Math classroom decoration ideas

I've written a lot about the benefits I've seen come from hanging student work and math reference materials. But I didn't always have my classroom walls 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:

Here is an updated printable Quadratic Formula reference:

And an update of the radical functions reference:

There was a positive change in my classroom once I started adding student work and décor to the walls. 

Welcome, Math Person! poster

It's hard to say if this change came from my students, from me as I added more years to my teaching experience or some combination of the two, but it felt like my students became more invested. Here is "The Fridge" where my students hang their graded papers. Most of the time even my juniors and seniors choose to hang their papers 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!": 

Our classroom "Fridge"

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

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. You can see photos of them all here. 

Here is part of a new Unit Circle math word wall. Every math word wall comes in printable color, printable b&w (what I printed out) and digital in Google Slides in the same file.

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:

The divisibility rules pennant from above and this order of operations mobile are both part of my blog's free math resource library. There are letters included to make GEMDAS, GEMS and a few other acronyms.

Whenever anything related to PEMDAS comes up on Facebook, I learn of another acronym for the order of operations. The mobile has since been updated with an "Order of Operations" card for the top of the mobile.

The summer I made this linear equations reference came after a school year spent drawing linear graphs on the board over and over again in my algebra 2 classes. My students needed reminders of the x-intercepts and zeros they learned in algebra 1 as we were learning about nonlinear functions. We reference this section of our word wall almost daily. This is a photo of the updated version.

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. 

There are directions inside the download to make this larger 4-page poster. I also made a virtual version.

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 this and any PDF for free at home in this post.

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.

Back to school math pennant and glyph - print and digital

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?

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.

This slope poster is a nice reminder to students of the 4 types of 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.

While I was teaching algebra 2, I was also teaching a consumer math class to seniors. In this class we learned all about budgeting, filing taxes and the importance of keeping a close eye on percents. My students had a lot of questions about credit cards and credit scores and I was happy to answer then all. There's something really powerful about teaching students financial literacy. I put together a financial literacy word wall based on the questions that came up in class. This photo shows some of the pieces included. 

Fractions are one of those topics that just keep coming up. I made this fractions poster for a teacher who had emailed asking if I had a reference covering this skill. There's a color version included, too.

A poster for the patterns of i.

If you're into Halloween, this is a free set of 12 posters with skeletons posing as algebraic functions. 

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

New #sketchnote: The Iceberg Illusion, inspired by @matthewsyed's book "Bounce" cc @ShellTerrell @dougpete #edchat pic.twitter.com/vp3DEV9VDJ

— Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth) July 15, 2015

This Success Iceberg poster from Sylvia Duckworth will always be one of my favorite posters of all-time. 

I hung it on the old television in our classroom.

I made this billions place value reference for a 4th grade teacher who needed it for her classroom's math word wall. You can grab it from my dropbox here. The number needs a little trimming to fit together, but it's pretty easy to do. This picture is inside the PDF for reference. 

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