
I've written a lot about math classroom décor, math word walls and the benefits I've seen from both, but I didn't always have my classroom walls covered. It wasn't until years after starting teaching that I hung my first math anchor chart.
Since then, I have come to believe 100% that the décor we hang in our classrooms can help build math vocabulary, support background knowledge and boost student confidence!
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Our math classroom "Fridge" |
In this post I wanted to show you some of the math classroom decorations that have hung in my math classroom over the years and more decorations that I have made for teachers. It's all either functional or self-esteem-building. To me, math confidence is everything. When students are confident that they can push through a tough math topic, they are more likely to give it a try. That confidence can be tough to build and comes from more than just classroom décor. But I do still believe that the decorations we hang in our classrooms can help.

That first photo above is a bulletin board we call "The Fridge". It's where students hang their graded papers that make them feel proud. Most of the time even my juniors and seniors would rather hang their papers than bring them home. I also liked having their papers displayed. On tough days, days that my students felt they "couldn't", I could point to their wonderful work on the wall and say, "Yes you can!"
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 on the bottom faded over time. It's made from cut paper and the fluorescent lights did a number on it. It's updated version includes a digital version with movable pieces.
This PEMDAS mobile can be made to read GEMDAS or GEMS or just about any of the other order of operations acronyms, of which there are way more than I ever knew! Whenever I'd post this mobile on Facebook, I'd learn of another acronym for the order of operations.
Here is a photo of the updated parallel lines cut by a transversal poster.
And its digital version in Google Slides.
Photo sent from Ms. Koehler of her Geometry word wall |
Teachers have sent me so many great photos of their math word walls and seeing them all has made me so happy. I uploaded a bunch of them into the post Classroom math word wall photos shared by Teachers! This one was sent over by Ms. Koehler.
Photo sent from Ms. Paulus of her math word wall |
And this one by Ms. Paulus. There are so many more great ones to see in the post.
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. It make everything pop!
This "How to be a Math Person" poster is one I made recently to remind all students that we are all math people. There is a PNG image to download in that post with a link to where I had made it into a t-shirt.
Here is another motivational math classroom poster with words from Nas. There are black and white versions too, for teachers with no free access to a color printer. There are more free math classroom printables here.
Can a person be both 3 feet tall and 5 feet tall? No way! This silly math cartoon shows students the difference between undefined and zero slope. On page 2 of the PDF is an identical cartoon for function vs not a function. You can get this cartoon in my Google Drive here.
If it's the beginning of the school year, this back to school math pennant has a Golden Spiral theme. 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.
It's hard to believe I have made over 100 math pennants. This one here is a multiplying fractions math pennant.
This slope tree is a fun way for students to show off their understanding of slope between two points while also decorating their classroom. It can be found in this post about slope.
I love classroom décor that is functional and that makes a classroom an inviting and low-stress place to learn. Knowing the references are always there for them encourages my students to take risks and independently seek help when they get stuck.
I just recently put together a financial literacy word wall. This photo shows some of the pieces included. It comes in both print and now also digital in Google Slides.
Here is a fractions poster for converting mixed numbers to improper fractions.
And a poster for the patterns of i.
How do you like to decorate your walls? If you're part of the Visual Math Facebook group, I'd love for you to post your photos!
More posts:
Digital Math Escape Rooms
More posts:
Digital Math Escape Rooms
This is really intresting.. I was using the fridge posters all along which i think is effective to motivate the students but not effective to be informative.
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Thank you Christine! My students really seem to like seeing their work on the wall. I hope you have a great year!
DeleteThank you so it's a wonderful idea i will use it this year ....i wish i can find someone here to share with me ideas about math ....i'm from Algeria.......thanks in advance
ReplyDeleteAlgeria! Wow! Thank you for your comment! We have a math group on Facebook called Visual Math where teachers share ideas about teaching math to visual learners. I hope you will join!
DeleteNice indeed!
ReplyDeleteI would love to share the walls from my classroom too. We mostly have math formula as students want to remember for solving problems.
Thank you Keshab! I hope you have a wonderful school year!
DeleteI love these a lot! I just finished my first year and only wish I had found this post before. I will be incorporating some of these ideas next year! When you give tests, do you cover over the word walls or leave them up?
ReplyDeleteThank you for asking, Allison. I never covered the walls for tests. Anything that I gave in class wasy fair game to use on any assessments I gave. That being said, I had the luxury of creating the curriculum we used in class because there was no self-contained Algebra 2 or Consumer Math curriculum. If the state test was given in my room, the walls would definitely have to be covered though.
DeleteThank you for share your ideas!! I really like it! I will do it in my classroom (im a math teacher from the Patagonia Argentina).
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
Hello from Massachusetts, US! Thank you for your comment! I hope you have a wonderful school year!
DeleteDo you have the parent function people somewhere that I can purchase them or access them elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking, Elisabeth. They are a free download on the OK Math website here: http://okmathteachers.com/algebra-aerobics/
DeleteThank you so much. I am from Nigeria,hope to learn more from you .
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