1st Grade Compound Words worksheets

About this worksheet

Compound words join two whole words into one new word whose meaning is often more specific than either part alone. A first grader who knows "sun" and "shine" may still guess that sunshine is about the color yellow, or that a raincoat is simply any coat, missing the part that keeps a child dry. This worksheet never asks your child to define a compound word by itself; every item places the word inside a full sentence, so the action and objects around it — nailing a birdhouse to a tree, scrubbing teeth with a toothbrush — supply the clue the child needs.

Some questions ask what the word means in its sentence, others ask which two smaller words built it, and others ask your child to spot the compound word among the plain words around it. The common mistake is guessing from only the first half of the word and ignoring the rest of the sentence. Encourage your child to read the whole sentence first, picture what is happening, and only then decide whether their guess fits everything the sentence describes.

What your child will learn

• Find the meaning of a compound word from its sentence
• Split a compound word into the two smaller words that built it
• Match a compound word to its meaning
• Pick out the compound word inside a sentence