Math classroom decoration ideas

I've written a lot about math classroom decor, but I didn't always have my classroom walls covered. It wasn't until years after starting teaching that I hung my first anchor chart. 

Since then, I have come to believe 100% in math word walls for building vocabulary, background knowledge and student confidence. And when a student needs a reminder of past material or that he or she CAN do it, it's so much easier to point to a wall reference than to stop class. Math word walls have completely changed my teaching.

In this post I wanted to show you some of the math classroom decorations that have hung in my math classroom over the years. It's all either functional or self-esteem-building.

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. (There are some free THE FRIDGE letters linked in that post.)

This is a part of our math word wall that is a total hodgepodge in this photo! I've since updated some parts. You can see more of my classroom word walls in the post High School Math Word Wall Ideas.

There are also some ideas for middle school in this post: Middle School Math Word Wall Ideas.

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. 

A couple years later when teaching a study skills class to sophomores, many of them were struggling with angle pairs in their Geometry classes. So this parallel lines cut by a transversal poster was for them. It's a good replacement for the fading cut-paper poster. Students can either use it in their notebooks as a reference or it can be enlarged for the wall. 

Even though I haven't officially taught Algebra 1 in years, re-teaching and reviewing Algebra 1 topics in Algebra 2 is always needed. This is another hodgepodge word wall. 

It soon became clear that just having the slope formula and y=mx+b weren't enough. I found myself drawing linear graphs on the board so much to link our Algebra 2 concepts back to Algebra 1 that I needed a better math word wall reference for linear equations. So that summer came an updated version that worked much better for my students.

This linear equations reference is so simple but it has been so useful. When I introduce initial height in quadratic word problems I can easily link back to y-intercept at time 0. And when we learn about zeros. I can quickly show that the y values should be 0 when an object is back on the ground. 

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.

And this one by Ms. Paulus. There are so many more great ones to see in the post.

This "How to be a Math Person" poster is one I made recently, and if I wasn't on a leave of absence from teaching to be home with our daughter, it would already be hanging on my classroom wall. 

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.

There are more math pennants to see here: math pennants.

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 decor 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.

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!