Math classroom decoration ideas

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! 

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!"

This is a photo of our main math word wall, before it was updated. On it are references for domain, range, projectile motion, functions and some Geometry vocabulary words that have since gotten an upgrade.

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. 

Here is another hodgepodge math bulletin board with references for algebra 1 topics. I found that my algebra 2 students needed reminders for slope, linear equations and graphing, which is how some of the references on this board came about.

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. 

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.

And here is another free slope poster for 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.

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

Math Pennants

Math Word Walls