Math Classroom Ideas (A Photo Tour)

I’ve been blogging on Ladybug’s Teacher Files for over 12 years now…yet somehow, I always fail to share a complete classroom tour. I am determined to do so today!

I don’t have a traditional classroom anymore (I moved to a math coaching position in 2020). I do have a classroom, however…a little math classroom! And I wanted to share a tour of my space with you, in case you are looking for some math classroom ideas…or if you are also a math coach setting up your special math space.

Two Things to Note

There are two things I should explain first.

• This is a hybrid classroom. I share the space with my dear colleague, our reading specialist. We split our classroom in half, but we also set aside a good portion of our room to create a designated space for our daily PLCs. (I’ll share more about this at the end of the post).

• Our classroom is old and it will show. We are in the 1940s building of our school and while we tried to paint, you may see evidence of age in these photos!

Math Classroom Ideas

My math classroom has two main areas: an instructional space for my students, as well as a small teacher space where I store my items.

Most of my classroom is designated for my students and the manipulatives we use each day.

The front of our math classroom features these drawers from IKEA:

I’ve had these plastic mason jars for years now (they don’t have the clear in stock, unfortunately). They are great for storing markers for anchor charts and math manipulatives (more about that further down this post).

I also LOVE to use these little jars to organize math manipulatives for each student. It’s an easy, low-cost solution that saves so much time in counting out materials…like counters!

I share more about this here: Organizing Math Manipulatives: 2 Ways to Save Tons of Time

(this color-coded hundreds chart is a new resource I’ve been using with my primary students this year)

I try to keep this countertop pretty clean, as it’s the first place your eye goes to when you see our math classroom.

I do keep some of our math visuals ready-to-go at the front of the class, such as our beloved multiples charts (I have a post on how we use multiples charts instead of multiplication tables). We use these charts often so it’s nice to have them right there:

One other important thing that helps me SO much is our digital clock:

I’ve had this clock for years and it has helps me keep right on time with lessons and meetings. It’s a nice, large size so it’s easy to see when you are on the fly!

The front of our math classroom also features our mini ClearTouch Panel. This digital panel can fold into a tabletop surface but it only raises to the height you see here, so I do need a chair beside it when I’m using it with my students:

The modular seating is something I’ve also had for many years. These pieces are by Learniture and have stayed in amazing shape for a long time now!

I recently moved things around and put the modular seating near the panel for our initial mini-lesson. Then my students move the seating to the table for some hands-on work with math manipulatives:

Math Manipulatives Storage

Speaking of manipulatives, this is pretty much the focal point of our math classroom.

Math manipulatives are such an important tool in supporting productive struggle and building a strong foundation for all math concepts.

And this is one of my favorite math classroom ideas…it’s an area that is always evolving and changing, as I acquire new manipulatives and organize items to send out to our classroom teachers in math toolkits.

As I shared earlier, I love to use plastic mason jars for our manipulatives. I place our most-used materials in these jars so my students can grab them whenever needed:

I have a post explaining more about these jars and other ideas here: 3 Ways to Save Time in Math Every Day.

This includes linking cubes, counters, place value disks, and fraction bars:

Place value disks are easily one of our most-used math manipulatives. I have a post about introducing place value disks to students (along with a little freebie!) here.

I also display our number posters in this area, for my younger students to access with ease. And, in all honesty, to cover up some terrible parts of that wall!!

My FAVORITE part of this area is the shelving with plastic bins for all of our other math manipulatives:

These bins hold a great amount and are crystal clear, making it easy to find what we need in no time.

No labels are needed and those beautiful manipulatives add so much color to our math classroom!

(if you’d like to read more about manipulatives, be sure to check out this post on using color tiles for so many concepts in math!).

Storage for Teacher Materials

I said goodbye to a teacher’s desk MANY years ago in my classroom, and the same holds true in my math classroom today.

I do have a few designated spots for my materials, but the bulk of the space is really for my students.

I use this little plastic drawer unit to store my markers, flair pens, paperclips, lotion, etc:

This is also home to my newest favorite item, our incredible pencil sharpener!

This sharpener holds the pencil while it sharpens and releases when the pencil is ready. It also creates a SUPER sharp point that does not break…my students and I love it so much!

I store any paper files I need in a file organizer in this area as well. I have files for grades K-5, so I use these color-coding file labels to help me find paperwork quickly:

To make the most use of our small space, I also use the back of these shelves to store student binders for my math groups…and binders for all of our classes:

(The binder spines feature student names in white but I blurred them out for privacy here.)

Our PLC Space

My math classroom is pretty small but I don’t mind at all…I love the layout this year. But one of my other favorite parts of the room is our shared space for daily PLCs:

We wanted to create a welcoming, comfortable space for our meetings. We got a lovely white dining room table from IKEA and six of these chairs for our PLCs and other meetings. This area has been a HUGE hit with our staff!

The chairs are super comfy (and nice and warm in the winter time!). They are large enough to curl up in and really make our space inviting and spacious for our teachers.

We have some special teacher-only supplies at this table as well. I found these pens, pencils, and highlighters…I switch out the colors for the seasons (it’s all set up for the winter shades of January right now!).

I’ll take some more pictures of our PLC space in the new year so you can get a better look at that area.

Math Classroom Ideas

I think I linked everything up in this post…but I know how it is if you are a visual person, so you can also see these items in my Amazon storefront.

Please click below to check out these resources: