Math SignalAll worksheetsGrade 1Grade 2Grade 3Grade 4Grade 5Grade 6Generator
Worksheets › exponents and square roots

Exponents Worksheets

This page makes free printable exponents worksheets on demand: press the button and you get a new sheet of 20 problems with a matching answer key, ready for US Letter or A4 paper. You will see items like √49 and √16 on the printed page, with 7 and 4 waiting on the answer key so nobody has to redo the arithmetic.

📄 EXPONENTS WORKSHEETS — A NEW SHEET EVERY TIME YOU PRESS THE BUTTON
🎲 New set of problems

‘New set of problems’ opens the generator in its own tab. There you can change the problem count and turn the answer key on or off. ‘Print or save as PDF’ opens the print dialog — choose Save as PDF in the printer list to keep the file. The sheet fits US Letter and A4, and the answer key prints on its own page.

What this worksheet practises

Because each sheet regenerates, the base and the power vary rather than settling into the familiar small cases.

Knowing the squares up to about fifteen by heart pays for itself repeatedly in later work with area, right-angled triangles and quadratics.

The commonest error is treating the exponent as a multiplier. It survives far longer than teachers expect, because the two operations agree for one particular case and disagree for √16.

This sheet uses bases to 9 and squares to 144, so the answers remain calculable without a calculator.

In US classrooms these exponents worksheets are commonly aligned with the expressions and equations strand for grade 6, though the exact wording varies from state to state.

Sample problems from the current sheet

These six come from the sheet loaded on this page. Press the button and the numbers change, but the shape stays the same (bases to 9 and squares to 144).
#ProblemAnswerWhat to check
1√49 =7Watch for: multiplying the base by the exponent
2√16 =4Check: getting the root of a non-square wrong
33^4 =81Look at: losing track of the base in a chain
42^3 =8Ask about: confusing the square with double
5√25 =5Watch for: writing the exponent full size
6√4 =2Check: mishandling a power of one

One problem worked through

Work 2^3 out loud as a demonstration. It gives 8. Children who hear 2^3 reasoned through once at the start of a session make noticeably fewer errors in the ten minutes that follow.

Here is one worked through. √16 gives 4. If your child arrives somewhere other than 4 on √16, look at the working rather than the answer: nearly every wrong result comes from a skipped step, not an unknown fact.

Where children usually slip up

Getting the most out of 10 minutes a day

  1. Write the finish time and the score at the top of every sheet. Two weeks of those two numbers tells you more about progress on exponents and square roots than any single test result.
  2. Read the first two problems out loud together before starting the clock. It costs fifteen seconds and removes most of the 'I did not understand the question' errors.
  3. Stop the session at the time limit even if the sheet is unfinished, and note where the child got to. A half sheet done well is better data than a whole sheet rushed.
  4. Use a pencil, not a pen. Children working on exponents and square roots rethink far more often when erasing is allowed, and you get to see exactly where the rethinking happened on an item like 3^4.
  5. Re-print the same skill rather than the same sheet. Because the numbers change, a child who memorised that √49 gives 7 still has to actually calculate tomorrow.

About the answer key

Keys are produced by the same code that produces the questions, so a mismatch between question and answer is not possible on these sheets.

The answer key is generated with the worksheet, not written by hand, so it always matches the sheet in front of you — √49 is listed as 7, √16 as 4, and so on down the page.

Printing on US Letter or A4

For a class set, print one sheet, press the new-worksheet button and print again. Each child gets different numbers on the same skill, so nobody can copy the answer to √49 from a neighbour.

If the problems look cramped, drop the count from 20 to a smaller number before printing these exponents worksheets; the font stays the same size and the spacing opens up.

Frequently asked questions

Why learn the squares by heart?
Because they turn up constantly in area, in right-angled triangles and in quadratics. Knowing them saves seconds on every problem that contains one.
Are square roots the opposite of squaring?
Yes, for positive numbers, which is all that appears at this level. Practising both directions together makes each of them faster.
How many different sheets can I make?
As many as you want. The numbers are randomised each time, so printing five sheets in a row gives five different sets of 20 problems on the same skill.
Is the answer key included?
Yes, on its own page behind the worksheet. For the sheet loaded right now it shows 7 for √49 and 4 for √16.

One sheet of exponents worksheets a day for two weeks will tell you more about where a child working at this level actually stands than any single long assessment.

More worksheets like this

→ Free Pre-Algebra Worksheets

Free printable math worksheets from a working math academy director in Korea. Problems come from our own code, not from a published workbook. Every sheet prints on US Letter or A4 with its answer key. All worksheets · Worksheet generator · Korean site
Last updated: 2026-09-13