Why is a number raised to the zero power equal to 1? And why do terms with negative exponents become fractions? Are we able to see this through visual models?
Yes!
In this short video, you'll see how exponents take on a pattern and can be modeled concretely with cut paper. We'll start with 3 raised to the 2nd power and work our way to 3 to the -2.
My daughter and I recently worked on a 550-piece puzzle, which took us just under a week to complete. We worked on it on the floor a bit each day after school, hiding it from the cats each night. It had been over 20 years since I had worked on a puzzle that was more than 30 pieces (kid puzzles), so it surprised me how much we both enjoyed it. Figuring out where the pieces went was relaxing and enjoyable, and I could feel it exercising my brain in ways that it doesn't usually exercise.
Working on that puzzle with my daughter got me thinking about making puzzles, so this past week I started making some math puzzle sets that cover various curriculum topics. Students can work on these math puzzles as classwork, in centers, with a partner or as a review activity. In this post, I want to show you a few of these new math puzzles.
Perfect is so overrated. Practicing to get better is a much more attainable goal and so much less intimidating. I made this Practice Makes Better poster to help students remember that working hard and getting better is more important than being perfect.
Discussions about multiplication facts are always coming up in our Facebook group. And arguments for or against memorization of them seem to come up everywhere all the time, too. I remember panicking while waiting to recite my multiplication facts at our teacher's desk, so I get it. But I also know firsthand that not knowing their multiplication facts is a real self-esteem killer for high school students. It's not even the facts themselves; it's where they come up-- factoring quadratics, solving equations. Kids get to thinking they "can't do algebra" when it's actually a multiplication facts issue.
