Back to School Math Bulletin Board Ideas

So you have a big, blank bulletin board in your math classroom that has seen better days. Maybe the cork is falling off, or maybe it was an old chalkboard that needs a new life. Let's jump right in with a super simple idea for starting fresh and creating a colorful background for your bulletin board-- dollar store tablecloths. The tablecloths I found were 54-inches by 108-inches, so one will cover an entire 4-foot x 8-foot bulletin board. 

I trimmed a black tablecloth to 4-feet x 4-feet by measuring and cutting the tablecloth while folded hotdog, then trimming off the width to 4 feet. Because the tablecloth is so thin, it won't fall down if you secure it with staples or even clear tape.

The background of this "How to be a math person" math bulletin board is made from a black dollar store tablecloth. The bulletin board reads: 

How to be a 

MATH PERSON

1: Do math

2: Be a person

Here is a closeup of the mathy borders I used around my bulletin board. They come in a few different styles. 

One idea for using your classroom bulletin board space is to hang student work. Even my juniors and seniors liked seeing their work displayed. We called this space "The Fridge" and hung work in a completely haphazard way with super strong magnets. You can download the printable letters in a few different formats here. 

I have seen other teachers choose to display student work in a more orderly way on hanging clipboards or in page protectors attached to the bulletin board.

Most of my classroom bulletin board space was used to display our math word wall. During lessons if a student got stuck, I could quickly point to a reference on our word wall to get them over the hurdle. This allowed me to keep the rest of my class focused while addressing the student's question. Students also used our word wall during independent work. I wrote a blog post about the 5 ways math word walls changed my teaching here.

Posters and anchor charts are great for large bulletin boards because they fill up the space quickly and can be swapped out easily. This "Welcome, Math Person! poster prints on 4 pages that tape together after a little trimming. It reminds students that we are all math people as they enter your classroom for the first time.

When I ran out of bulletin board space, I started hanging things on our classroom walls. They were cinder block, and the only thing I found to work was blue Loctite mounting putty. If you have walls that you are not allowed to mark and that are not cinder block, one tip is to use painter's tape and hot glue. The painter's tape goes on the wall (sticky side flat on the wall), then the hot glue goes between the painter's tape and what you're hanging. 

My friend Carrie sent me this great photo of her classroom wall space covered in her students' back to school math pennants. The pennants have different glyph questions like "name", "birthday", and "favorite color". The finished pennants made a colorful student-created bulletin board display.

Math is so closely tied to our self-esteem, and no matter how hard we study there are going to be hard days. A math bulletin board can be used to display motivational messages to students. There are so many great posters and other printables out there. This "Why I Can Do Math" bulletin board reminds students that they are strong and capable.

Students answer 10 questions about themselves that are all answered with numbers in this back to school standing name plate math activity. The questions are editable so that you can change them to best fit your students.

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