Compound Word Puzzles

Compound Words were a troubling thing for my third graders last year in Intervention. They never knew which words went together when they were writing in their journals. We had a mini lesson about them and it seemed to help, but I think these puzzles will really reinforce the concept!

There are a total of 166 compound word puzzles all featuring common beginnings.

I included score sheets, and a sample, so students can work on this independently in literacy centers or in small groups during Word Study/Word Work. I use these score sheets as an post-activity assessment tool.

First students will write in the word they believe makes a true compound word.

For example:
sea + weed = seaweed.

Next they will use the word in a context sentence:

Something touched me in the ocean and I was scared, but it was just seaweed!

If I see a student, or a group of students who were unable to use the compound words correctly, or put together words that do not fit, I know they need another lesson review with me. 

I included an Answer Key so students can check their compound words before handing in the sheets. This gives them a chance to see if their sentences make sense. If they put together a word like backpark and they do not see it on the list they will know they have made a mistake and they will be able to fix it.

The Answer Key lists all the words in this set alphabetically, by their beginnings. This allows you to separate the puzzles when you are introducing new compound word families. I like to introduce just a few families at a time, that way the game is not too difficult for beginners!

This set is available in my TpT store!