Connect and Draw Compound Words Worksheet

A compound word is one word made from two smaller words that a child already knows, and it is one of the first real word-building moves young readers learn. Once a first grader sees that rain and bow join to make rainbow, unfamiliar words stop looking like walls of letters and start looking like parts that can be taken apart and put back together. This Connect and Draw Compound Words Worksheet gives students three different ways to practice that one idea, so the skill sticks instead of staying a definition they can recite but not use.

Students begin by drawing a line from each word on the left to the word on the right that finishes it, which is the classic connect-and-draw format teachers already know. Next they join two little words and write the whole new word on a solid handwriting line, so the spelling gets practiced along with the meaning. Finally they name three pictures — a birdhouse, a treehouse, and a mailbox — and write the compound word each one shows. That last section is what makes this 1st grade compound words worksheet more than a matching page: the child has to produce the word from the picture with no letters given as a hint.

What’s Included

• 1 print-ready PDF worksheet
• Answer key
• 5 matching pairs, 3 word-building items, and 3 picture-naming items

Three things make this page work in a real classroom. First, every activity uses the same small set of everyday compound words, so a student who struggles with the matching column still meets those words again in the writing section and gets a second and third chance to succeed. Second, the writing lines are sized for first-grade handwriting rather than squeezed in as afterthoughts, which means the answer a child produces is legible enough to actually assess. Third, the picture section builds vocabulary at the same time as the skill, because naming an object out loud before writing it links the spoken word, the written word, and the meaning together. Used as a warm-up, a center, or homework, this connect and draw compound words worksheet takes about ten minutes of focused work.

Teachers and parents can stretch the skill well past the page. Write half-words on index cards and let students walk around the room hunting for the partner card that completes a real word. Go on a compound word hunt in a favorite picture book and keep a running class chart of every one the group finds. At home, point them out on the way to school — sidewalk, crosswalk, mailbox, playground — and ask the child to name the two little words hiding inside. For students who need a challenge, ask them to draw a silly picture of the literal meaning, like an actual box made of sand, and then explain what the word really means.

Related Resources

• Compound Words Match Worksheet
• Compound Words Fill in Blank Worksheet
• Create Compound Words Worksheet
• Noun Song by Have Fun Teaching