Give it a SPIN

You need a spinner in your life.

I had to share this really fun resource that I have been playing with.

The website is wheelofnames.com. With this site you can customize spinner wheels for all your digital spinner needs.

In the classroom this year we use a spinner as part of our daily routine to check in with each student to give them a chance to tell us how they are feeling. It’s a great way to connect with the students, and to give them a safe place to be heard and validated. While also, working on socialization skills.

In my personal life, we are a home filled with indecisive individuals, so we are very familiar with selecting items from a hat. The beauty of a spinner is that it takes the choosing burden off your shoulders. The randomness makes things fair and clear.

You may be asking yourself:

"How can a Spinner help me?"

There are SO many wonderful ways you can make use of spinners. Here are some suggested uses:

Names for turn taking

A spinner with names can be used for numerous scenarios, from selecting a name to take a turn in a class, or for deciding who should do which chores in the household.

Morning Greeting

You could use a spinner to make a selection as to how you should greet your fellow classmates. For example, you may have the class greet one another like a cat, or a race car. Using silly voices and sound effects, as well as hand gestures, adds to the fun. This activity allows the students to unmute momentarily, and greet the whole class in unison. If you have classroom jobs you can have a student select how they want to greet and give a choice of at least two options, but using a spinner in the selection process could make for a swift and clear selection process.

Prize wheel

This could be used at a company party to delve out prizes, a small company doing a marketing promotion when clients visit your office. Schools can use these virtually as part of a monthly virtual pep rally, for good behavior drawings, or as a virtual prize box.

Gaming

You can use a spinner with numbers in place of a traditional dice. This is a fun way to virtually roll with all participants being able to view the spinner. It could also be used to decide on the game to be played as well.

Exercise

You could enter different exercises and allow the spinner to choose which sequence to do, or how many repetitions to do. This could pump up a family exercise or a virtual gym class.

Activity chooser

This could be handy for an indecisive individual, especially if they freeze up when it is time to pick between several tasks. I suppose you could also use it to help you select an outfit if you live alone and really want someone other than yourself to make the decision.

Location Selection

Whether you are deciding on a restaurant or wanting an impromptu outing or road trip, a spinner might be your saving grace. Selecting an adventure at random can be a lot of fun. As a family we have done random selections by entering highways, cities, and hiking trails.

Make sure that all of the options are feasible before hand.

• Setting a budget helps to minimize disappointment. If a theme park is selected and there are no funds to make that sort of a lavish trip happen, then there will be some disappointed participants.

• Set parameters for being inclusive. It is important to include options that ALL members will be able to attend.