Compound Words

A few instructional supports I use are anchor charts, journals and checklists (i.e. suffixes) for the rules.  I also use routines such as the word building activities for skills groups and workstations. These activities can help students learn how to decode and encode. These activities can also help students learn vocabulary words, and how the word meaning changes with the different suffixes and affixes.

  In the past it always seemed that teaching compound words, prefixes, and suffixes all  within a week or two. According to the Instructional guidelines for teaching suffix rules  - only one rule at a time should be introduced providing explicit and systematic instruction side by side wit GRR. It is also recommended to practice suffix rules for at least a week or more before introducing a new rule. After reading that information it has come to my attention that we are teaching suffixes, prefixes, and compound words way to fast – we should be slowing down the pace. 

  I find that compound words are much easier to teach and faster to grasp for students. Compound words are also introduced in Pre-K and Kindergarten. Many resources exist and are / will be used within the classroom such as the “Banana Split” Compound word game with reproducible cards. While teaching compound words I will use visual representations of each base word and then a visual representation of the new word. This way I will show that two words are creating one new word. 

 

Compound Words   - compound word is one word made from two words.

2nd grade spelling list

1.cannot

2. pancake

3. maybe

4. baseball

5. butterfly

6. playground

7. someone

8. myself

9. classroom

10. sunshine

11. outside

12. upon

13. nothing

High frequency “red” words are spelled in unexpected ways.

14. down

15. become

Challenge: Write one sentence using as many compound words as possible.

Links:
Compound Word Worksheets

Wish List