Letter Wheel: Pick a Random Letter A to Z

Spinning a letter

The wheel opens with the 26 letters of the English alphabet, each with the same slice: a 1 in 26 chance, a little under 4%, per spin. Press Spin or the Space bar, and the letter is announced in big type when the wheel stops. On a projector or a TV, Full screen makes the wheel and the result readable across a room.

Games to play with it

• Categories. Spin a letter, then everyone writes a country, an animal, a food and a name starting with it before a timer runs out. Score a point for each answer nobody else wrote.
• Alphabet tag. Each player in turn says a word in a chosen topic starting with the spun letter. Hesitate too long and you’re out.
• Story starter. Spin three letters and write a sentence whose words start with them in that order.
• Name it. Use the letter for a pet’s, character’s or team’s name when you’re stuck.

For teachers

For phonics, keep only the letters your class has learned this term and spin for “say the sound, then a word that starts with it”. Hide each letter once it’s drawn and the wheel works through the whole set without repeats; the results list doubles as a record of what was covered. To swap letters for digraphs (sh, ch, th) or blends, type them on new lines.

Fewer hard letters

Q, X and Z start very few common English words, so many groups take them out for word games (and sometimes J, K, V and Y too). Delete those lines and the wheel redraws with bigger slices for the rest. If you want them in but rarer, give the easy letters a weight instead, such as S *2.

The 26 entries on this wheel

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. D
5. E
6. F
7. G
8. H
9. I
10. J
11. K
12. L
13. M
14. N
15. O
16. P
17. Q
18. R
19. S
20. T
21. U
22. V
23. W
24. X
25. Y
26. Z

Edits you make on this page aren’t saved, so it always opens with the full list. For a list of your own that the browser remembers, use the wheel spinner.