Doing Math the Routty Way: Engaging Activities from A to Z (Day 20)

Use Bulletin Boards to Promote Challenge- One of the biggest challenges for teaching mathematics in the classroom is attending to the multitude of skills and process that must be emphasized each year. One way to utilize the extra minutes that we end up with throughout the day is to use your classroom or hallway bulletin boards as learning centers. Students can complete the activity as part of a station rotation, a menu activity, or as a fast finisher challenge. Boards can be interactive and involve students contributing solutions to one problem or situation or students can use the bulletin boards to complete the problems and then submit an individual task sheet. 

Ideas for bulletin board learning centers include: 

• problem solving
• puzzles
• function tables
• real-life mysteries
• Who Am I? challenges

The picture below illustrates a Boggle Math board in use. I found this idea on Krista Wallden's Teachers Pay Teachers website. Students create number sentences using numbers that are touching in some way, i.e. sides or corners. This activity is a great way to differentiate for students because the length of the number sentences they create is based on their individual ability and understanding of the task. This activity can also be transformed into a class game where teams of students complete to create number sentences and earn points based on the length of the sentence.