Review by Vicki Windman , Common Sense Education | Updated January 2014
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Rainbow Sentences

Get it now
  • Download from App Store

Customizable, creative practice in writing and recording sentences

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • English Language Arts
Skills
  • Communication & Collaboration
  • Critical Thinking
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
1–4
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (2 Reviews)
Price:  $7.99
Platforms:  iPad

Take a look inside

4 images
Kids arrange words into a sentence.
A lesson shows how to write a correct sentence.
Settings page allows customizing for individual students.
Statistics track learning.

Pros: Impressive accommodations support kids with learning difficulties.

Cons: Somewhat childish graphics are less appealing for older students.

Bottom Line: Versatile language app meets the needs of a variety of learning styles.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Rainbow Sentences would be a great way to introduce students to the key components of a sentence. Project the app onto a white board and have students take turns identifying how to correct them. For a more individualized approach, have students use the app independently. You can adjust settings for specific student needs and provide one-on-one support, using the app stats to inform your interventions. Extend the learning offline by having students write in a "sentence of the day" journal.

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Standards:

Rainbow Sentences is an individualized sentence-building app to help kids with their grammar, expressive language, reading, and comprehension. First, teachers need to set up a user account, choosing levels and the ability to record audio and to color-code sentences, among other things. Each level provides a pictograph to give a visual hint, and kids organize the given words into a grammatically correct sentence. For kids who have difficulty with their expressive and receptive language skills, they can record their sentence upon completion of the task. Sentences can be saved or emailed to track progress. As kids master simple sentences, they can proceed to more complex sentences with or without color coding. Adults can manage kids' accounts and track their progress.

Kids can learn how to construct a proper grammatical sentence, and they can increase their receptive and expressive language skills by using the record capability after completing each sentence. They'll learn that a capital letter begins a sentence and punctuation completes a sentence. In addition, kids will learn to recognize the parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Rainbow Sentences has many accommodations for kids with learning difficulties. It offers kids a multisensory approach with room to grow as they achieve mastery. Using pictographs helps kids who need visual cues when trying to put together a group of words. Using color coding is especially helpful for kids who have difficulty with determining word order. Kids who are new to the app will need some guidance to get started. Rainbow Sentences is a useful language app that offers enough versatility to engage a variety of learning styles.

The graphics could be more appealing, as they appear too simple and childish when used with older kids who still need assistance making sentences. As the levels become more difficult, it would be nice to see sentences that relate to the real world to help kids with their social skills.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Cute pictographs help kids decipher how to make a sentence. Kids will enjoy being able to record themselves upon completing each sentence they create.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

The app uses a multi-modality approach with audio, color coding, and audio playback to help kids understand how to construct a sentence.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

An extensive tutorial guides users. Parents and teachers get stats on kids' progress and will appreciate the flexible settings.

Common Sense Reviewer
Vicki Windman Special education instructor
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Language

  • L.1.1j

    Produce and expand complete simple and compound declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in response to prompts.

  • L.1.2a

    Capitalize dates and names of people.

  • L.1.2b

    Use end punctuation for sentences.

  • L.2.2

    Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

  • L.3.1i

    Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.

  • L.4.2

    Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 2 reviews) (2 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Bekah H. , Technology coordinator
Technology coordinator
This App Is Great for ELL Students
This is a wonderful app that is not that expensive. I love that you can create multiple users on iPad and it will track each users progress. Rainbow sentences is great for students who are learning the English language. The pictures provide great context clues that can help students with their sentence structure. There are also many great features that allow the teacher to set the app to more advanced features like turning off the color matching feature. I absolutely love that once the student has put ...
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