Decodable Compound Word Puzzles – FREE Printables!
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Get 18 FREE printable Decodable Compound Word Puzzles! Students read and match the words to create a compound word and complete the rainbow! Students will better understand compound words and build confidence in reading multisyllabic words.
Why We Love It
These printable puzzles help introduce young students to the concept of compound words, an important phonological awareness skill. It also empowers them to read longer, two-syllable words with confidence!
That means it helps to improve vocabulary, reading, and spelling skills in an engaging, multimodal way.
All of the compound words are VCCV/Rabbit words, made of two closed syllable words with short vowel sounds only, so they are easily decodable for young learners.
Explicitly Teaching Compound Words
Introduce the Concept
- Explain: “Today, we are learning about compound words. A compound word is a single word made by joining two smaller words together. Each smaller word has its own meaning, but when combined, they create a new meaning.”
- Give a simple example: “For example, playground comes from the words play and ground.”
Demonstrate with a Visual Example
- Write the word rainbow on the board.
- Underneath, draw a simple picture of rain (falling raindrops) on one side of the board.
- Beside it, draw a picture of a bow (like a hair bow).
- Add a plus sign (+) between the two pictures.
- Ask: “What do you think happens when we put rain and bow together?”
Engage & Involve Students
- Call on a volunteer to come up and draw a rainbow next to the rain + bow pictures.
- Discuss: “A rainbow is not just rain and a bow— it’s something completely new!”
*Incorporate morphology into the lesson. Explain that a compound word is made up of two base words. Each base word contributes to the overall meaning of the compound word.
Practice with More Examples
- Repeat the process with more words using word sums:
- Snow + Man = Snowman (Draw snowflakes + a stick figure person)
- Foot + Ball = Football (Draw a foot + a ball)
- Jelly + Fish = Jellyfish (Draw a jar of jelly + a fish)
- Fire + Fly + Firefly (Draw flames + a fly)
- Tooth + Brush = Toothbrush (Draw a tooth + a hair brush)
- Each time, ask a different student to draw the final compound word.
Using the Printables
Before you begin, students need to have a basic understanding of what compound words are.
Print the pages, cut out the cards, and allow students to match the rainbows to create a word that makes sense. There may be some words they haven’t heard before, like padlock, so be sure to go over vocabulary.
The compound words:
- sunset
- bedbug
- cannot
- catfish
- bobcat
- inlet
- backpack
- sunblock
- bathtub
- hotdog
- padlock
- hilltop
- pigpen
- upset
- uphill
- himself
- bedrock
- Batman
The puzzles are great for individual or partner work, centers, or as a fun take-home activity.
Differentiation & Extension Ideas
For students who need a little more support:
- Give just a few puzzles at a time to help narrow down the options.
- Remove the words that contain blends or digraphs.
- Provide a word bank.
For more of a challenge:
- Mark the vowels and consonants following syllabication rules. To make it easy, laminate the rainbows with dry-erase laminating sheets and use dry-erase markers.
- Write the compound words on a recording sheet.
- Choose two words and write a sentence. This helps students understand the meaning of the compound word in context.
- Challenge students to think of other compound words.
Related Resources
- Snowflake Compound Words – A similar resource but with a winter theme!
- VCCV Syllable Division
Download & Print
DOWNLOAD TERMS: All of our resources and printables are designed for personal use only in homes and classrooms. Each teacher must download his or her own copy. You may not: Save our files to a shared drive, reproduce our resources on the web, or make photocopies for anyone besides your own students. To share with others, please use the social share links provided or distribute the link to the blog post so others can download their own copies. Your support in this allows us to keep making free resources for everyone! Please see our Creative Credits page for information about the licensed clipart we use. If you have any questions or concerns regarding our terms, please email us. Thank you!
➡️ Get MORE Freebies: Rabbit Words List (VCCV).