| Compound nouns are nouns that have been | | | | earphone, earring, earshot. |
| created by joining two words together. | | | | A fun way to get younger students to come up |
| There are three types. | | | | with the answers is to offer cloze sentences that |
| - Joined (input / bathroom / waterpark) | | | | can only be answered with a compound noun that |
| - Open (post office / real estate / night | | | | starts with word. For example: I have a very bad |
| watchman) | | | | ear_____. A bad ear infection can cause the |
| - Hyphenated (mother-in-law / jack-in-the-box) | | | | ear_____ to burst. I have an ear_____ that is |
| When you are teaching compound nouns to your | | | | pierced with two earrings. I have ear______ the |
| students it makes sense to spend the bulk of | | | | page I want you to read. |
| your time exploring the joined kind. | | | | Other good starting words are earth, grand, hand |
| This is because open ones are easy to | | | | and head. A dictionary is a quick way to look up all |
| understand. They are really just commonly used | | | | the possible combinations. |
| adjective noun pairs. | | | | 3. Challenge your students to think of 100 |
| In turn, hyphenated ones are rare. It is usually | | | | compound nouns by the end of the week. |
| enough to introduce them and show a few | | | | This works well if they have a page titled "100 |
| examples. | | | | Compound Nouns". They can start by ruling 4 or |
| With that in mind, here are some joined | | | | 5 columns and writing the numbers 1 to 100. This |
| compound noun lesson ideas! | | | | can be done each day as a class activity or as |
| 1. Write a mix of simple words on the board and | | | | homework. A dictionary is a great resource for |
| ask your students to use them to create as | | | | this activity. |
| many compound nouns as they can. Try these | | | | This could be extended the following week by |
| words - air back side hand bed death watch bed | | | | asking each student to contribute to a class |
| ear ache farm yard hand foot step hair line cut | | | | collection. The words could be written on cards |
| half way home made. After a few minutes ask | | | | and pinned to a notice board or written on a large |
| four or five students to suggest other words to | | | | piece of cardboard. Setting a goal of 300 or more |
| add to the list. | | | | words can help to motivate the students. |
| 2. Focus on one word and see how many | | | | This extension activity could also be a great small |
| different endings you can find. For example: | | | | group task for those self-motivated students that |
| earache, eardrum, earlobe, earmarked, earmuff, | | | | thrive on challenges. |