Compound Words Practice
Recognize and produce compound words from component parts: sunflower, doorbell.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Build them and then break them. Give the two parts and ask for the compound, then give the compound and ask for the parts — the second direction is harder and is what tells you the child is analysing rather than recognising. Butterfly is the useful exception in this set: it is a compound whose meaning is not the sum of its parts, and asking whether a butterfly is a kind of fly made of butter is a good and funny question.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- HintStress the part of the sentence that changes, or point to the word ending.Log as cued
- Sentence starterSay the first half of the sentence and let the student finish it.Log as cued
- ModelSay the correct form in the whole sentence; the student repeats it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give a sentence starter every time, and do fewer cards.
Ask for a new sentence of the student's own with the same form, with no card to lean on.
Matching IEP goal
Given sentence cards, Student will produce the target grammatical form in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Fourteen compound words shown as their parts: sun and flower make sunflower; door and bell make doorbell; foot and ball make football; tooth and brush make toothbrush; butter and fly make butterfly; play and ground make playground. Compounds are the first morphology most children meet, and they are unusually satisfying because both halves are words the child already has.
What to listen for
Watch for meaning being derived from the parts. A child who says a starfish is a fish shaped like a star has done exactly the right analysis; one who says a cupcake is a cup is over-applying it. Notice whether the child can generate a new compound — asking for another word starting with snow tests whether the pattern is available or only the fourteen examples are.
Carrying it home
Compounds are all over a house: doorbell, toothbrush, popcorn, backpack, notebook. Pointing out the two words inside one takes a second and is the entire activity.
What's in this activity
- sun + flower = sunflower
- door + bell = doorbell
- foot + ball = football
- rain + bow = rainbow
- tooth + brush = toothbrush
- butter + fly = butterfly
- snow + man = snowman
- back + pack = backpack
- cup + cake = cupcake
- fire + truck = firetruck
- pop + corn = popcorn
- play + ground = playground
- star + fish = starfish
- note + book = notebook
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth, and it is a natural entry point into morphology before prefixes and suffixes.
- Do I need to sign up?
- No, all fourteen cards play free with no account.
- Why start morphology with compounds?
- Because both parts are already known words. A child can hear sun and flower inside sunflower without being taught anything new, which makes the idea of word parts concrete before it gets abstract.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.