Spin the wheel: a free wheel spinner for names and choices
A real prize wheel for the projector: pegs that click past a flapper, a big reveal with confetti, and fair turns you can see. No ads, no sign-in, and the names never leave your computer.
8 entries
Hide a note behind a slice with a bar: cat | a small furry pet. It shows after the spin. Start a line with an emoji to draw it big. Two columns pasted from a spreadsheet work too.
Who's away today?
Tap anyone who is away. Their slice is hatched and skipped today only; at midnight they are back. Nobody is deleted.
Drag the wheel round and let go to flick it. Your flick sets the show. The draw is already fair: your browser's secure random generator picks the winner before the wheel moves.
Space spin, or stop sooner · R new round · M sound on or off · F full screen · Esc leave it
The starting names are examples: replace them with your own. They stay on this computer, saved in this browser only, and are never sent anywhere. Turns and away marks never go into a link.
How to use it
- Type or paste your entries, one on each line. Add a hidden note after a bar (cat | a small furry pet) and start a line with an emoji to draw it big on the slice.
- Tap the wheel, press Space, or drag it round and let go to flick it. The winner is drawn first by your browser's secure random generator; the spin, however hard you flick, only shows it. Press Space again to stop it sooner.
- Pick what happens after a spin: Fade the winner (they stay on the wheel, pale, until a new round), Remove the winner, or Keep everyone in. Mark anyone away today and their slice is skipped until midnight.
Ideas for class
- Call on students without the groan: with Fade the winner on, the bar under the wheel shows how many have had a turn, and nobody comes up twice until a new round.
- Make a review wheel: put a question on each slice and the answer after a bar, so the answer appears under the winner once the class has had a go.
- Vocabulary with pictures: start each line with an emoji (🐸 frog | an amphibian that lives near water) for younger readers, and switch on Read the winner aloud.
- Tick The winner spins next and let each picked child flick the wheel at the smartboard for the next one.
- Run “Is it fair? Spin it 1,000 times” in a maths lesson: have the class predict the bars first, then talk about why they wobble.
- Print a paper spinner of today's list for a center, a substitute or a power cut: a pencil and a paper clip are all it needs.
- Choose the Friday reward, a brain break or presentation order from a list the class helped write, with the Long spin for suspense.
- Set the colours to Colour-blind safe or High contrast for a room where some children cannot tell the classic colours apart.
Related
Questions
Is the wheel really fair, even when a child flicks it?
Yes. The winner is chosen first with your browser's cryptographic random number generator, with no bias toward any slice, and then the wheel is turned to show it. A hard flick, a soft one, the Long spin or the stop button change the show, never the winner. Press “Is it fair? Spin it 1,000 times” to see the counts for yourself; our tests spin tens of thousands of times.
Where do the names I type go?
Nowhere. They stay in the page and in this browser's own storage so the wheel is still there tomorrow. Nothing is sent to us or anyone else, and there is no account. The sounds are made on your computer too: there are no audio files to fetch.
How do I give each student exactly one turn?
Choose Fade the winner. Each winner's slice turns pale with a tick and cannot come up again, the wheel keeps its shape, and the bar shows how many have had a turn. When everyone has, press R or New round. Remove the winner takes slices off instead, with Undo and Put everyone back.
What if a student is absent?
Open “Who's away today?” and tap their name. Their slice is hatched and skipped for today only; at midnight they are back, and nobody is ever deleted from your list.
Can I hide a question or a meaning behind a slice?
Yes. Write the slice, a bar, then the note: “photosynthesis | how plants make food from light”. The note appears under the winner after the spin and is read out if Read the winner aloud is on. A line that starts with a bar is a mystery slice that shows a question mark.
Can I turn the sound off, or change it?
Press M to mute. Pick Wooden clack, Carnival bell, Space blip, Soft click or Quiet, and Soft, Room or Hall volume. Nothing plays until you first tap or press a key.
Can I share my wheel or print it?
Yes. “Copy a link to this wheel” puts the entries inside the link after the # sign, which browsers do not send to any server; turns and away marks are never in the link. “Print a paper spinner” prints the list as a wheel with patterns as well as colours, so it works on a black-and-white printer.
Does it work on a classroom projector or smart board?
Yes. Press F for full screen: the wheel, the winner and the turns bar fill the screen. Drag the wheel with a finger on a touch board, or press Space from a keyboard. If your system is set to reduce motion, the wheel lands without spinning and shows the winner with a gold ring.
Nothing you do here is sent to us. Names, lists and settings stay in this browser. No sign-in, no ads.