Learning about compound words will help to build your child’s phonological awareness. It sounds complicated, but don’t panic! Here’s a fun activity that uses oral as well as visual clues to help your child succeed.
- pictures of compound words (e.g., starfish, cupcake, football, bookworm, butterfly, pancake)
- single pictures of the two words that make up the compound word (e.g., star and fish for starfish, cup and cake for cupcake, foot and ball for football, book and worm for bookworm, butter and fly for butterfly, pan and cake for pancake)
- copy paper in various colors
- scissors
GETTING READY
Step 1: Using magazines or clip art from your computer, print pictures of compound words such as those listed above. Cut the pictures out so they are all similar in size.
Step 2: Using magazines or clip art from your computer, print pictures of the two words making up the compound words, such as those listed above. Cut the pictures out so they are all similar in size.
LET'S PLAY!
Step 3: Choose two pictures that make up a compound word (e.g., star and fish) and place them in front of your child.
Step 4: Next, place two to three pictures of compound words (e.g., starfish, pancake, butterfly) several inches above the separate pictures.
Step 5: Say the name of each separate picture, pausing for two or three seconds between the words.
You might say: “Listen: star… fish. What’s the word?”
See if your child chooses the starfish from the picture set of compound words you have placed in front of him. If he answers correctly, that’s great! If he does not answer correctly within several seconds, provide the answer. You might touch the picture of the starfish while saying, “When I say star . . . fish together, I get starfish! Touch the starfish.”
Step 6: Try another compound word. Continue playing until your child loses interest.
Reduce the number of compound words choices to just one or two.
Another way to make it easier is to print matching sets of pictures on the same color copy paper. You might print star, fish and starfish on green paper; cup, cake and cupcake on blue paper, etc. This will give your child a visual clue that those pictures belong together. (By the way, this is not cheating! It is giving your child support so that he can feel successful!)
Continue the activity as explained above.
Increase the number of compound word choices to four or five.
Another way to add challenge is to use more difficult compound words that your child may not recognize as easily. Consider words such as: bullfrog, armchair, fingernail, fishhook, fireman, snowball or raincoat.
Continue the activity as explained above.
