7 Awesome Math Bulletin Board Ideas

Before the school year starts, you want your classroom decorated and neatly put together in preparation for orientations, open houses, and parent meet-and-greets. You may have your go-to ideas that you use from year-to-year or you may want some different ideas. If you're a first-year teacher or just started teaching a new subject, coming with ideas might seem challenging. I started looking for math bulletin board ideas and here's what I've found!

Math About Us: Get the students to fill out a worksheet about themselves where they must use math equations for their fellow students to figure out the answers. For example, where it asks age, if I'm 33, I might write something as simple as 30 +3 in the block. If I want my shoe size and it's 8.5, might write ¾ + ¾ + ¾ + ¼ + ¼ + ¾ + ½ + ½ + ¼ + ¼ + ¾ + ¾ + ½ + ½ + ½ + ½ (though that's a bit complex and I could just use distributive property to make it easier). You can find a great worksheet on this Teachers Pay Teachers page for FREE!

When You Enter This Room: You can change the wording to say "Mathematicians" instead of "Scientists," and make the classroom feel like a safe, inviting place! This goes more near the door or right outside the door, but it's still a great idea!

Math Relationships: I worked with a teacher who, an open house, had the students plot on a graph their height, their age, distance from school to home, number of letters in their ages, etc., and used that information to teach the students about whether mathematical relationships existed between things like age and height or age and distance from school. This plot can go on a bulletin board in the classroom and students can use it as a way of learning about correlation.

Math Word Wall: Language Arts isn't the only place where students need to learn vocabulary. Without knowledge of math vocabulary, students cannot accurately answer questions on math exams. So much hidden vocabulary is involved in math that we just don't think about, so it's important to make sure to keep knowledge of these words and their definitions alive.

Math-Related Jobs: Answer the age-old question of "When will I ever use this stuff?" by putting up a bulletin board listing jobs that require knowledge of math. This task can really be quite easy since just about every job requires at least some use of math. You may even put a scale on the side indicating whether jobs require a small, a moderate, or a large amount of math.

Students of the Week: You can use this idea for any class. Each week, you can come up with new students of the week, leave a place for students to write positive notes about that student, and give those notes to your special student at the end of their week. I also put class helpers and their roles for each week on this board.

Inspirational Messages: I have a big length-wise poster that says "You are more intelligent and more powerful than you think" that I put up on a bulletin board. Underneath, we add words of inspiration and motivation for the students to inspire themselves with.

Maybe these bulletin board ideas sparked some creativity for the beginning of your school year (and maybe beyond). If you want more, you can search "bulletin board ideas" on Pinterest or even "math bulletin board ideas" if you want a more specific search. People post their bulletin board pictures, tips, and sometimes even free downloads. I hope your school year is full of fun, learning, and inspiration.

Do you have any bright bulletin board ideas? Please add them in the comments!