First Week of School in the Middle and High School Math Classroom

It's almost time to head back to school, and for me this means a whole new math teaching assignment. My plan for the first day of school is to get to know students' names, have them share a little about themselves through a back to school math activity, and set a few classroom expectations especially around cell phones. 

In this post are a few back to school math activity ideas and classroom resources to help students ease into the new school year.

Editable Back to School Desk Plate

My students will make one of these back to school math name tents, which will help me get to know their names and ease them back into math after a couple months away from school. Students answer 10 questions about themselves that are all answered with numbers. The questions are ell editable, so you can change them to match what you'd like to know about students at the beginning of the school year.

Bar About Me Back to School Math Activity

This Bar About Me math activity asks students how they feel about school and about learning math. Students color their graphs based on how much they agree with the questions at the bottom. An editable version is also included, if you'd like to change any of the questions. The final graphs make a nice display and give a snapshot of each students' feelings around math and school.

Golden Spiral Back to School Math Pennant

These back to school math pennants become beautiful math classroom decor once they are all colored and hung around the classroom. Students color their pennants based on their answers to questions like "favorite class?" and "birth month?" When all colored in, the final pennants make colorful math classroom décor that can be displayed for back to school night.

Back to School Picture Puzzles Escape Room

Breaking free from this math picture puzzles escape room is a fun way for students to get to know each other while working together on the first day of school. To move to each next puzzle, students have to solve for the values of school-themes pictures and type the correct 4-letter code.

Back to School Picture Puzzles Escape Room

Editable Back to School Name Tent Math Activity

Get to know your new students through numbers with this back to school name tent math activity. It's a nice activity on the first day of school for getting to know students while quickly learning their names.

Students answer 10 questions about themselves that are all answered with numbers, and enter their numbers on the front of their name tent. The questions are editable, so you can change them to best fit your students. 

There are 2 slits in the bottom of the name tent to cut and slide together, allowing the name tent to stand on its own. 

Once everyone's desk plates are complete, students can look around the room at their classmates' numbers and see what they have in common!

Golden Spiral Back to School Math Pennant Activity

If you'd like your back to school activity to double as classroom décor, this Golden Spiral Math Pennant activity comes with "get to know you" questions. Students color their pennants based on their answers to the questions. 

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More back to school posts:

Back to School Math Bulletin Board Ideas

Math Classroom Decoration Ideas

Math Word Walls

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.

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

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.

Mr. DeVore's math word wall

This allowed me to keep the rest of my class focused while addressing the student's question.

Ms. Heaton's math word wall

Students also used our word wall during independent and group work. I also didn't cover our word wall when we had class assessments, but they do need to be covered during state tests. A dollar store tablecloth would work well for this. You can find all of the math word walls here that are in the photos. 

There are a bunch more teacher math word wall photos here.

Word problems are always such a struggle! Whether they're in elementary, middle or high school, students or all ages benefit from helpful strategies for solving math word problems. This new set of word problem strategies bulletin board posters guides students to solve any math word problem, no matter the topic.

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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Back to School in the Math Classroom

Welcome back to school in the math classroom! In this post is a collection of free back-to-school math ideas, along with math classroom decorations to make your first days of school in the math classroom engaging and inspiring. From math classroom decor to bulletin board ideas, your math classroom is covered. 

Above is a Welcome, Math Person! poster to welcome your students back and to remind them that we are all math people.

This How to be a Math Person poster reminds students all year that we are all math people. 

Our classroom fridge was a place to hang graded student work. We used those super strong magnets that held all of the papers in place. Even my juniors and seniors liked seeing their work displayed. 

I always used blue ticky tacky to hang my math word wall, but if you find that your posters fall off the walls, one classroom hack is to put blue painter's tape on the wall, then hot glue between the tape and your poster. At the end of the year, the painter's tape comes right off leaving no marks behind. 

To remind students to keep pushing even when the math gets hard, this Practice Makes Better poster also comes in a version that reads Practice Makes Progress.

