Math Word Walls

No doubt, you've seen word walls for language literacy. What about mathematical literacy?  As part of my Capstone project for my diploma, I have began incorporating a math word wall into my room. I love it! I am so proud of my students and all of the words they are learning and using. It is fun to hear them talking during math and hear one students say to another, "You need to decompose that number first. It will make it easier to add." or "That is not a reasonable answer. Remember what Mrs. Teague said. It needs to be logical and that is way way way off!" 

How to get started: 

First, you will need to find yourself a set of word cards for the wall. these are not easy to find in stores, but luckily there are a few great downloadable ones out there. Which words you choose comes down to personal choice. What do you want your students to use the words for? How big do you want them? Do you want the definition on them? Here are some of my favourites: 

1. Broward free word wall- this is a smaller set of words but they have little pictures to help students remember what the word is- I like that!

2. 3 Word types- free- this is a neat set of words- they have the same word three times per 8.5 X 11 page. The first is just the word, the second has a word and little picture and the third has the word, picture and definition. 

3. Teachers Pay Teachers- using the search term math word wall there are many to choose from. 

4. Teaching and Tapas math word wall- this is the wall that I purchased above. It is colour coded for the main strands of math. it also includes the definition and a little picture beside each word. I liked these because they included the three items I wanted and also came in three sizes. I used the largest sized words for my wall but you can also print off smaller words for students to use at centers etc... 

5. Virginia DOE free word wall words per grade - I found these after I purchased mine and I love them! They are full page which is great for visibility in the room. They would take up more space but you could rotate words as needed. 

Now what? 

The next step is to prepare your words. I had mine printed at Staples. It cost just over $25 for my set of words. In retrospect, there are some words that I think I may never use and I could have saved some money by not printing them but then again, it is nice to have a full and complete set of words ready to go. Laminate them and you are ready to go. I keep mine separated by colour. this makes it easier to find the words suited to the strand we are learning at the time. 

Setting up your wall

There are LOTS of options here. Many who have used language word walls before may think of placing the words in alphabetical order. This is not needed for a Math word wall as it will contain a lot less words and they are grouped differently, similar to grouping a language wall by placing nouns together or colour words together.  Some people just put up the words for their present unit. So far, I have just added the words we have studied. I am not sure what I will do when our little bulletin area is full. What are your thoughts? 

Click here part 2- What to do with your wall?