Kyle from The Mobile Education Store contacted me about reviewing Rainbow Sentences and I am so glad he did! This app is perfect for helping your students create grammatically correct sentences on multiple levels. When you open the Rainbow Sentences app, it brings you to a settings page. Here, you can create multiple student profiles, choose the level of difficulty, and set the visual and audio supports. I love that you can create individual student profiles. This allows you to keep data on each student while going green! After you choose your settings, you are ready to play the game! (There is an option to watch a video tutorial of the app. The tutorial is very helpful and informative. I won't go into the details, you can watch it here!)
There are 3 levels to this app and each level contains 55 sentences. Level 1 allows you to build sentences that target the who and the what. The students are presented with a picture and jumbled words the put in order to create a sentence. Below is an example of a level 1 sentence:
Level 2 allows you to build sentences that target the who, what, and where. Below is an example of a level 2 sentence:
Level 3 targets who, what, where, and why parts of a sentence. Below is an example of a level 3 sentence:
After you complete the sentence, you select the I'm Done! button. If you did not complete the sentence correctly, the parts of the sentence that are wrong return to the bottom of the screen to give you another chance. If you completed the sentence correctly, you are prompted to record the sentence. This is probably my favorite part of the app!! This is a great opportunity to tie articulation into a language activity!! And, I have found that kids love recording their own voice! Also built into the app is a lesson on how to create a grammatically correct sentence. If you choose lesson, you will hear a short lesson on who, what, where, and why and see a screen that looks like this:
As if this app didn't include enough good stuff, they added in a little student motivation! After a set amount of correct responses, students earn puzzle pieces that come together to make one big picture. This is great motivation when students are ready to change apps, but you aren't finished getting your data points yet. You can show them they only need 2 more puzzle pieces to complete their picture! (Hey, it's the little things that motivate most students!) I used this app today with one of my first grade students and she loved it! When I asked her what she liked best about the app, she said the silly pictures!
What I love about Rainbow sentences:
- Engaging app with colorful pictures
- Real voice recordings, it does not sound robotic!
- Able to target who, what, where, and why (almost always on IEP's!)
- Articulation goals can be addressed with this app
- This app allows multiple attempts to create sentences with repetition
- The app allows students to see the sentence, touch the words, hear the sentence, and say the sentence (targets different senses which helps promote deeper learning!)
- Student profiles allow you to keep track of performance reports, stores recordings, and email data for each individual student.
Rainbow Sentences sells for $7.99 in the iTunes store. Or you can try to win a copy below!