Students make their own I am a Math Person self portrait to remind themselves everyday that they are math people. 

Ms. Alvarez shared this photo of her students' Math Person Self Portraits, and I love how unique each is.

I added the new 7 divisibility rule to this set of divisibility rules math pennants.

This take a break classroom poster encourages students to take a break instead of giving up. Days will get hard and we all need breaks!

Here is my daughter in her I am a Math Person crown.

This back to school math pennant activity has a Golden Spiral theme. Students can color their pennants based on get-to-know-you questions included in the activity. 

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

A math word wall with bright visuals and examples will help more of your students access the curriculum.

Here is a photo of Mr. DeVore's math word wall printed on colorful paper. Each word wall comes in printable color, printable black & white and digital in Google Slides. You can find math word walls for 2nd, 34r, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade, along with algebra, geometry and algebra 2 here: Math word walls

Laminated and sprayed with clear, flat spray paint

Back to school tip: If you choose to laminate any of your classroom references, spraying the lamination with clear, flat spray paint will take the lamination shine away. If your references are already on the wall, painting on clear flat Mod Podge also works.

These printable math bulletin board borders come in a few different styles, along with wavy edge and straight edge.

You can find all of my back to school math resources here: 

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I hope you have a great start to your school year!

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5 Ways Math Word Walls Have Changed My Teaching

Adding a math word wall to my classroom completely changed my teaching. From easily accessible reminders, to increased student independence, to making the room an inviting place to learn, there were so many positives.

In this post, I want to highlight 5 ways adding a math word wall improved my classroom, made it easier for me to teach, and made concepts and vocabulary easier to access for my students. 

(part of an algebra word wall)

I'll also include photos of the word walls I've made for grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, algebra, geometry and algebra 2.

(part of a 4th grade math word wall)

Below are the five main differences I saw when adding a visual math word wall to my classroom.

(part of a 5th grade math word wall)

Reason #1: Greater student independence

You're at the board in the middle of an amazing lesson when a hand goes up. The good thing? It's not to go to the bathroom. The bad? It is about a concept not at all related to your awesome lesson. 

(part of a 6th grade math word wall)

Students are forever asking questions that have nothing to do with what is currently happening. A lot of times these questions are long-held misconceptions or misunderstandings. Magic happens when those confusions are ironed out. Those are the "lightbulb moments" we all live for as teachers. 

Pythagorean Theorem

With references on the walls, students can independently access the information that is clogging up their thinking so that they can get back to the current topic. The boost in confidence this gives students is reason enough for a word wall. 

(part of a 7th grade math word wall)

Golden Spiral Back to School Math Pennant Activity

"A glyph?" I asked myself. "What is a GLYPH?" I asked some friends and one of them knew. 

"It's like one of those things where kids color based on things they like, like they'd color the stars yellow if their favorite class is art."

"Oh I see!" Glyphs are COOL!

This back to school math activity has a Golden Spiral theme and is a fun way to get to know students in your math classroom during the first days of school. The finished pennants make beautiful student-created classroom décor, great for decorating for back to school night. There is also a short lesson on the Golden Ratio linked inside the file. There is also a short lesson on the Golden Ratio linked inside.

After a teacher left feedback stating that she wished my Back to School Math Pennant Activity was also a glyph, I decided to add student directions to turn 2 of the pennant choices into glyphs. 

And since then, I have also added this digital version in GOOGLE Slides:

Each pennant has a Golden Spiral theme. There is also a simple lesson included that ties in the Golden Ratio in nature and the Fibonacci sequence, making this activity a perfect way to start a year of math.

My friend Karrie from Mrs. E Teaches Math sent this photo of her students' Back to School Math Pennants, and how about that wood paneling!

All 7 of the pennant versions can be given to students as free-coloring pennants. Some also have glyph questions, like "Favorite Color", "Favorite Class", etc., so that students can color based on questions about themselves. 

You can find this back to school math pennant here: Back to School Math Pennant Activity

Back to School Math Pennant Activity

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Happy Back to School Season!