Ways to use this list
- Shape hunt for young classes: spin a 2D shape and children find one in the classroom before the countdown ends.
- Drawing challenge: spin three shapes and build a robot, a house or an animal using only those.
- Guess my shape: one pupil spins a 3D shape in secret and describes its faces, edges and vertices until someone names it.
- Hands-on building: make the shape you spin from straws and modelling clay, or with bands on a pegboard.
- Fact race: teams write the number of sides, or faces, edges and vertices, for each shape the wheel picks.
Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.
The full list (33 entries)
- Circle – round, with no corners
- Semicircle – half a circle
- Oval – a stretched circle
- Triangle – 3 sides, 3 corners
- Square – 4 equal sides, 4 right angles
- Rectangle – 4 right angles, opposite sides equal
- Rhombus – 4 equal sides, like a tilted square
- Parallelogram – 2 pairs of parallel sides
- Trapezoid – 1 pair of parallel sides (a trapezium in the UK)
- Kite – 2 pairs of equal sides that sit next to each other
- Pentagon – 5 sides
- Hexagon – 6 sides
- Heptagon – 7 sides
- Octagon – 8 sides
- Nonagon – 9 sides
- Decagon – 10 sides
- Star – usually drawn with 5 points
- Heart – two curves meeting in a point
- Crescent – the shape of a thin new moon
- Cube – 6 square faces, 12 edges, 8 vertices
- Cuboid – 6 rectangular faces (a rectangular prism)
- Sphere – perfectly round, like a ball
- Hemisphere – half a sphere
- Cylinder – 2 circular faces and a curved surface
- Cone – a circular base and a curved surface rising to a point
- Square-based pyramid – 5 faces, 8 edges, 5 vertices
- Tetrahedron – 4 triangular faces (a triangular pyramid)
- Triangular prism – 5 faces, 9 edges, 6 vertices
- Hexagonal prism – 8 faces, 18 edges, 12 vertices
- Octahedron – 8 triangular faces
- Dodecahedron – 12 pentagon faces
- Icosahedron – 20 triangular faces
- Torus – a ring, like a doughnut
📖 Related guide: How to run a fair raffle or giveaway draw
Questions people ask
What is the difference between 2D and 3D shapes?
2D shapes are flat, with only length and width, like a square drawn on paper. 3D shapes are solid and have depth too, like a box or a ball, so we count their faces, edges and vertices.
How many sides does a heptagon have?
Seven. Shape names follow old number words: penta- means 5, hexa- 6, hepta- 7, octa- 8, nona- 9 and deca- 10, so the name tells you how many sides to count.
Why are the five Platonic solids special?
Each one has faces that are all the same regular shape, with the same number meeting at every corner. There are only five, which is why role-playing dice come with 4, 6, 8, 12 and 20 sides.
Is a trapezoid the same as a trapezium?
In American English, a four-sided shape with one pair of parallel sides is a trapezoid; in British English the same shape is a trapezium. Textbooks also differ on whether a parallelogram counts, so use your class's definition.