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App review by Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Education | Updated April 2015
Grammar Wonderland (Elementary)

Grammar Wonderland (Elementary)

Games bring some fun to customizable grammar practice

Learning rating
Editorial review by Common Sense Education
Community rating
Based on 2 reviews
Privacy rating
Not yet rated Expert evaluation by Common Sense
Grades
2–4 This grade range is based on learning appropriateness and doesn't take into account privacy. It's determined by Common Sense Education, not the product's publisher.
Subjects & Skills
English Language Arts
Platforms:  Android, iPad
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Take a look inside

5 images
The space bear must eat the correct answer.
Fly the plane into the correct answers.
Fling the correct bucket of water onto the camel's back.
Brief instructions explain how to play each game.
Students can practice specific skills or follow a more random path.

Pros: Choose from nouns, verbs, and adjectives plus four challenge levels.

Cons: No in-app instructions or teacher reports make this one just for practice.

Bottom Line: Three games may not engage students for the full curriculum but are a fun way to practice occasionally.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

With all the customization options -- from concepts to skill level -- Grammar Wonderland makes differentiation within the classroom easy. Most of the students can use the same app for grammar practice, working at their level on the concepts they need to review. Since there are no teacher reports or in-app help or instruction, teachers will need to introduce the concepts and have students track their scores themselves or use the app just for practice and choose another tool for assessment. Also, keep in mind that playing the games isn't always easy or intuitive: The games require fast reading and quick motor control, so incorrect answers may say more about the interface's limitations than about whether or not kids grasp the concept at hand.

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Standards:

Editor's Note: Grammar Wonderland is no longer available.

After setting up an account with a first name and last initial, students choose to practice skills or explore worlds. Both options feature the same games: navigating an airplane to touch the correct clouds while avoiding obstacles and wrong answers; feeding a polar bear in space the right food packets; or tossing the right water buckets at a camel in a desert. When practicing skills, students choose between easy, medium, hard, or expert levels, and they select nouns, verbs, or adjectives as a skill. They can then choose a specific game from the three or a specific concept -- like possessive nouns or subject-verb agreement. The Explore Worlds section features a map that students progress through by successfully completing the game, earning one, two, or three stars based on their score. The games and skills covered are more random in the explore worlds mode, with players advancing through several stops in four different worlds.

Grammar Wonderland packs quite a bit of grammar content into its games, covering common, proper, concrete, abstract, singular, plural, and possessive nouns; adjectives, pronouns, verbs, verb phrases, verb tenses, irregular and progressive verbs, linking verbs, indirect objects, and subject-verb agreement. Each game handles incorrect answers differently -- the camel game offers only two options, so the correct answer is obvious; the airplane game penalizes incorrect answers by slowing the plane down a bit; and in the bear-feeding game, the bear gets a sick, sad look when fed the wrong answer. Kids do have to focus on several unrelated skills to play successfully, like reading the question, moving the controls correctly, and choosing the answer. The games move pretty quickly, so all of that can be distracting for kids, making the game frustrating. Overall, this is an amusing tool to bring some extra grammar practice to your classroom.

Overall Rating
Engagement Would it motivate students and hold their interest? Is it visually appealing? Would it inspire teachers to try something new or change their instruction?

Three different arcade-style games are a fun way to test kids on grammar concepts, but kids may tire of the same three games for every concept.

Pedagogy Does the tool help teachers promote a more student-centered experience? Will students gain conceptual understanding or think critically? Does it deepen teachers’ pedagogical thinking?

Highly customizable practice section lets kids work on nouns, verbs, or adjectives at an easy, medium, hard, or expert level. Kids can even focus on a specific concept, like proper nouns or demonstrative adjectives and pronouns.

Support Can students and teachers get assistance when they need it? Is it created with people of different abilities and backgrounds in mind? Is learning reinforced and extended beyond the digital experience?

Multiple students can have accounts on a device, tracking their progression through the map of skills. No reports for teachers, though.

Common Sense reviewer
Amanda Bindel Classroom teacher
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Key Standards Supported

Language

  • L.2.1a

    Use collective nouns (e.g., group).

  • L.2.1c

    Use reflexive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).

  • L.2.1d

    Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).

  • L.2.1e

    Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

  • L.3.1a

    Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.

  • L.3.1b

    Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns.

  • L.3.1c

    Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood).

  • L.3.1d

    Form and use regular and irregular verbs.

  • L.3.1f

    Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.*

  • L.3.1g

    Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified.

  • L.4.1a

    Use relative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, that) and relative adverbs (where, when, why).

  • L.4.1b

    Form and use the progressive (e.g., I was walking; I am walking; I will be walking) verb tenses.

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Community Rating

(See all 2 reviews) (2 reviews)
Featured review by
Emily S. , Technology coordinator
Technology coordinator
Holly Hills Elementary School
Denver, United States
Basically an Animated Worksheet for Noun, Verb, and Adjective Practice
Grammar Wonderland is an animated drill and skill app for nouns, verbs, and adjectives. It is entertaining for students because it is like a video game, but it does not have students use any higher level thinking skills. If your students need drill and skill, this is more engaging than a worksheet, but it definitely has it's limitations.
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