The following three activities can help your students / you to learn and practice compound nouns (CN).
You can do them as a classroom activity and at home as well.
1. CN Flowers
Help the kids make compound word flowers.
- Have them draw a flower with petals, or print one for them (click on the picture to download it).
- Then have them write a word in the middle of the flower and ask them to write compound words that utilize the word on the petals.
2. CN Artist
- Give students a compound word and have them draw the two “parts” of the compound word.
For example, for a “busdriver” they would draw a bus and a driver.
- Here is a list of the compound nouns for this activity:
teapot
treehouse
doorbell
bookshelf
sunflower
sunglasses
earrings
starfish
toothbrush
handbag
If the kids draw the pictures on separate pieces of paper, you can create a game from the pictures: mix them and kids have to match them to form CN.
3. CN Flashcards
- Prepare flashcards, half with words and half with pictures.
- Have your students lay them out in grid style and flip two cards over at a time.
- The goal is to find a word and a picture to form a compound word.
You can do this activity in pairs, or in teams as a competition.