The word wheel
The word wheel is a speaking game for the interactive whiteboard. Spin it, it stops on a word, and the team whose turn it is must do the task shown: use it in a sentence, say it in English, count its syllables, find a rhyme or, at higher levels, explain it without saying it. The words are in Spanish, or in English with the English topic.
What children practise
- Speaking: building full sentences around a given word.
- Phonological awareness: splitting words into syllables and finding rhymes.
- Translating everyday Spanish words into English.
- Grammar: plural and singular, noun, verb or adjective, past and future sentences.
- Word families, opposites and definitions without naming the word.
Levels and settings
Easy mix
Make a sentence, count syllables, find a rhyme or say it in English.
Medium mix
Adds explaining what it is, plural and singular, opposites and word class.
Hard mix
Word families, a long sentence with because, past and future, spelling it backwards or describing it for others to guess.
By year
Y1 and Y2 use the easy or medium mix; Y3 and Y4, all three; Y5 and Y6, medium or hard.
Easy, medium or hard
The wheel has 8, 12 or 16 words.
How to play it in class
- Open the wheel on the interactive whiteboard and choose the year and difficulty: tasks and number of words adjust automatically.
- If you like, pick the topic (animals, food, school, actions or English) and a fixed task.
- Spin the wheel. When it stops, the team whose turn it is reads the word and the task and answers aloud.
- The teacher marks the answer as good or passes, and the turn changes. Once every word has come up, the team with more points wins.
Ways to play
In teams, taking turns
Both teams share the board and play one after the other.
For one player
One child plays on the whole screen at their own pace: on the whiteboard, a computer or a tablet.
Frequently asked questions
Who decides whether an answer is right?
The teacher, with one button to accept it and another to pass. The game does not mark answers: it is a speaking activity.
What language is on the wheel?
Spanish for animals, food, school and actions, and English for the English topic. Each word comes up only once per game.
Is it free?
You can play 5 free games without signing up. After that, a one-off payment of €9.99 unlocks all 78 games for ever, on all your devices. There is no subscription.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It opens in the browser of the interactive whiteboard, panel, computer, tablet or iPad. Once loaded, it also works offline.
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