Wow! Apparently, spinners are a hot topic. I’ve had so many inquiries as to “where” and “how” lately that I thought I had better revisit the subject to see if I can shed some light on using spinners to differentiate instruction.
Spinners are a great motivator for students! They provide a sense of play and fun and provide a kinesthetic twist to learning. And for teachers, spinners provide a simple way to differentiate one activity to meet the readiness levels of all students. Even better, this is an independent station that will keep them learning and engaged.
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Students can be working on the same activity and, by providing different spinners for different children, you can simply differentiate.
If you’re trying to wrap your head around how this might look in a lesson plan, take a look at an example below. This is how you would demonstrate on paper that you are differentiating your instruction for your administrator.
So now you’re asking, but where can I get spinners? How do they work? Check out this video!
This is probably the most asked question I get. Everyone has their favorites, but I prefer to use transparent spinners. (Click on the picture or the text to be linked to the ones I purchase for my own classroom.) I have several sets, they are sturdy and easy to use.
There are definitely many places where you can get transparent spinners. Sometimes you will even find them in your math kits.
And here’s the best part about using transparent spinners, if you simply attach them to the top of a cd case (use a piece of clear tape or better yet, hot glue!), you can easily and quickly change out spinner cards as needed. In fact, it’s so easy, my students do it by themselves.
Don’t have spinners? No problem. Here a couple of other ways you can still use spinners without having transparent spinners. Make spinners with a brad and a paper clip like below.
Or show your students how to use a pencil and paper clip to do the same job.
I think you will soon see how easy it is to incorporate spinner fun into your instruction and see how much your students enjoy it.
If you’re looking for a spinner packet to get you started, please check out the one below for literacy, but just in case your interested, I have them for math, too. Just click on the picture to get the details on all my sets. The spinners fit a cd case perfectly and all the activities are available in black/white or choose color if you prefer.
In the meantime then, please feel free to check out other posts I have done on using spinners to differentiate instruction in the classroom. You will find the links by clicking on the pictures below. There are two different posts that you and check out.
The first one is A New Spin on Differentiated Instruction
And the second one is Differentiated Spinners . . .huh?
If you’d like to check out all my spinner activities for Math and Literacy, just click HERE to see all the skills and activities I have available.
I love your posts and the awesome ideas you share. THANK YOU! I have this item in my cart already. I love the variety you provide and the plethora of choices for both teachers and students. I would be interested in a sight word version as well.
I would love spinners for short vowels and long vowels!
cheriemae@gmail.com
I would love to see Math skills…Numbers 0-10, ten frames, shapes, you name it!! kwampfler@hotmail.com
Wow! What a great pack. I’m looking to introduce centers to my daily routine in the fall and this would be amazing! Id love spinner centers for CVC words, word families, colors, numbers 1-20, shapes, ten frames, addition/subtraction to 5, addition 10 plus what for teen numbers, pretty much anything you might teach in kindergarten. I’d also love a sight word pack that was editable so I could match my sight word list! Sgies328@gmail.com
breannesimons@gmail.com I’d love to see spinner games for place value! I have such a hard time differentiating for my higher kids when it comes time to teach place value!
We love your math spinner games! This pack looks fantastic and I’d love to win! Maybe a spin activity for rhyming words?
-Andrea
alwayskindergarten@gmail.com
Wow Marsha I love this pack! You have the most wonderful ideas! Perhaps some spinner activities on subitizing? You’ve probably already done that! 🙂
Karyn
Kideducator@comcast.net
I love the idea of using a cd case for the spinner. This pack would be perfect to start my year with my K-1 combo. I would love to see a pack with teen numbers and place value. Kristin kervine5@gmail.com
I love using spinners and your idea of putting them on a cd case is brilliant!! Thank you so much for sharing!
I think you are amazing and your ideas are awesome. I already bought this pack but would love to see spinner games for vowels! Good luck ladies, this is an amazing giveaway!
