There’s something inherently fun about compound words–maybe it’s that feeling of accomplishment as we successfully combine two different words to represent a new word and meaning. Compound It All! gives us that chance to search for words to combine using those in our hand or in the discard or draw piles. With 3 levels of play using color coded word stacks, we raced to see who could make the most pairs of highest value and get rid of our hand of cards first. We found some words easier to pair up than others like “any” became anytime, anyday, while “time” became bedtime, schooltime, and daytime. Oops, maybe schooltime isn’t a compound word and we got carried away. We looked it up and it’s a yes! Our players particularly liked the “Steal” option, where you can place your card over half of another player’s compound word and steal those cards. Don’t be caught holding high value cards when a player yells “Compound It All” as he goes out because the sum of these will be counted against you. Players tally up their cards for the round and enter it on the score card to reach 200 points to win. Strategic moves include quickly discarding or using high value cards, or holding pairs hidden in your hand for a while so no one can steal them. We had such fun playing and exercising language skills. Playing with compound words helps kids to be aware of root words to later expand upon with prefixes and suffixes, learn new vocabulary as a compound word might not be related to the meaning of its component words, think critically and sequence as they try out compound combinations . “Let’s play again,” showed the fun factor in this creative game.
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