Fidget spinners. Do you love them or hate them? Who knew a piece of plastic and metal could create such strong opinions? Ha! Well, kids everywhere seem to adore them, and while I don’t think they should be a classroom distraction, I do agree that they are fun little contraptions. So what can a kid do with a fidget spinner besides drive people crazy with it?
Here are some fun ways to let kids use their spinners, while also accomplishing something good!
This one might be my favorite! Simply stick a pen or marker (gel pens work great) through a hole in the spinner. Hold it completely upright and use it to spin the spinner. Then move the spinner, change colors, and go again!
Spin your spinner, then run in place until it stops. What else can you do? Try push-ups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, etc. Being active is more fun when it’s a fidget spinner challenge! How many push-ups can you do before the spinner stops?
Play Spinner Hockey
Grab a cardboard box and some plastic lids and create this fun game! Use a fidget spinner to knock the caps into the box. You’ll be amazed at how much power the spinner can transfer to a lid – the lid will go flying. It’s hard to know exactly what direction the lid will travel, which makes this silly and fun.
Practice Academic Skills
Your Modern Family has two fun math activities to download and print! Head over and print Beat the Spinner Addition and Beat the Spinner Multiplication. Then see how many problems your kids can solve before the spinner stops!
Here’s another idea – write words on index cards and challenge kids to put them all in alphabetical order before the spinner stops. Owen is just finishing 2nd grade, so I gave him words starting with the same letter to sort.
What other skills can you practice with the fidget spinner as a timer?
- Read sight words
- Put number cards in order
- Write spelling words
Have kids brush their teeth until the spinner stops – ha! We timed ours and it spins for 50 seconds before stopping. Depending on the quality of your spinner and how long it spins, you might want to have them do it twice.
More Spinner Ideas!
If your kids like LEGO, you’ll want to check out our LEGO Fidget Spinner design. It works really well and is easy to build!
Use cardboard to make a fidget spinner – love this idea from Red Ted Art.