When to use it
Word games such as Scattergories-style category rounds, where everyone writes an animal, a city and a food that begins with the chosen letter before the timer ends.
Spelling and phonics practice, where a child names a word, a sound or an object in the room that starts with the letter on the wheel.
Creative prompts for writers and artists who want a random constraint, like a story whose title must begin with the letter the wheel lands on.
Ideas
- Category race: pick five categories, spin a letter, and give players sixty seconds to fill every category with a matching word.
- Alphabet scavenger hunt: spin a letter and race to find something in the house or classroom that starts with it.
- Name game icebreaker: each person says a name, a place and a thing beginning with the letter they spin.
Variations
- Remove hard letters like Q, X and Z for younger players, or switch to normal mode and give vowels a higher weight by writing A*2 if your game needs more of them.
- Switch to normal mode if repeats are fine, or to elimination mode if the wheel should stop once every letter has been used.
- Replace the alphabet with letter pairs or syllables for more advanced phonics work.
Tips
- In no-repeat mode the wheel only shows letters that have not come up yet, so the class can see how many rounds are left.
- Press Start over when you begin a new game to bring every letter back.
- Use full-screen mode on a projector so everyone can see the letter at the same moment.
Make it yours
Change any entry, weight or color above, or open a copy of this wheel to edit and share as your own. This page always keeps its original entries.