
- frostbite
G-I
- gemstone
- gingerbread
- goalpost
- goldfish
- goodbye
- gooseberry
- grandchild
- granddaughter
- grandfather
- grandmother
- grandson
- grapefruit
- grasshopper
- grassland
- greenhouse
- Greenland
- groundhog
- hairbrush
- haircut
- halfway
- hamburger
- handcuff
- handlebars
- handshake
- handsome
- hayride
- haystack
- hazelnut
- heartbeat
- hedgehog
- herself
- highway
- hillside
- himself
- homemade
- homework
- honeybee
- honeycomb
- honeydew
- hopscotch
- horseshoe
- hotdog
- housecoat
- houseflies
- huckleberry
- hummingbird
- humpback
- iceberg
- icebox
- Iceland
- inchworm
J-M
- jackrabbit
- jaybird
- jaywalk
- jellybean
- jigsaw
- keyboard
- keyhole
- kickball
- kickboxing
- kidnap
- kingfisher
- knapsack
- kneecap
- knockout
- ladybug
- landslide
- laptop
- lifeguard
- lightbulb
- lightheaded
- lighthearted
- lighthouse
- likewise
- lipstick
- lovebird
- lovesick
- lukewarm
- lumberjack
- lunchroom
- mailbox
- mailman
- mainland
- mankind
- masterpiece
- mealtime
- meanwhile
- meatball
- meatloaf
- midnight
- milkman
- milkshake
- milkweed
- mockingbird
- monkshood
- moonbeam
- moonlight
- moonstone
- moonwalk
- motorboat
- motorcycle
- muskrat
N-R
- nearsighted
- newborn
- newsletter
- newspaper
- nightlight
- nightmare
- nighttime
- nitwit
- nobody
- noontime
- notebook
- nowhere
- nutcracker
- nutmeg
- nutshell
- oatmeal
- oneself
- onward
- otherwise
- outcome
- outbreak
- outburst
- outdated
- outdoors
- outfit
- outgoing
- outhouse
- outline
- outside
- outstanding
- ourselves
- overall
- overboard
- overcoat
- overcook
- overfill
- overflow
- overgrown
- overnight
- overpass
- overseas
- pancakes
- paperback
- passport
- password
- pathway
- peanut
- peppercorn
- peppermint
- piggybank
- pigpen
- pigtail
- pillowcase
- pineapple
- pinecone
- pinhole
- pinwheel
- pitchfork
- playground
- playpen
- pocketknife
- policeman
- popcorn
- postcard
- potluck
- potpie
- quarterback
- quicksand
S
- racecar
- racehorse
- railroad
- rainboots
- rainbow
- rainfall
- rainstorm
- rattlesnake
- reindeer
- riverbed
- riverside
- rocketship
- rowboat
- sailboat
- saltwater
- sandbox
- sandpaper
- sandstorm
- sawdust
- scarecrow
- schoolwork
- screwdriver
- seacoast
- seafood
- seagull
- seahorse
- seaplane
- seashore
- seasick
- seatbelt
- seaweed
- shoelace
- sidewalk
- silkworm
- skateboard
- skyscraper
- snowball
- snowboard
- snowflake
- snowman
- snowshoe
- somebody
- someone
- something
- sometime
- songbird
- spaceship
- sportsmanship
- springtime
- stardust
- starfish
- stingray
- storyteller
- strawberry
- suitcase
- summertime
- sunburn
- sunflower
- sunglasses
- sunlight
- sunshine
- superhero
- superman
- superstar
- surfboard
- sweetheart
- swimsuit
- swordfish
T-Z
- tablecloth
- tablespoon
- teacup
- teammate
- teardrop
- teaspoon
- textbook
- thanksgiving
- themselves
- throughout
- thumbtack
- thundercloud
- thunderstorm
- tinfoil
- tiptoe
- toadstool
- toenail
- toolbox
- toothbrush
- toothpaste
- toothpick
- topsoil
- treadmill
- trustworthy
- tugboat
- undercook
- undercover
- underground
- undersea
- undershirt
- understand
- underwater
- underwear
- upstairs
- username
- viewpoint
- vineyard
- volleyball
- watchdog
- waterbed
- watermelon
- waterproof
- waterspout
- website
- weekend
- weightlifter
- wetsuit
- wheelbarrow
- wheelchair
- whirlpool
- wholehearted
- wildfire
- wildlife
- windmill
- windshield
- windstorm
- woodchuck
- workbook
- workout
- workroom
- worldwide
- worthwhile
- yearbook
- yourself
- zigzag
- zookeeper
Tiny Steps, Big Reads: Everyday Literacy Hacks
Discover the magic in the mundane, with literacy hacks that fit right into your life – because big reads start with the smallest steps.
Try this 30-Day Compound Word Challenge!
This challenge takes less than 5 minutes each day and by the end, you will have introduced 30 compound words to your child.
Simply follow these five simple steps:
- Every morning pick a new closed compound word and introduce it to your little one during a simple daily morning routine, such as getting dressed, combing hair, or having breakfast. You can use the list of closed compound words for kids provided above this section.
- Discuss how the word is made up of two words put together to create a whole new word.
(For example: tooth + brush = toothbrush). - Next, use your compound word in an example sentence. You might say, “I use a toothbrush to make my teeth sparkle like stars.”
- Then, ask your little one to create a sentence of their own. “Can you make a sentence using the word toothbrush?”. You might give some ways to help him/her come up with a sentence, such as asking what a toothbrush is used for or what colour their toothbrush is. Then help your child use the information to form a complete sentence with the compound word.
- To bring in some laughs and silliness, while also helping your child build their compound word knowledge and understanding, try creating another sentence or using the same sentence but switching out one of the words in the compound words to make a funny word (made up compound word). For example, “I use a toothmonkey to make my teeth sparkle like stars.” This can spark creativity and create some laughs. It’s an intentional moment of connection, which also will foster your child’s joint attention skills.
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Hi, I’m Julie, the passionate creator of Ox & Owl Literacy. I enjoy empowering families and educators with wonderful resources to inspire fun, imaginative, and joyful learning opportunities for young kiddos. You’ll find lots of recommended books, reading resources, and creative learning activities on this site aiming to help children fall in love with language, books, reading, and the transformational power of stories.
