Math Center Ideas for February

Shake up your math centers with these February Math Center Ideas. These center activities will get your students engaged in their learning, talking about math, and working together!

These long winter stretches are difficult in the classroom. Students are tired, cooped up inside and there are few days off. I know it can be difficult to keep your students engaged. My favorite way to keep students engaged is by changing out math centers monthly.

Ideas for Math Centers

Make Themed Activities

Each February students look forward to Valentine’s Day. They love passing out Valentine’s to their friends, receiving Valentine’s and class parties. I have learned that by making simple things themed I get instant engagement. One of my math center ideas is to take the skill you need your students working on, for me this was time, and make it themed. This is where ValenTIME was born.

Add Fun Clipart

This next math center idea is fun and cheap way to shake it up. You can take an activity from drab to fab just with some clipart. Students love seeing cute animals, doodles, etc on their centers activities. I even add clipart to my daily PowerPoints and my students love to “spy” it throughout the day. Rainbow Sprinkle Studio is my favorite TPT stores to purchase clipart from.

Change Centers Frequently

My students visit the Hands On center twice a week, in that center I use these February Math Centers. Each week I put 2 new ones in the Hands On Center. This way my student do not have to repeat the same activity time and time again all month long. You can read an in depth description of what is included in these center packs here. On Friday afternoon, I have students bring me the Hands On tub, I switch out the activity real fast and they replace it. I don’t even have to stay after to prep it. Once you prep those February Math Centers once, they are done and you can reuse them year after year. It is a great teacher time saver.

Be Consistent

One of the biggest pieces of advice I got from my mentor teacher years ago was to be consistent, in every area of your classroom. One thing I notice with centers especially in primary grades is that if you are changing them often students have a hard time remembering what they are suppose to do at that center. To combat this, I use a yearlong center bundle. You can check out what I use here. This way the format is predictable and students know exactly what is expected of them at each center. All they need to know is what skill this new center is working on. This fosters independence and allows them to help each other out rather than having to interrupt my small group time.