A compound word is two words stuck together. Teaching it matters because a child
who notices the pattern gains a strategy. Meeting WATERFALL for the
first time is not a decoding problem if you can see WATER and FALL inside it.
The list is chosen so both halves are known
Forty-five compound words, and the selection rule is that a second grader should recognize each half on its own.
SUNSHINE works: sun and shine are both familiar, and the whole means roughly
what the parts suggest. BREAKFAST is left out even though its etymology is
perfect, because a second grader does not know fast as a noun meaning a stretch
without food. The parts are there and the child cannot use them, which is the
worst case: a strategy that fails on the first word they try.
So the bank is words like RAINBOW, BUTTERFLY, BACKPACK, SNOWMAN,
CUPCAKE, NOTEBOOK, BEDROOM, SIDEWALK, AIRPLANE, SEASHELL,
TOOTHBRUSH, PLAYGROUND.
The repeats are deliberate
SUNSHINE and SUNFLOWER are both on the list. So are FIREPLACE, FIREFLY
and FIREWORKS. And SEASHELL with SEASHORE, BOOKSHELF with NOTEBOOK.
The repetition is doing the work. One compound word is a fact. Three compound words sharing a half is a pattern, and the pattern is what transfers to the next unfamiliar word a child meets.
Point it out explicitly. Ask what FIREPLACE, FIREFLY and FIREWORKS have in
common, and whether the fire means the same thing in each one. The answer is
interesting and not obvious.
Split them before you search
The activity that makes this sheet worth more than ten minutes:
Give the word list without the grid and have students draw a line between the two
halves of every word. SUN/SHINE. RAIN/BOW. TOOTH/BRUSH.
They will get most right immediately and stall on a few. UNDERGROUND and
SOMETHING are the ones that stop them, and stalling on a word is how a student
finds out the rule has edges.
Then hand out the puzzle. They search for words they have already taken apart, so the search reinforces the structure, not only the spelling.
You need the bigger grids
Compound words are long. PLAYGROUND, TOOTHBRUSH and BASKETBALL are all
exactly ten letters, and UNDERGROUND is eleven.
A 10x10 does hold a ten-letter word, but only lying straight across a full row, so you get one per sheet and none on a diagonal. Use the 12x12 or 14x14 and they place properly. Those sizes also turn on all eight directions, which suits second and third grade.