Welcome to Week 5 of High-Octane Brain Fitness! THANK YOU for your feedback on Weeks 1-4!! Week 5 - which focuses on the fourth step of the EXCELS Method (Lower Stress to Boost Well-Being) - includes a salient memory technique (“Anchor and Activate”) to remember larger volumes of information with visual and movement cues, and includes practical strategies (4-6 Breathing and Mindfulness) that members will experience in class! 

As with the previous weeks, try to follow the time durations noted in the left column below. If there are delays and you are running out of time, you can always consolidate the “Recharge/Closing” section at the end of class and encourage members to review the High-Octane Navigator page on their own or in small groups (rather than reviewing it as a class).

PRIOR TO CLASS

• PRINT COLOR WORKBOOK PAGES FOR EACH PARTICIPANT (see “Workbook” button on “Facilitator Home” page)

• Bring pencils for each participant (in case they do not bring a writing utensil)

• Note that members will be recalling a word list this week (this is NOT the official word list post-test, which will be administered next week, but rather is teaching a strategy that may help them be more successful in remembering next week’s list). There are two word list recall forms included in this week’s workbook, and they do NOT have to be turned in. 

BEFORE CLASS (4 MIN)

• Greet Members 

• Play “High-Octane Calypso” as light background music to familiarize Members with it (they do not need to learn lyrics at this point).

WELCOME & CHECK-IN (5 MIN)

• (2 min) Ask Members if they have any questions or insights since Week 4. Perhaps they want to share what types of Engage & Learn activities they did in the past week?  

• (2 min) Ask Members to turn in their “Movement with Joy” Turn-In page from Week 4 (where they again totalled their weekly Movement with Joy minutes). This information will be added to their individual progress sheet that they will receive back during the last week of class!

• Remind members that page numbers AND week numbers have been added to the workbook, based on feedback! We hope this makes it faster to navigate