5 Ways to Make Math Fun for Middle School

Making middle school students look forward to an anxiety-inducing subject like math might seem like a tall order, but several small strategies can do just that. Many of these ideas focus on making math collaborative, engaging, and applicable to students’ real lives. You may not be able to make everybody love math, but you can do them a great service by meeting them in the middle and allowing them to have a voice in their education. If you’re wondering how to make math fun for middle school, we have got some fun tips for you.

5 Unique Ways To Make Math Fun For Middle School

Below, you will find some tips to help make math fun for middle school students. Let’s find out.

Tailor Lessons to Students’ Interests

Yes, this is as simple as it sounds– incorporating things that interest your students into their work will make them more likely to engage. Take the time to learn more about what your students enjoy outside of school. Maybe some enjoy sports while others are obsessing over a new movie. You can include these elements in their work, so they feel more connected to the material and to help them recognize that you care about more than just their grades.

This could also mean rethinking the environment in the classroom itself. Over 20 years later, I still remember my seventh-grade math teacher dimming the lights and quietly playing our classroom’s favorite radio station as we quietly puzzled through our algebra. It showed us that our comfort mattered to her, and it taught us that we could make challenging work more pleasant by shifting our surroundings. 

Praise Growth and Perseverance

On making math fun for middle school students, we must take a look at appreciating growth and perseverance. Even if students see a math equation about their favorite singer or TV show, they can feel defeated quickly if they sense it will be a challenge. As a teacher, you can help them build the skill of perseverance in a number of ways. Teaching students how to power through complex problems won’t just improve their math skills; it can also give them a solid foundation to manage the upcoming challenges of adulthood.

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Helping students develop a sense of confidence can start with small changes in your interactions. You can offer positive feedback for any effort that goes towards improving their math skills, no matter how small. This might look like a brief compliment on an assignment or a thumbs-up from across the room when you notice diligent note-taking. Praise doesn’t need to be loud or grand to be effective, it just needs to be genuine. It’s also important to encourage students to ask questions and respond positively when they do so. Students often hesitate to ask questions because they’re afraid of looking foolish or they feel they should already know the information, but there’s nothing wrong with asking for clarification. 

To further build their confidence, have your students work together to brainstorm a system of perseverance that they will follow as a class. For example, you might have them all agree to check their notes, review a video, and ask two other students for help before coming to the teacher. Once they’ve agreed to a specific structure, they’ll likely realize the information they need is available without your assistance, freeing up your time for students who truly need support. Plus, imagine how it would feel as a student for a teacher to ask for your feedback about how the classroom runs. Appreciating and recognising students for their small wins helps in making math fun for middle school.

Let Students Work Together

The first and the most best way to starting on making math fun for middle school is by creating a positive and collaborative culture in the classroom is a foundational element of making math enjoyable. It allows them to share knowledge with one another; an area where one student struggles might be another’s forte. They may also learn new ways of solving problems rather than being limited to the teacher’s explanation alone.

You can facilitate group problem-solving by teaching students appropriate ways to offer feedback and disagree with each other. For instance, you might give them a list of sentence starters to help groups when they arrive at multiple solutions (“I got my answer by…” or “This answer makes sense because…”). 

Beyond improving math skills, group work enables students to feel comfortable asking for help and making mistakes in front of their peers. Group activities also prepare them for professional experiences later in life, as many workplaces are pivoting towards an emphasis on open seating arrangements and team-building assignments. 

Gamify Learning with Technology

Gamification is the process of adding aspects of traditional gameplay to daily activities to make them more engaging. We have seen examples of gamified learning through apps like Duolingo and Headspace, but this concept is also growing in popularity in classrooms. Popular tools like Kahoot! and Blackboard Learn allow teachers to create short, multiple-choice quizzes that students complete on their phones while results are projected on an overhead screen.

Adding a competitive element to your classroom can help your students understand where they have room for growth in a fun and interactive way. The tools often allow students to play under a nickname, so scores can be kept anonymous for students who are less confident about their skills but still enjoy participating. Additionally, it allows everyone to participate, rather than some of the more vocal students dominating discussions. Gamification can also improve accessibility for the students in your class; this method has been shown to improve outcomes for neurodivergent students. 

Apply Math to the Real World

Another fun way of making math for middle school is to connect math to the real world. Regardless of which subject they’re learning, students often ask their teachers, “When am I going to use this in real life?” This can appear disrespectful or defiant on the surface, but it may come from a place of genuine curiosity. Rather than pushing back on these questions, lean into their desire to understand how these concepts are applicable in their lives. Here are a few ways you can make math more meaningful for your students:

Ask your students to imagine a job they’d like to have or a city they’d like to live in, and have them create a basic budget based on these factors. You can also change certain variables so they can see how their lifestyle could impact their finances.

Give them a starting dollar amount and have them plan an activity that stays within this budget. This is something you can easily tailor to their interests. For instance, they could plan their dream birthday party or an out-of-town trip to see their favorite band in concert.

Have students use a poster board to recreate a scale model of their bedroom or another favorite spot in their homes, teaching them ratios and enhancing their understanding of area and perimeter. You could also have them research new furniture items and show them how to ensure their choices will fit in the allotted space.

We hope that this article was helpful in making you understand how to make math fun for middle school. If you are a middle school math teacher and you are looking for different ways to make math fun and interesting for students, click here.