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You have clapped the beats in words. Now Mia makes a word card for sunshine. She looks for whole words inside it.
What do we call a word built from smaller words?
Compound Words
Recognise and spell compound words written as one word by identifying the smaller words that form them
What a learner can do afterwards
- Identify the two words in a compound (e.g. 'sunshine' = 'sun' + 'shine')
- Spell compound words by combining known words
- Create compound words from given word pairs
1 · Read
A compound word is built from smaller words. Here we read compounds made from two words written together. Look for whole words whose meanings help explain the new word. Two spoken beats do not make a word a compound. Basket has two beats, but it is not built by joining two smaller words.
Try it together
Seashell joins sea and shell. Find both whole words when you split a compound. To join given words, write them in order and keep every letter. Keep sea, not see, even though they sound alike. Check a spelling by splitting it back into its smaller words and checking each letter.
The smaller words help explain a compound. A bookshop is a shop that sells books. Book tells what the shop sells. Sunshine means light from the sun. Sun tells where the light comes from. Think about both parts when you read a new compound.
Find the smaller words in these compounds. Keep their letters and order when you join them.
2 · Watch
3 · Play
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Then practise
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.