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Spin the wheel ideas: what to put on a random wheel

A spinning wheel works best for choices where every option is acceptable and you just need someone, or something, to decide: who answers next, what to cook tonight, which chore is yours, which team presents first. Write one option per line, spin, and accept the result. Below are ready lists for school, home, work and games, and a few rules that keep the wheel fair.

5 min read

The short answer

Put anything on a wheel that is a fair choice among options people already agreed to: names, dinners, chores, prizes, questions, game challenges or simply yes and no. The wheel removes the arguing, and the spin itself makes a small moment of suspense that groups enjoy.

The wheel on this page takes up to 1,000 entries, one per line. Every slice has the same chance, and the winner is chosen with a secure random number generator before the wheel starts turning; the animation just lands on it. You can Shuffle or Sort the list, remove the winner automatically, choose a spin time of 3, 6 or 10 seconds, and show it in Full screen.

Try it here: Spin the Wheel

Open the full tool page

Classroom ideas

Teachers use wheels to make selection visibly fair: no one can say the teacher always picks the same students. Turn on Remove winner after spin so everyone gets a turn before anyone is picked twice.

  • Who answers next: the class list, with Remove winner after spin turned on.
  • Review questions: one question or topic per line, spin to choose the next one.
  • Order of presentations: spin until the wheel is empty and note the order from Results.
  • Vocabulary or spelling: words to define or use in a sentence.
  • Writing prompts: a character, a place and a problem, each on its own wheel or spun three times.
  • Reward wheel: small privileges such as choosing the music, a sticker, sitting in the teacher's chair for a lesson.
  • Brain break activity: 10 jumping jacks, stretch, Simon says, one minute of silence.

At home: food, chores and weekends

  • What to eat: pizza, tacos, pasta, soup, a stir fry, burgers, salad, leftovers. Put only meals you are actually willing to make or order.
  • Which restaurant or delivery place, when nobody wants to decide.
  • Chore wheel: dishes, laundry, vacuuming, taking out the trash, bathroom, watering plants. Spin once per person each week.
  • Movie or series night: the shortlist everyone agreed to, or film genres.
  • Weekend plans: park, museum, board games, cycling, cooking something new, visiting family.
  • Kids' choices: bedtime story, which game to play, who picks the music in the car.
  • Workout of the day: running, yoga, a bodyweight circuit, swimming, a long walk.

At work: meetings and teams

  • Who speaks first in the stand up, so it is not always the same person.
  • Rotating roles: note taker, facilitator, timekeeper for this week's meeting.
  • Icebreaker questions for the start of a workshop.
  • Which bug, idea or backlog item to discuss next when priorities are equal.
  • Who picks the team lunch place or the next book for the book club.
  • Prize draw at a team event, with Remove winner after spin turned on so nobody wins twice.

Games and parties

  • Truth or dare, or a wheel of party challenges.
  • Category game: spin a category (animals, cities, movies) and everyone names one in 10 seconds.
  • Charades topics or Pictionary words.
  • Forfeit wheel for parties: sing a song, do a silly dance, tell a joke, speak in an accent for one round.
  • Game night: which board game to play first.
  • Number wheel: a wheel with 1 to 10 instead of a die. There is a ready made number wheel page on the site.
  • Yes or no: two slices, for a quick answer to a small question. A yes or no wheel page is also available.

How to make the wheel fair (or deliberately weighted)

On this wheel each line is one slice, and all slices are the same size. That gives every line the same probability. A few habits keep it fair in practice:

  • Agree on the list before spinning. Changing options after a result you dislike defeats the purpose.
  • Check for accidental duplicates. If "Pizza" appears twice, it has two slices and twice the chance. Sort the list to spot repeats quickly.
  • Use repeats on purpose for weighting. If a chore should come up twice as often, write it on two lines.
  • Decide what happens to the winner. For turns, turn on Remove winner after spin; for a menu that can repeat, leave it off. You can also remove a single result with Remove from wheel.
  • Spin once. A second spin "because the first one does not count" turns the wheel into a way to get the answer you already wanted.

Tips for using the wheel well

  • Long lists: paste a column from a spreadsheet; empty lines are skipped. Labels on very small slices are hard to read, so for 100 or more entries the Results list is the clearest record.
  • Presenting: press Full screen so the wheel fills the projector, and use the space bar to spin from anywhere on the page.
  • Suspense: choose Long (10 s) for a prize draw, Short (3 s) for fast classroom picks.
  • Sound: the tick and winner sounds can be turned off with the Sound checkbox.
  • Your list stays: the entries and the last results are saved in your browser, so the wheel is ready the next time you open the page on the same device.

Step by step

  1. Add your optionsType or paste them into Names or options, one per line.
  2. Set the spinChoose Spin time and tick Remove winner after spin if each option should come up only once.
  3. SpinClick Spin in the center of the wheel or press the space bar.
  4. Use the resultThe result appears under the wheel and in Results. Press Remove from wheel to take it out by hand.

Frequently asked questions

Is the spin the wheel tool fair?

Yes. Every slice has the same chance, and the result is picked with the browser's cryptographic random number generator before the animation starts. The way the wheel slows down does not affect the result.

Can I make one option more likely than the others?

Yes. Write that option on more than one line. Each line is its own slice, so an option on three lines has three times the chance of an option on one line.

How many entries can the wheel hold?

Up to 1,000 lines. With very many entries the labels get small, but the result is always shown clearly under the wheel.

Is my list saved or uploaded?

The list and your recent results are saved only in your own browser so they are there next time. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

Does the wheel work on a phone or offline?

Yes. It works in mobile browsers, and once the page has loaded it keeps working without an internet connection.

What are good things to put on a wheel for a class?

The class list for picking students, review questions, presentation order, vocabulary words, writing prompts and small rewards. Turn on Remove winner after spin so everyone gets a turn.