Exponent Rules and Naming Polynomials

I love teacherspayteachers. The graphic organizer from all things algebra is the bomb dot com. It was a great asset prior to playing algebra wars. I had a few errors like a missing negative sign, so that needs to be fixed prior to posting it.  I cut the foldable so the kids had their chart of squares that they need to remember on the side. If you are like my students and wonder why I skipped 14 squared, I told them I have rarely used it in higher math classes. Using this logic, I probably should have put 20 squared.

I play the video by the Ohio school of mathematical magic. Yes, that is not their name, but play one of their songs in class and BAM. Magic!  The kids are humming the tune down the hallway.

Students look like I have just taught them how to cheat when I show them how to put rational exponents in the calculator. But it gets students saying this is easy. 

I tell students that radical signs remind me of division symbols. We always divide the number "under the hat" (elementary term) by the number on the outside. This time we call it the index. The only thing I had to push hard was the square root is an exponent of 1/2. 

These types of questions pop up on the EOC every year. I see kids get overwhelmed by the equation prior to seeing that they can plug it in the calculator. Input major emphasis on these word problems. 

Colors are key to learning as visual learners. Tomorrow I will take care of my kinesthetic learners taking another example from Math = Love.