Think Mentals teaches students how to break maths problems into friendly, manageable chunks. Once they can do this, students will develop the skills and confidence to perform mental computations efficiently.
The easy-to-follow weekly structure includes worked examples of strategies and carefully graded practice activities to help students achieve fluency in maths.
Day 1: Strategy
Each week begins with a new strategy. A friendly explanation is followed by worked examples and practice questions.
Days 2–4: Practice
The focus strategy is consolidated with more practice questions. Previous strategies are reinforced with revision questions. Students then tackle a variety of general fluency questions from across the ACARA content strands.
Day 5: Assessment
The weekly test combines focus, revision and general fluency questions.
The general fluency questions contain targeted concepts that are repeated throughout the week, and the level of difficulty of these concepts increases as the week progresses. This gives students a scaffolded approach to improve their maths skills.
Students who are looking for a little extra can complete the Think Box activities. Available within the revision units, these engaging problem-solving exercises are great brain training and can be solved individually or in groups.