Organizing Math Centers Easily | 6 Practical Teacher Hacks

Organizing math centers is key to keeping your activities readily available and easy to find throughout the year for both you and your students. Math centers are a great way to engage your learners in hands-on learning, but they can easily become overwhelming with the amount of manipulatives, task cards, and activities involved.

Read on for 6 practical (and affordable) teacher hacks for math center organization along with some simple ways to prep your materials easily once and for all.

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Prepping For Math Center Organization

When prepping and organizing math centers, I recommend that the first thing you do is print your activities onto card stock and laminate them to begin your organization system. This ensures that your materials will last for years to come and hold up to the wear and tear of student use.

I have a personal laminator that has been a lifesaver and has become one of my favorite things for my classroom space! These can be found at Walmart, Target, or Amazon. The lamination is much more durable than the flimsy film that most school laminators have. I buy my laminating sheets in bulk from Amazon as well. 

If you do not read anything else in this blog post, please do not miss what I am about to say!

DO NOT make multiple sets of the same math center activities for each child to have their own during center rotations.

That takes up way too much time. If you are using task cards in math centers, print 1 or 2 sets onto different colored paper for students to share. The different colors allow the cards to not get mixed up.

If you prefer to print in color, label the back of each set of cards with all the same number or color to keep them from getting mixed up. 

If an activity includes some sort of game board, I make 3 sets so that they can work in partners. I never have more than 6 students in a group, so 3 copies is plenty for students to share. 

How to Organize Math Centers

When it comes to organizing math centers, I like to keep things simple, affordable, and easy for both myself and my students. There are so many ways to organize math centers, but I’m going to share 6 of my favorite easy ways to do this. The main thing is to find what works for you based off of your preferences and what you have on hand.

1. Ziplock Baggies

Ziplock bags from your local dollar or grocery store are on most school supply lists. Most of my math centers are stored in gallon ziplock bags. Each bag contains the direction pages, the recording sheets, and all the big and small pieces. 

2. Different Colored Sandwich Bags

Another great option for math center organization is to look for different colored sandwich bags at your local dollar store. I was able to find some that were red, green, and blue.

For each set of cards, I added that color of dot to the back. Then, all of the blue dot cards go into the blue bag and so on. This helps keep pieces from getting mixed up and allows for easy math center differentiation.

3. Poly Zip Folders

These poly zip folders are actually my favorite way to store my math center supplies. They are large enough to hold a full sheet of paper and still close whereas gallon ziplock bags are not quite big enough to zip shut. They can easily stand up in a file cabinet or crate whereas a plastic bag will fall down. Plus, they are more durable.

4. Manila Folders

You can also store your math centers and materials in manila folders. I recommend laminating them so that they will last. All of your pieces and recording sheets go inside.

5. Large Plastic Containers

For longterm storage, I use these 9×12 Sterilite containers. Each container holds one monthly set of math centers and stacks easily. This makes math center organization all year long and from year-to-year.

6. Drawer Carts

Drawer carts also make great storage containers for organizing math centers. I like to organize mine by math concept. I purchased this cart from Sam’s for around $25. They can also be found at Michaels and other stores. 

You can see mine in the photo below. I have a designated drawer for each concept. This is where I keep any activities related to that concept so that I can grab them at anytime. You can store your math center activities and the math manipulatives needed to complete them all in the same drawer.

Other Math Center Organization Options

Some other math center organization and storage options include plastic file folders, but just know that pieces can easily fall out of these. For long-term storage, you could use a drawer in a filing cabinet or store them in a crate. 

Now it’s time to think it through. Decide what type of storage solution is going to be best for you. Can you use something that you already have in a creative way in your classroom for math center organization? What do you need to purchase to stay organized for the entire year?

If you’re curious about how to get started with Guided Math in your classroom, fill out the form below to get this FREE eBook sent straight to your inbox!

You can also check out this blog post that explains what Guided Math is and how you can get started.

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