Educational Insights Spinzone Magnetic Whiteboard Spinners

The three spinners included in this set were brightly colored, spin really well and have a good strong magnet. I am able to put the spinner on our wall magnetic board and the spinner will still point up, down, or to the sides. I had thought in the vertical position it would always land pointing down when spun but much to my surprise it does not! We use these on large circle pizza pans with magnetic letter or numbers on the pan and students take turns spinning. They've held up so well and the kids love them!

Great classroom tool. I had these spinners for the last few months of school and they were a great addition.I am an 8th grade science teacher and I used these spinners for all sorts of stuff. Classroom management, identification questions, and more fun stuff these always came in handy. I would let students come up to the board and spin, this drove my classroom participation way up, especially from that student you didn't think would care. These spinners are bigger than I expected. This is nice because every student can clearly see them.The product is made to last. These spinners are still rockin' and they have been in an 8th grade science room for three months.Pros:- Large- Easy to use- Fun to useCons:- I would not use these to hold things up on your board, but that's not what they are really for.

I was a little worried that these spinners would 1) fall off the board when spun and 2) come to rest in a vertical position more often than anything else. But they are great as long as you spin them carefully. Once you get the hang of how much force is needed (spin too hard and yes, they do fall right off), they work very well, and they do NOT always land pointing straight up or straight down, not at all (that one was my biggest worry). My students LOVE these, and I love how I can use them for just about anything. I do wish the magnets were much stronger so I could let the kids spin them (we tried, but first graders just can't spin them gently) but that's a minor issue.

My students love when I pull the spinners out. Today I placed the vowels in a circle and spinner was placed in middle. What a great tool for informal testing and fun, too. My kindergarten group got 2 letters to spin for. Digraphs, and diphthongs are next. I only teach reading but this has many applications.

I used these in my classroom on the white boards. I thought they would be super cute and they are but honestly I ended up shoving them in my filing cabinet. They get in the way and just really clutter up what I am trying to teach. It may be great for some but for me they became clutter. It’s probably just a personal preference. There’s nothing wrong with them. They just weren’t practical or functional for my classroom.

I teach kindergarten, and my students really enjoy these spinners. They are the perfect size and spin smoothly. Like many others have mentioned, they do slide around quite a bit when students spin them. I put some blue sticky tak on the back over the magnet, and problem solved! It stays in place even through my most vigorous spinners!

The only negative thing about these spinners is that they drift down the magnetic whiteboard if they're spun too hard, and I cannot say there's a way to design around that - unless a really strong magnet would do the trick. But seriously, get yourself a magnetic whiteboard, draw a circle and voila! I've used it in class for quiz games; I've used it with adults for icebreakers; I've used it with youth as a way to randomize who does what task/chore. If all my teaching supplies were stolen, I'd re-order this in a jiffy. Some educators make "emergency lists" for when they travel/substitute teach. This would be on my top 10 list.I'd actually rate it a 4.5 out of 5, but seeing as the average to date is 4 stars, I'll give it 5.

Value for the money is not great. The spinner feels like some kind of hard cardboard, the magnet is not very strong, and they don't spin very smoothly. However not spinning smoothly may be an advantage in some ways as it probably helps them to not always stop in the same spot. They get the job done, but are definitely built pretty cheaply.