Here’s how to play this fun Compound Nouns card game. Divide students into groups of between 3 and 5. Give each group one set of the cards. Tell the students to shuffle the cards and arrange them face up in a pile, keeping back one card at random.
The first student to play gets the random card to start. They must match their card to one in the pile to create a compound noun. If they do this correctly, they get to keep both cards. The student then chooses a card from the pile, which the next student must use to create their compound noun and so on. However, if they cannot find a match, they pass their card to the next student.
The game ends when all the cards have been used up. The winner is the student with the most cards at the end of the game.
The game gets very interesting when alternative word combinations block others, e.g. butter pairs with both cup and fly; sea pairs with side or food; side could pair with board; fire with arm, etc.
We also include an alternative set of rules, where students start with a certain number of cards and must get rid of all their cards.
