Paper Plate & Spinner Literacy Games

Does your child own a fidget spinner? Put it to good use with these paper plate and spinner literacy games! (Also see these NUMERACY games)

First, how to make this paper plate. You will need:

• Paper Plate
• FREE printable letters or just write your own
• Scissors
• Glue
• Marker
• Fidget spinner
• Small arrow from paper or craft foam attached to the spinner

Print the letters, cut them out and stick all around the plate. You can use both upper and lower case or only one, depending on the age of child you will use this plate for.
Draw a circle in the middle of the plate where the spinner must go.

Now on to the games! The first few are oral games, the last written games.(I also mention which literacy skills are at work during each game.)

Letter Recognition Game

Spin the spinner and say the letter name and it’s sound. Get a point for each correct one. Here the letter name will be ‘Es’ and the sound will be ‘s’. (Letter and sound recognition/grapheme and phoneme correlation) Use this game to practice letter formation and assessing letter knowledge by writing down the letter the spinner stops at.)

Three Lives

Each player starts with 3 lives. One player spins the spinner and when it stops at a letter he/she must quickly say a word starting with that letter. Next player’s turn. If it lands on a letter already played, you lose a life. Play until everyone lost 3 lives, last one to lose last life is the winner. (Letter and sound recognition, initial sound recognition, phoneme segmentation, quick retrieval out of the working memory, subtracting skills when counting lives)

Fast Naming

Each player gets a turn to spin the spinner. When it lands on a letter, that player must name as many things/animals/food/ names(decide on this beforehand) he/she can in one minute. Count how many each player named, the player that named the most wins.(again letter and sound recognition, rapid naming speed, categorization skills, verbal fluency)

Object Hunt

Spin the spinner and when it stops, go find an object in the room that starts with that letter. For instance, of you play in a class and it lands on the letter ‘c’, you might want to go find a ‘crayon’. First player back gets 3 points, the rest only one point for correct initial sound object brought back. Count up scores at the end of your game. (Letter and sound recognition with initial sound, matching object to sound/vocabulary, addition skills when counting up scores)

Nouns Writing Game

Use a paper and draw 4 columns. Name the columns ‘people’, ‘place’, ‘animal’, ‘thing’. Spin the spinner and the letter it lands on must be used(start with) to write a person’s name, a name of a place, a name of an animal and a thing. You can give a time limit or whenever the first player is done, everyone must stop. You get a point for each correct answer, but it must not be the same as another player’s otherwise you both lose those points. Play as many rounds as you wish, or have time for. Count up scores at the end. (Letter and sound recognition, writing speed, working memory, categorization skills, noun knowledge, vocabulary, addition skills when counting up scores, social skills)

Guess the Drawing

A player gets a turn to spin the spinner. That player must now draw something that starts with that letter and the rest of the players must guess what he/she is drawing. The initial sound serves as a clue. This game can be played in pairs or groups. The pairs/groups earns points for each correct guess. (Letter and sound recognition, drawing skills, social skills)

Just a few ideas on how to use this paper plate and spinner games to enhance a literacy lesson and make it fun too!

Do check out our Letter Cards Pack)

If your children love games, check out these BINGO games(click the image below):

or see this