Love your idea for using spinners with CD cases–I’m definitely going to give this a try! I’d love some activities for number sense that aren’t connected to a season or holiday so they can be used year round. ltecler@hotmail.com
I LOVE YOUR SPINNERS! I’ve been saving CD cases for next year. 🙂 I’d love a few more challenging ones, possibly for upper kinders/1st grade. Definitely agree with other posts with teen numbers, more addition, and some editable ones! Thank you so much for your work. (My professor in my masters level differentiation class gave me your site to check out and i have been a fan ever since!) mirandalarayne@gmail.com
I would love to see numbers, tally marks, shapes, addition and subtraction, nouns, verbs, short and long vowels. loveofteaching2@gmail.com
I love your stuff. I am new to kindergarten and your blog and items are going to be a huge help this year. Thank you!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I have been trying to figure out how you do the spinners forever. I have been “Tier 1” where creating spinners is concerned. I am always looking for sight word activities.
I would love to have composing and decomposing numbers.
Buffalobills8293@yahoo.com
I would love number spinners for composing and decomposing numbers.
dmpoloski@gmail.com
I would love more spinners for addition & subtraction that I could use with my firsties!
nhuggenberger@gmail.com
I am so glad I stumbled upon your blog! I will be teaching kindergarten for the first time next year. I know I will be using many of your idea and organizational systems. I would like to see sight words and common core alligned math skills. Thanks for sharing with us!
My students LOVE all of your activities! Thank you for all of the time and effort you put into coming up with new ideas. Teamwork theme for any CC area. ckaake@comcast.net
I love these spinners ~ and boy! do you have a nice variety!!! Thank you for always making things that fit so well into our classrooms ~ Love your work. chesbrogers@yahoo.com
Hi Marsha, you are incredible! How you find time to teach, create, and be a mom of three young boys is beyond me. I have been quietly following your blog for about a year now and love many of your materials on TPT. These spinners are great. I agree with all the other comments about future spinners….numbers, sight words, cvc words are all wonderful ideas. I will certainly put these to good use! cschumann@saintraphael.org
Hope to see you in Vegas next week!!
Can’t wait to meet you too. Make sure you stop by booth 115 on Thursday! I’d love to meet you!
Marsha
I’d love to see NWF and addition/subtraction or number bonds!!!!
Elizabeth
acraftyqueen@gmail.com
http://www.thecoffeecraftedteacher.com
Oh great ones!
Marsha
Wow this is so neat! I am so glad my teacher friend shared your blog with me! It is amazing! It looks like you have covered most everything. I would love to see sight words too (maybe you have them already and I just haven’t seen them!) Thanks so much!
melissarobinson@alpinedistrict.org
Thank your friend for me.
Marsha
I would like to see sight word and cvc word spinners 😉 katienussbaum87@gmail.com
All of your products are absolutely awesome! I love the beginning, middle and ending sound activities as well…I always need more to do with this skill! pnbalc@hotmail.com
I would like to see differentiated questions for text/sight words/cvc. vhair61215@gmail.com
Also differentiated story starters. vhair61215@gmail.com
oooo I like that idea.
Marsha
These spinners are awesome. I would love some that build CVC words.
cfcoley@gmail.com
Anything with numbers or counting 1-20 would be great! My class loves your other spinner activities! Abby1378@yahoo.com
Love how you are meeting the needs of all students with a fun game like activity! Would love to see more spinner ideas with math concepts and sight words. thammons@dsdmail.net
Spinners with sight words and also sign language literacy activities would be so much fun! prekteacherheather@gmail.com
I just bought this pack and can’t wait to use it. I would agree with the NWF spinner. Thanks for , all you do. Have fun in Vegas!!
I would like letter sounds and word families
Teachingabudhabistyle@gmail.com fact families and word families. I forgot my email on my first comment!
You are amazing. I love reading your blog and I have purchased many of your products. I already use spinners in my classroom and I love them. I would love to see numbers 1-30, shapes, sight words and cvc words (matching cvc to words to the matching picture). millerc@calschools.org
Thanks so much for the giveaway. (Letters, CVC, rhyming,.. etc.) yvonneeyrg@Gmail.com
These look fantastic! Everyone has given some fabulous ideas. What about story elements? Setting, Characters, problem, Title of story, etc. Then they could look in the book to find the “evidence” to be sure their answers were correct. lauraduinkerken@gmail.com
~Laura
Luv My Kinders
So many great ideas! Love the Back to School Pack…I didn’t read all the ideas above, but maybe something with standard and non-standard measurement. I am Canadian, so we use the metric system (if that could also be included, that would be fantastic). Thank you, love all of your stuff! msmaughan36@gmail.com
~Jackie
GrowingKidlets
I love you how put them in CD cases! That is such a cool idea! I had one year where my kids chewed on everything and this would have been a great idea.
thanks!
michele
mswetherbie@msn.com
I’ve always loved using spinners but had never thought to differentiate them before or use a CD case to make them last longer. I would love it if you made a pack of blank programmable spinners that were color coded so I could type in specific sight words or letters or whatever I need with a group of kids. Thanks! snicklas@harrisonburg.k12.va.us
Wow… there are so many things you can do with these. One of the things our reading series teaches from the beginning is beginning, medial, and ending sounds. Something with that would be great! Love that it’s hands on.
