High-Five Exponents

High-Five Exponents

The most common mistake students make with exponents is they multiply the base times the exponent verses the bases times itself. The purpose of this exercise is to help students recognize such error.

Write the following exponent on the board 5^3
Tell the students that the 5 represents fingers and the three represents the number of times we high-five. Therefore, have students high-five someone beside them three times.

Have students chant times between each slap
Then write the following exponent 3^5 on the board
Have students use three fingers and high-five with three fingers five separate times.
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