Whether your students are counting down the days until holiday break or ringing in the new year ready to learn, you can build a flurry of math fact excitement with engaging winter bulletin board ideas.
How can I use math bulletin boards to motivate students?
Bulletin boards are powerful tools that make learning visible and foster a sense of classroom community. These visual representations allow students to actively participate in their learning and make connections across content. And they’re great ways to track and celebrate individual and group goals, especially in math.
Adaptive and individualized, ExploreLearning Reflex is the most effective (and fun!) system for mastering basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division for grades 2+. As students complete game-based challenges, teachers can celebrate growth every step of the way with insightful reporting tools that make measuring progress easy.
Take your Reflex implementation to the next level this winter with bulletin boards using data from your Reflex individual and group fluency reports. With a visual display, students will stay motivated to tackle new math fact milestones to see their growth displayed alongside their peers.
Reflex winter bulletin board ideas to try in your classroom
Here are some winter-themed challenges to try this season, but the options are endless for your group of students. You can create bulletin boards for your room or activate some friendly competition among different classes or grade levels with a hallway display. Be sure to include your learners in the bulletin board ideation process to reinforce a sense of personal ownership over their math growth. Students can help by voting between design themes or discussing how the board will be used to track their progress.
You can also download and print Reflex characters from the Reflex Engagement Kit available in the Educator Resource Hub. Grab some butcher paper and festive cheer, and get ready for a blizzard of newfound math fact engagement!
Fill the Snowglobe
Create your own classroom blizzard with a snowglobe progress tracker like Bobbi Lee Watson did with her students at David Leech Elementary in Leechburg, Pennsylvania. “Fourth-grade students challenged the third-grade students over winter break. The goal was to see which class could earn the most snowflakes to fill their snow globes. Students were awarded one snowflake sticker per each day they reached their Green Light. Students who reached their Green Light every day of the challenge were awarded double snowflakes. The challenge was well received, and the losing class requested a rematch,” said Watson.
Trim the Tree
Foster festive classroom excitement with a Christmas tree-themed bulletin board. Callie Jones, a 4th-grade teacher, uses this December bulletin board idea with her students at Mahaffey Elementary School in Klein, Texas. Jones tracks her students’ fluency using the Reflex fact pyramid reports. “Whenever the students reach 100%, they receive a tree to place on the board. The tree is the fully green-colored fact pyramid with the student’s picture attached. Reflex is one of the most fun ways to get kids mastering their facts in my class.”
She also keeps track of high scores on a whiteboard in her classroom. “The students in my class have time to get on Reflex daily to master their ‘high scores’ and have a chance to have their name on the high score whiteboard. If a student’s score is still on the board on Friday, they receive a small prize. The high scores are erased each Monday for a new chance to have a high score,” said Jones. “Fourth grade is the year of multiplication and division, so Reflex has definitely helped our students achieve their regrouping with multiplication and long division way quicker!”
Host a Winter Race
Motivate your students with a Reflex clothespin bulletin board like Heidi Butkus used in her 2nd-grade class in California. Start the board by giving each student a number and a piece of string. Students can earn a clothespin to add to their string after they’ve mastered a particular fact group. The first to fill up their string “wins” the race!
Embrace the winter spirit by adding personal touches that fit your theme and time of year, such as presents, sleds, hot cocoa mugs, New Year’s confetti poppers, or mittens.
Get Frosty
Build a snowman while building math fact fluency! This arctic-themed display is a dual classroom motivator and a take-home piece that families will enjoy. 2nd-grade teacher Ashley Seitz uses this winter bulletin board idea with her Florida students in Escambia County School District. Seitz’s students receive snowman “pieces” weekly based on predefined criteria. “Students must get at least two Green Lights on Reflex per week, do a 15-minute session for three days, and get a percentage passing rate above 75%. I review their data each Friday, and they add their pieces to fill in their own snowman,” said Seitz.
Seitz discovered Reflex through the grant program after searching for a program to help her students get all her students to become fluent in their addition and subtraction facts 0-10 and prepare for 3rd-grade multiplication. Seitz also prints out Reflex certificates when her students reach milestones. “I have 2nd graders working on multiplication fluency, which has blown my mind!”
Show Math Facts Some Love
Math doesn’t have to be icy this Valentine’s Day. Boost student engagement in February with heart-themed bulletin board challenges that will inspire math fact fluency growth.
Monique Goddard, a 2nd-grade teacher at Syracuse Arts Academy North in Utah, motivates her students with a silhouette and paper heart display. “At the beginning of the year, we do student silhouettes. It’s a fun way to get to know each other. We take a baseline fluency measure, and then every time a student improves 10 facts, they earn a heart for their silhouette. It’s simple, but the kids love to see their hearts go up! It helps motivate and track,” said Goddard.
“I have tried teaching math facts a million different ways–with games, with incentives, with rewards–but I have yet to see success like the success I’ve seen this year. Reflex is easy to access and log on to. It’s effective. The program’s engagement has helped all my kids grow exponentially. I have several students who are already 100% fluent on their addition and subtraction facts and have moved on to multiplication and division. It’s exciting!”
You can also create a “heartbreaker” bulletin board for an engaging contest to see which grade level or classroom can earn the most Band-aids to fix a broken heart. In addition to her snowglobe math fact challenge, Bobbi Watson used this display for a “We Love the Weekend” challenge at her school in Pennsylvania. “Students were awarded Band-aids to mend each class’s broken hearts. For each weekend day that students reached Green Light status, they were awarded a Band-aid to put on the class heart. Snow days earned triple Band-aids,” said Watson.
Other ways to celebrate Reflex progress this winter
Don’t let the math fact motivation freeze! In addition to winter bulletin boards, boost student motivation and recognize achievement with these ideas:
- Reward fluency growth with brag tags, pencils, bracelets, and other Reflex swag
- Distribute character-based ExploreLearning coloring sheets
- Print and display Reflex student milestone certificates
- Pass out free and affordable classroom rewards
- Provide students an incentive to participate in engaging winter STEM classroom activities
The winter months are a perfect time to motivate students and celebrate their Reflex milestones. Try Reflex with your class and experience the winter flurry of math fact fluency growth for yourself.