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I have become obsessed with your products! My summer project is to purge all my workshop items and reorganize them all. I am thinking that I will only utilize your packs so that my students are use to the consistent workstations and they will be able to follow them along all year independently. At least I hope more independently! I have half a class of Transitional kinders and half of straight K and I need to allow the straight K to be challenged without losing the TK. I have found that your products allow me to differentiate in a far more successful manner!
Now, I would love to see math spinners where the spinner has numbers and the students need to find a way that represents that number. For example, if I spin a five, then I need to find a card that shows five using tally marks, base ten, word, etc…
Also, if the students pick a number, say six, then they spin the spinner that has the different types of ways to represent that number. If they land on tally marks, they have to write six tally marks, if they land on a ten frame they have to make six in the ten frame. I think they would love the spinner concept and they would really get to understand how to represent the numbers in different manners.
Thanks, Pat
pat.ingles0123@gmail.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amazing to me how adding a spinner makes kiddos want to do an activity like 100 times more! The alphabet pack looks amazing!
sspeller@verizon.net
tens and ones. Decomposing numbers would be great. kristenryan@ymail.com Love your stuff btw.
I just started using spinners in my class this past year and my kids loved them! A fun spinner game might be two spinners, one with an onset, one with the rime, and the kids blend them together to decide if the word is real or nonsense. 🙂
ivegotdreams@gmail.com
I love all your spinner ideas! I don’t know if this idea would be too difficult to implement. It would need to be editable, but it sure would be fun to have a spinner activity where the Kinders could match their name to name, or name to photo, or name to another object which started with same letter as their name. smskdg@hotmail.com
Love all the ideas! Thank you for sharing. Ordered my spinners today, getting excited for the new school year.
lifelearn37@gmail.com
I love the spinner idea!! I ordered my spinners in the spring and now I just have to tape them to the CD cases and make the graphics. Thanks for a great idea! The packet looks terrific! mskarenkory@yahoo.com
I love this idea! I teach pre-k so this is easily adapted for my students. My email address is valeriepoppell@gmail.com
Love the spinners, some CVC words or sight words would be great!
ecoan88@gmail.com
Love the idea of spinners. My students always love the spinner activities. I would LOVE to win this! heidireckling@gmail.com
love the spinners! jackiesobsession@gmail.com. maybe some spinners at the beginning of the year to help students work in partners to learn communication skills, or spinners for share during morning meetings
Did you pick a winner? 🙂
I did! I announced both my blog winner and Facebook winner on my FB page. Both winners were contacted and received their prize!
Thanks for asking
Marsha
I seriously love your stuff! I have just about all of your cvc sets, ball words (my kids love them), going to buy the sensory table set for next year, and I can’t think of what else. This was my first year of teaching and my kids loved everything I bought from you. You are truly amazing:)
Awww you are very kind. Thanks so much for reaching out.
Marsha
I started following you this school year and have several of your packets of activities. They have been wonderful and so helpful. I’ll spend this summer break putting some of the packets together so they will be ready to go for next school year. I love your beginning of the year center activities so the kiddos can practice rotations through stations. I’m not sure what else you can add to what you are already doing. Could you create science and social studies activities?
Thanks again for your wonderful resources.
How do the kids know which spinner they use if it’s differentiated?
I place them in a colored pouch (or poly envelope) that corresponds with the color of their tier. They know if their name is written on a blue name label, their items for use (in this case spinners) are located in the poly envelope with a blue dot.
I teach severe-profound special education and many of my students come to me in 6th grade with significant learned helplessness from people (parents, EA’s, and even teachers) do everything for them. This is one of my biggest areas of focus when I get a new batch of students. I love to show them that they CAN and should do many things on their own.
Using your drawer system and spinners is so exciting for them and primarily INDEPENDENT!
Thank you for sharing.
Although my students are ages 11-14, more often than not their cognitive functioning is that of a K or 1st grader.