Compound Words

How are compound words and King Island linked?

Well, a few weeks ago we were having a nostalgic visit to King Island. It was my husband’s first teaching appointment and we went there with a four-month-old baby.

Back to a few weeks ago, we passed a sign, “BLOWHOLE”, and I realised that I had not included compound words anywhere in Gilead Success with Phonics. Then there was the toilet filled with a hive of bees and I just had to add a little more to my program.

I thought you’d enjoy seeing what I had did with compound words and those bees. As always, I have tried to make things intrinsically interesting and intuitive for the children. Have I succeeded?

Technical details and ideas for conversation are included via links, “Parents and teachers,” as follows:

Compound words are made when we use two or more words together so they make another word with a different meaning.

They can be closed (joined), hyphenated or open compound words (separate).

E.g. closed:  blowhole, grandfather, bedroom, spacewalk

hyphenated:  sister-in-law, merry-go-round, no-one (or no one)

open:  high jump, ice cream (or ice-cream), full moon, dining room, mobile phone (US cell phone)

If in doubt, check in a dictionary, but there is some variation. Also, it can depend on how it is used.

“Dunny Honey” – Near Big Lake, King Island (in Bass Strait, between Tasmania and mainland Australia), at the site that the school Outdoor Education program uses as a campsite. This was their outdoor toilet that is now filled with bees and honey, a different sort of beehive. The bees were not happy to be disturbed.

In Australia, “dunny” is slang for toilet, particularly an outdoor toilet in the “bush” (countryside).

Thanks to our friends, Chris and Wendy Thiele, for kindly letting me use the video and photo of “dunny honey”.

So now it is finished! As always, if you own an earlier version of any of my programs, contact me to arrange a swap for the latest version.