Introducing Exponents (Middle School)

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Here's an activity I recently used with my 9th grade class of students for whom math is a struggle. it is equally appropriate for middle school, modified as needed.
I gave them a copy of the famous "As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with 7 wives" nursery rhyme/riddle. This is well-known and many of you have probably used it. We modeled each stage of the poem using diagrams (tree model for example), multiplication in expanded form, exponent form and using a table to record the number of people or objects at each stage and the cumulative total. Pretty standard stuff...

I gave them two assessments.
1. Working with your partner, invent your own St. Ives poem. The first 2 lines had to rhyme and there had to be at least 4 levels as in the nursery rhyme. I received some interesting responses. Here are two:

K.G. and S.T. came up with:
Each girl had 5 designs.
Each design had 5 lines.
Each line had 5 colors.
Designs, lines, colors and girls.
How many all together?

K.C. and E.D. came up with:
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy did not care he had no hair.
So he went to town and found a crown.
Each crown had 5 points.
Each point had 5 diamonds.
Each diamond had 5 faces.
Faces, diamonds, points and crowns...
How many were going to town?

2. I gave a written individual assessment (pls excuse my lame attempt at poetry!)
As I was shopping in Value-Mart,
I found 9 special shopping carts.
In each cart I found 9 boxes.
In each box, I found 9 hats.
In each hat, I found 9 bats.
Bats, hats, boxes and carts,
How many did I find at Value-Mart?

They were expected to express the number of objects at each stage using both expanded and exponent notation. The calculator was allowed.
This is always a daily learning experience for me. I feel the need to be creative with this group to keep them involved and to change activities often. I know that any approach that engages their learning is worthwhile but I also know that activities do not easily transfer to traditional skills unless we enable that transfer. I also feel that the assessments for this activity were a critical piece to evaluate their learning and my instruction.

Any thoughts? See this as a waste of time? 'Fuzzy Wuzzy' math? Is this 'constructivist' according to someone's definition? Why not just define exponents and provide direct instruction? There are several other ways I get at the meaning of exponents and the ideas behind the 'laws' and 'rules' as well as zero and negative exponents. But that's another posting.
Comments??