Compound Words Worksheets

About this resource

"sun" and "set" are two small words. Put them together and you get sunset. Compound words are one of the first big ideas children meet in word study, and they are easiest when the child can build, split, match and glue the words with their own hands. This is a full compound-words kit for first and second grade, with word tiles a child can read, primary handwriting lines, and room to work on every writing page.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (36 pages)

• 19 student pages in 8 page types (below), each with a big "My name" line and one short instruction
• 57 compound words, each one exactly two words a child can read, with the split for every word on a word-list page for the teacher; 102 practice items on the sets of six
• 30 different sentences (Fix It and Use It), all invented and short
• 18 cut-and-glue words, six a page, in a block that takes 3 straight cuts
• 1 word list, 3 answer keys generated from the same pair table as the pages
• 1 tracker (17 rows), 1 class progress grid, 1 team note, 1 home page, 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters)
• 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page, and a back page

THE EIGHT PAGE TYPES (dots show the level, never color)

1. Compound Word Helper (1 dot) — three words built from two tiles (sun + set, rain + bow, cup + cake) and one split.

2. Build It (1 dot, 3 pages) — two word tiles, a plus sign, and the new word in light gray on primary lines for the child to trace.

3. Match the Halves (1 dot, 3 pages) — six first words on the left, six second words on the right; the child draws a line to join a pair.

4. Split It (2 dots, 3 pages) — a compound word; the child writes the two small words in two boxes on primary lines.

5. Glue It (2 dots, 3 pages) — cut six second words from a 3 by 2 block (three straight cuts) and glue each one beside its first word.

6. Fix It (2 dots, 2 pages) — a sentence with the two parts of a compound word printed apart and underlined; the child writes the one word.

7. Use It (3 dots, 3 pages) — a word box and six sentences with an empty box; the child writes the word that fits.

8. My Words (3 dots, 1 page) — snowball, jellyfish, sunset: write a sentence with each word and draw a picture.

Words come in sets of six (A, B, C). No two pages have the same six words, and on every Match and Glue page no two words share a half.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture, large rounded letters, and writing boxes on primary lines at least 0.66 inch tall. The first word is always teal and the second word is always coral, so a child can see which half is which. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. Cutting is limited to Glue It and the binder tabs; Glue It has six pieces a page, touching edge to edge, each wider than 1.5 inches and taller than 1.2.

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, the tracker, the class grid, the team note, the home page and the word-list note box are type-in fields in any PDF reader. The letters a student writes in the boxes are pencil work. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

First and second grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher working with an older student who still needs compound words. The home page sends the same job to a family; the team note hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not