Looking for a fun way to teach kids about compound words?! These picture-only compound word puzzles are a memorable way to show how two words can be combined to make a brand new word. They’re great to use as a whole class lesson, guided reading activity, literacy center or homeschool game.

Snag your set below and then request an invite to my 4 week course, The Reading Roadmap, so you can get the proven, ready-to-deploy system for helping EVERY student thrive!

What Are Compound Words?

At this stage, kids already know that words can be broken down into sounds (like c-a-t), but compound words teach them that some words can be broken down into parts that have different meanings. This is important as more complex words are introduced into their reading and writing.

Learning about compound words will help kids understand:

  • Prefixes: such as de- (which means “opposite”). For example, demystify and debark.
  • Suffixes: such as –able (which means ‘”can be done”). For example, comfortable, adorable.
  • Word roots: many of our words originated in Greek or Latin. For example, audi- means ‘”hear” in Latin, and we have audience and audible in English.

Learn how words can be put together to create new ones with these fun compound word puzzles!

There are three types of compound words:

  1. Closed (for example, fingerprint)
  2. Hyphenated (son-in-law)
  3. Open (post office)

These puzzles are all closed form compound words. Kids love them because they can take two simple words they know how to write and create a much longer, much more impressive looking word by putting them together!

These compound word puzzles are a really fun way to start thinking about how some words are structured!

Getting Ready

I downloaded the printable (below) and printed it onto cardstock. Then, I cut out the individual pieces and popped them into a small Ziploc bag to keep them all together.

(You can also laminate the pieces for extra durability if you want.)

Compound Word Puzzles

At first, the puzzle pieces were put out randomly and the children naturally picked them up and named the objects they saw. Once they realized they were puzzle pieces, however, they began trying to put them together.

Between the clues presented by the pictures themselves and the shapes of each puzzle, they soon worked out that they needed to combine smaller words together to create the larger words.

For some of the children it was a real ‘aha’ moment when they suddenly understood how compound words worked. Of course, then they decided to ignore the puzzle shapes and try to make silly words from the pieces they had. “Earfly” was a bit of a favorite!

Free compound word puzzles!

Extending The Activity

While some of the kids enjoyed these puzzles just as they were, others wanted to write, so they jotted down the words as they went. They also continued the math flavor of the cards by writing them as equations: butter + fly = butterfly!

Get Your Free Printable

Ready to play?! Click the blue button below to download your 16 free compound word puzzles and then hop over and request an invite to my 4 week course, The Reading Roadmap, so you can get the proven, ready-to-deploy system for helping EVERY student thrive!

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23 Comments

  1. Hello I love these compound words but the ones that are displayed are not the same. Any way i can get the same ones that are being shown,

    1. Hi LaToria!

      Thank you for letting us know the words didn’t match! We’ve fixed it up! If you download the file again, you will be able to get the puzzles. Let me know if you have any issues!

      Warmly,
      Sarah // Playdough to Plato Team

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