Math - Exponents

We did Exponents today and it was a fabulous lesson.  It was one of the those lessons where everything fell into place.  I typed in "exponents" into the search bar on Pinterest and found a foldable with a sentence strip and some candy corn! The sentence strip foldable is from To the Square Inch and it was a huge hit with the students.

I asked them to fold it into 8 parts, then asked them to write two to the 6th power and then had them fill out the rest of the "boxes" created by the folds.  I did not have them fill out the last one, the answer.  I had them go back and write out the standard and then we wrote the objective and highlighted the appropriate words: repeated multiplication.  Then I asked them to figure out the answer to the sentence strip problem.

Sorry it is sideways.  I cannot figure out how some pictures turn over and some stay upright. 

After we glued our sentence strips into our journals, I handed out the candy corn blacklines to the students.  I found this on TpT via Pinterest (Stacy DiNello).  I made the definition fit my needs, but it was a great idea!

I walked the students through the definition.  Then we labeled the parts (base, exponents), reviewed the key idea: *repeated multiplication* and I asked the students to solve 4 to the 3rd power.  A few of my math whiz kids got this immediately.

Then we paused to color.  Coloring is important.  *I* find it incredibly relaxing!  The students appreciate the brain break. Please excuse my messy coloring!  I did some guided practice.  Under some of the problems, I wrote in words what the numbers were saying so the students could more easily follow along.  It was at this time that I reminded them that 4 to the 3rd power could also be identified as 4 cubed.  I showed them the 10s trick that the number of zeros was the same as the exponent number.  After we walked through 8 guided practice problems, I gave them my ticket out the door paper and had them solve two exponent problems. It was very enlightening! 19 students did this easily.  Five students were able to write the exponents, but did not do repeated multiplication.  Instead they multiplied the base by the exponent. Two students were just completely lost.  So, tomorrow, I have two small groups to work with while my other students do the independent practice on their own.  I was very pleased with the lesson outcome today.

And then do you know what happened later this morning?  My district blocked Pinterest!  Hmphf.  Now I have to email our Tech Support and ask them to unblock it.