Mathematical Concept Wall

In early January 2013 I read this blog by Paul Collins. I immediately fell in love with the idea and decided that I wanted my own mathematical concept wall for my classroom. I went to the TES website and downloaded the card that Mr Collins (@mrprcollins can also be found on twitter) had kindly uploaded for me. I made some cards up and gave them out as starters to all my classes. I was very impressed with the quality of some of the responses, and I realised that I would soon have far too many for the display!

The next idea was to set up an e display (http://mrcavswalloffame.wordpress.com/) and this has gone down well. This is a place where you can see all entrants. My favourite so far is:

I then thought, “what if I had a rolling display”, meaning it could be a constantly changing display. Here is a photo of it:

My next thought was to use my other board as a prize board, giving a pic of the term out, and a best in each year group:

In the bottom left you can see a holder I gave fashioned to hold blank cards, so pupils and/or staff/anyone can enter whenever they like! There is still space at the bottom, I hope to use that for a “best of past winners” section.

I have gotten the art department involved, so many pupils I wouldn’t normally see are creating art based on maths words, to enter in the display!

The display includes a QR code and a written link to the e display, and I’m thinking of procuring a photo album to keep the vest examples in as hard copies when they leave the wall.

Because we haven’t had a term yet, the “picture of the term” box was empty, so I put mine in it for now:

I’m loving the displays, and the pupils loved having a go, I will ensure each class get at least one entry per term. I think I might leave a stock in the library, and see how many come back, to enable more people to have ago. If people are thinking about maths, even in this abstract manner, it will raise the profile of the subject, and encourage creativity.