Think Mentals
Teach mental computation the friendly way
Think Mentals is the friendly approach to quick and efficient mental computation, with explicitly taught strategies and plenty of scaffolded practice.
Strategies
Friendly mental computation strategies for students
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.
View the Strategy Overview Guide to get a snapshot of when strategies are introduced and revised within each year level. View the Strategy Alignment Guide to see how the strategies align across year levels.
Practice and assessment
Structure and consistency across the week
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.
More than just mental maths
From scaffolded questions to extra challenges
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.
Books or digital
Choose the format that suits your classroom
Student Workbooks Years 1–6
Enjoy the convenience of a workbook, with each year level carefully sequenced into weekly units of work. Don’t forget to also sign up for the free projectable answers.
Digital Years 2–6
Enjoy the benefits of a digital platform, with the planning, marking and reporting done for you. To top it off, teachers and students get access to all year levels of content.
Think Mentals Digital gives you even more!
Watch the Think Mentals Digital video to find out how the digital platform enhances the teaching and learning experience.
Use the captivating teaching resources 
Engage students with easy-to-understand videos and stepped-out slideshows to explicitly teach and consolidate the application of each strategy.
Watch a sample strategy video: Year 4: Addition Strategy Friendly Balance
Save time with automatic marking 
Enjoy the convenience of automatic marking for every activity. Not only does this save valuable time for teachers, it also provides students with instant feedback on their answers. A win-win for everyone!
Track students’ performance in real time
Monitor student performance with the Activity Tracker. Students’ results populate in real time, allowing for prompt and effective intervention when they need a helping hand.
View collated results in student and class portfolios
Activity and assessment results are collated in student and class portfolios so everything you need for reporting and data analysis is ready when you want it.
Free professional learning and support
Workshops, articles, videos and more
We understand that ongoing professional learning leads to consistent and successful implementation of instruction. Our team has a wealth of teaching experience and provides a range of tailored professional learning opportunities to continually support you and your school in using the Think Mentals resources.
Request a workshop for your school, register for one of our virtual workshops, browse our professional learning articles, or simply reach out to your local education consultant anytime of the year with your questions.