Math classroom decoration ideas

I've written a lot about the benefits I've seen come from hanging student work and math word walls. But I didn't always have my classroom bulletin boards covered. It wasn't until a few years after my first year teaching that I started decorating my classroom. Here's a photo of one of the first anchor charts I made for my students-- a poster for the Quadratic Formula. 

That first year, most of my posters were made out of poster board and cut colored paper. As the years went on and the colors began to fade, I started swapping the handmade references with printable versions. This way I didn't have to worry if a reference fell off the wall and was stepped on, or drawn on by a student's younger sibling during Open House. This radical functions anchor chart had seen much better days by the time it retired:

There was a positive change in my classroom once I started adding student work and décor to the walls. Even my seniors liked seeing their work displayed. Here is a photo of our classroom Fridge where students hung their graded papers:

Our classroom "Fridge"

Most of the time even my juniors and seniors choose to hang their papers on our classroom Fridge instead of bringing them home. I also like having their papers displayed. On tough days, days that my students feel they "can't", I can point to their wonderful work on the wall and say, "Yes you can!". 

Welcome, Math Person! poster

At the beginning of the school year as students enter your classroom for the first time, this Welcome, Math Person poster reminds them that they are all math people.

This post is a collection of math classroom decoration ideas, some from my own classroom, some printables I've made for teachers, and photos that teachers have sent to me of their own math classroom décor. 

Here is a Practice Makes Better poster to remind students that perfect is overrated. Great things happen when we work hard, get better and stop worrying about being perfect. Making mistakes is important and the way we grow, especially in math class. I hope this poster helps students remember this.

Divisibility rules pennant (free)

To me, math confidence is everything. When students are confident, they can push through that tough math topic or at least be more willing to try. That confidence can be tough to build and comes from more than just classroom décor. But I do believe that the decorations we hang in our classrooms can help.

Here is a photo of my math classroom's first math word wall, complete with hand-painted factoring references, a few printed posters and some math vocabulary cards. 

My first math word wall

Since taking this photo, I have majorly updated my math word wall, along with every other I've made for 2nd grade through algebra 2. Over the years teachers have sent their classroom word wall teacher photos. Every photo is different, reflecting every teacher's unique classroom.

For a couple years I taught Geometry and the anchor charts above became part of our geometry word wall. The parallel lines cut by a transversal poster is made with cut paper and marker on cardstock. It faded over time, so I updated with this print version:

This order of operations mobile is part of my blog's free math resource library. There are letters included to make GEMDAS, GEMS and a few other acronyms.

The mobile has since been updated with an "Order of Operations" card for the top of the mobile.

Photo sent from Ms. Koehler of her geometry word wall

Teachers have sent me so many great photos of their classrooms and seeing them all has made me so happy. This one was sent over by Ms. Koehler of her geometry word wall.

Photo sent from Ms. Paulus of her math word wall

And this is a photo of Ms. Paulus's 5th grade math word wall. 

Photo sent from Mr. Urzua of his math word wall

Mr. Urzua shared a photo of his math word wall on Instagram. I love the black background. 

Ms. Woodworth brought her math classroom décor outside and hung hundreds of matholution math pennants in her school's courtyard.

How many times have you heard, "I'm just not a math person" from students when they get stuck? No way. We are all math people. This "How to be a Math Person" poster reminds all students that math is for all of us. 

Ms. Lyons's classroom mural

How cute is Ms. Lyons's How to be a Math Person mural? Her friend painted it on her classroom wall and totally nailed it! 

Here is an "I Know I Can" motivational classroom poster with words from Nas. I heard from a bunch of teachers that their students thought the words were from Lil Nas X. Nothing makes a person feel older, lol. There are directions to enlarge PDFs in this post.

Back to school math pennant and glyph

This back to school math pennant with a Golden Spiral theme helps students get to know each other at the beginning of the year. It comes with a short lesson on the Golden Ratio and optional glyph directions for students to color based on get-to-know-you questions.

My friend Karrie from Mrs. E Teaches Math sent this photo of her students' back to school math pennants. How about that wood paneling? There are more math pennants to see here.

If you're into Halloween and teach algebra or algebra 2, this is a free set of 12 posters with skeletons posing as algebraic functions. It's a fun set to display in the fall. 

Ms. Page sent this photo with little Santa hats on her skeleton functions to extend their life through the winter holidays!

This function transformations poster helps students remember what absolute value, radical and quadratic functions look like when they transform.

I made this billions place value reference for a 4th grade teacher who needed it for her classroom's word wall. You can grab it from my dropbox here. 

And an Albert Einstein poster to remind us that even geniuses write in their math notebooks.

How do you like to decorate your walls? Do you believe less is better, go all out or are you somewhere in the middle? If you're part of the Visual Math Facebook group, I'd love to see your photos!

>Browse all math classroom décor




More posts:

Math Pennants

Math Word Walls

Digital Math Escape Rooms