If you’re getting ready to teach exponents, you might be looking for a simple way to introduce the concept and help your students avoid common mistakes. Exponents can seem intimidating at first. It can be daunting when your students aren’t sure how to write them, evaluate them, or understand what they actually represent. With the right strategy, your students can build a strong foundation and confidently use exponents in their math work. Today, I’ll walk you through how I approach teaching exponents using a combo of vocabulary, visuals, and guided practice that makes the learning stick.
See Teaching Exponents in Action
Watch the two videos below for a full breakdown of how I teach exponents. We start with the core concepts and then move into guided practice. These are great for modeling in your classroom or brushing up on your own before teaching the lesson.
In this first video, I walk through essential exponent vocabulary like base and exponent. I then explain what repeated multiplication looks like and cover common mistakes.
This second video gives your students a chance to practice with you and check their understanding using real examples.
Key Takeaways From Videos
- Teach your students that the base is the number being multiplied. The exponent tells how many times to multiply it.
- Emphasize that exponential form is not the same as base × exponent. Example: 2³ = 2 × 2 × 2 = 8, not 6!
- Highlight special rules: Any number to the 0 power equals 1, and anything to the 1st power equals itself.
- Show comparison problems like 3⁵ vs. 5³ so your students can explain which is greater and why.
This kind of explicit modeling and discussion helps your students avoid common pitfalls. It also builds real understanding instead of just memorizing rules.
Extra Tips to Help You Teach Exponents
I found that having students move back and forth between expanded form and exponential form made a huge difference. For example, give your students something like 6 × 6 × 6 and ask them to rewrite it as 6³. You can also give them 4² and have them write it out and find the value.
Quick classroom tip: I always kept a visual reminder on the board that showed common errors. One of the most frequent ones is students thinking that 2⁴ means 2 × 4. Having a chart with ✘ 2⁴ = 8 ✔ 2⁴ = 16 helped catch that mistake early.
Also, powers of ten are a great opportunity to explore patterns. Once your students realize that 10² has two zeros and 10⁴ has four, they start recognizing those powers more quickly, and estimating large numbers becomes easier, too!
Additional Resources to Help You Teach Exponents
If you’re looking for a way to reinforce everything covered in these lessons, check out my Exponent Notes and Practice for 6th Grade Math. I include fold-it-up vocabulary pages, guided notes, practice activities, and exit tickets. It’s everything you need to help your students master exponents from start to finish.
You’ll get:
- A vocabulary foldable to help students define base, exponent, squared, and cubed
- Printable and digital practice pages with problems in both exponential and expanded form
- Comparison questions to deepen understanding
- Exit tickets to check for mastery
- A digital version perfect for Google Classroom
It’s a complete, scaffolded approach to teaching exponents that’s easy to prep and even easier to reuse year after year.
Save for Later
Remember to save this post to your favorite math Pinterest board for quick access to these resources to help with teaching exponents!
