Ways to use Fidget Spinners in the Classroom

Are your children fascinated by fidget spinners? Whether you love them or hate them, this popular toy could be used in the classroom in many different ways! If you have any other suggestions, please leave them in the comments below…

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

English

• Fidget spinners have been banned in many schools. Could you think of the arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ allowing them to be used in the classroom. Could you use this to write a balanced argument? Use our template below to collect your ideas.
• Could you write a persuasive letter to your teacher or headteacher asking them to allow you to use them in your lessons?
• Create an advert to promote fidget spinners to children and adults.
• Could you write a Wikipedia entry about fidget spinners to help others learn more about them?
• Write a newspaper article about the popularity of fidget spinners. Could you include quotes from your friends and teachers?
• Write a set of instructions to teach people how to do a ‘trick’ with a fidget spinner.

Maths

• Compare the length of time that different spinners are able to spin for. Can you use this information to produce a table, chart or graph?
• Use your spinner as a timer. In the time that it takes to spin, could you recite your times tables, answer 25 mental calculations or solve a Maths problem?
• Compare the prices of different fidget spinners in online stores. Use this information to create your own problems, e.g. if I have £20 and buy two fidget spinners, how much money will I have left over?
• Use fidget spinners when learning about rotational symmetry. Do some spinners have different orders of rotational symmetry?

Science

• What forces are taking place when fidget spinners are spinning? Could you make a force diagram to show these?

Computing

• There are hundreds of fidget spinner apps in the app stores. Can you compare their features? Could you design a new one?
• Make a web page or a video to advertise a brand new fidget spinner.
• Create a video that teaches people how to do ‘tricks’ with spinners. Here is an example:

Design Technology

• With adult supervision, could you take apart a fidget spinner? What are they made from? How do they work? Are they all made using similar materials and designs?
• Could you design a new ‘fidget’ toy?
• Design some packaging and promotional materials for a fidget spinner toy.

Art

• Use our blank template (see below) to design your own fidget spinners.

History

• Find out more about the history of toys. What kinds of toys were popular five, ten, twenty or one hundred years ago? How have toys changed over the years? How are they similar? Could you use this information to predict what toys might be like in the future?

Physical education

• Use the spinner as a timer during your PE activities. How many laps of a circuit could you complete before your spinner stops spinning?

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