December 2014 Newsletter

Seasons Greetings and a very Merry Christmas to all of our current and former students! We hope you'll find happiness in reaching out and giving to others, particularly at this time of year.

December is always a busy month at Horne Learning Services, as schedules chop and change, students stop and start, and rearrangements have to be made. What's more, Mr. Duncan is working on a new syllabus for 2015 which includes a topic for each month with fun exercises to test students' grammar, reading and comprehension, speaking, listening and creative writing skills. We hope to have the entire 2015 syllabus prepared before the end of December.

Current enrollment for Horne Learning Services is at 99% with just one space available for an adult class on a Wednesday night. Students wishing to join our classes may be added to the waiting list. This is also a good time to remind you of the Rules & Regulations page (which can be found near the top of the blog). Please have a careful read of these items which have been designed through past experience, so that both you and us can move smoothly through our English learning journey together.

December 2014 is under way and this month students will enjoy Christmas wordsearches, making snowflakes, designing a Christmas tree, writing a letter to Santa Claus, and more speaking opportunities. It should be a fun month to end the year!

2014 Syllabus

We hope everyone enjoyed the New Year celebrations, wherever in the world you may be.

We are welcoming back students old and new to our classes, which are filling up quickly. Please be aware that Thursday afternoon is the only class remaining for children with available spaces.

During the Christmas and New Year holiday I've been busy preparing the new syllabus for 2014 at Horne Learning Services. A lot of the exercises which our students are accustomed to will remain, but there are some new additions too.

Once every 2 months (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep, Nov) we will be conducting a variety of grammar exercises from The Word Bank, a more fun and flexible way of learning tense work, nouns, verbs and adjectives, synonyms and antonyms, word lists and making sentences.

During the same months we will be continuing Movie Week, essentially a listening test with comprehension questions, but doing so by watching a fun movie.

During the months of February, April, June, August and October there will be a Games Week where we'll be learning English in a fun way by making short stories as a class, doing word searches, and other games.

A new addition for 2014 is Exam Week. There will be five Exam Weeks, held on the 4th week on the same months as Games Week (mentioned just above). Exams will involve vocabulary, speaking, reading, writing and grammar exercises. Results will be recorded and passed to parents. (Exam Week will only be for students who are capable of reading and writing and who can understand and answer grammar questions. Those of a lower standard will continue with simple exercises)

Activities including speaking, creative writing, reading and word games will remain on the syllabus. We are confident our students will enjoy the variety of exercises, a  more fun way of learning, as well as being more accountable to their parents through exams every two months.

July in review

July was an exciting month for us at Horne Learning Services. It has passed by so quickly as well. Today is the 4th week of July where students will be speaking about what they would wish for if they had 3 wishes. They will also be doing some creative writing, which they enjoy a lot. 

This week I'll also be taking 10 minutes or so for students to fill out a short questionnaire to see how they feel about our English classes. In order to keep this blog up to date, we'll also be taking some class photos.

Last week we watched the movie "Ratatouille" with our students. It was lots of fun and generally they answered the questions very well.

On the 1st week of July we had a speaking exercise where students got to know each other by asking set questions and writing down the answers. They then wrote a paragraph about each person.

Despite having a few malay students temporarily stop classes for the fasting month, we have also welcomed several new students and look forward to working with them.

We will shortly be planning the agenda for August.

H is for Horne Learning Services

(During the month of April we are participating in an A-Z challenge hosted by Arlee)

We'd love your support by 'like'-ing us on facebook. Just click here: 

HLS English Classes Kuantan

H is for Horne Learning Services. We are a licensed company founded by my wife and I, providing English training to people of all ages in the Kuantan area of Malaysia. See the "About Us" page for more info on us.

Horne Learning Services has a reputation for providing precise English training incorporating a fun approach to learning with word games, movie listening tests and creative writing and speaking exercises.

It is great to be involved in helping students young and old get to grips with the English language and opening up a world of possibilities for them in the future!

If you haven't already done so, you can show your support by taking a moment to "Like" our HLS English Classes Kuantan facebook page. Just follow the link at the top of the post ;)

How has the English language blessed your life?

Reading Comprehension

Image taken from http://literacy-builders.blogspot.com/2011/11/assigning-reading-comprehension-vs.html

Yes, reading is very good for you. I used to read a lot of books, but now I find myself reading blogs a lot more often. I'd love to get back to the books ;)

This week in our English classes we are conducting a reading comprehension exercise for our students.

I am very particular about creating my own syllabus, from grammar exercises to spelling tests, essays to creative writing topics, and speaking questions to reading articles.

I wrote all of our short stories myself, one set for primary children, and a higher level set for secondary and adults. For the questions, I have formulated some comprehension questions about the story mixed with grammar questions, creative thinking requirements, word games related to the story, and various other things.

It keeps them busy and actively engaged in the very good habit of reading! This week's reading articles are about relationships and a magic badminton racquet . . .

Until next time . . . happy reading!

English Workshop @ Vistana Hotel, 10th Nov, 2012

We held our 4th English Workshop of the year at Vistana Hotel on Saturday 10th November, 2012. The English Workshop was attended by 37 children, some of them our English students, some joining one of our activities for the first time.

Group photo of a session of the English Workshop held at Vistana Hotel Kuantan

The children enjoyed a number of exercises including:

• The shoe game
• Word Cloud (Creative writing)
• Map of Malaysia comprehension activity
• (Separate worksheets for the kindergarten children)
• Listening Test
• Pictionary
• Treasure Hunt

Refreshments were provided afterwards, as usual.

Tucking in to the food

9AM SESSION

Leah takes a seat at the back as the children get to work at the Treasure Hunt

Children trying to solve the Treasure Hunt clues and questions:

Treasure Hunt 9AM session:

Treasure Hunt winners

2nd place

3rd place

4th place

Group photo of the 9AM session of the English Workshop at Vistana Hotel, Saturday 10th November, 2012

1PM SESSION

Children participating in the Treasure Hunt:

Treasure Hunt winners from the 1 PM session:

2nd place

3rd place

The 1PM session group photo at English Workshop, Vistana Hotel Kuantan, Saturday 10th November, 2012

4.30PM SESSION

Children doing activities at the English Workshop:

Treasure Hunt winners at the 4.30PM session of the English Workshop

2nd place

3rd place

Group photo of the 4.30PM session of the English Workshop at Vistana Hotel, Saturday 10th November, 2012

Thank you to all those who attended the English Workshop. Hope you had a lot of fun learning English through games and fun exercises. 

Until next time . . .

English Workshop 1st September, 2012

Our 3rd English Workshop of the year was a success and was attended by 32 children over 3 sessions. Vistana Hotel provided the setting for us, with a nice Function Room and some good refreshments.

The agenda for the Workshop included:

• Ice-breaking
• Pictionary
• Boggle
• Speech
• Listening Test
• Treasure Hunt

The children really enjoyed themselves. This time we gave everyone individual points for how well they performed on each task. 

At the end of each Workshop the points were totalled and a winner declared. So here are the three winners:

9am session winner: Karthik

1pm session winner: Jia Qi

4.30pm session winner: Ken Foong

Congratulations to our three winners who scored the most points in word games, writing, listening and speaking exercises!

Here are some photo highlights of each session of the English Workshop:

9AM SESSION

And here are the treasure hunt winners!

2nd place:

3rd place:

4th place:

9am session group photo:

1PM SESSION

Speaking topic - "If I could go to the moon, I would . . . . ."

Speaking topic - "If I was the Vistana Hotel manager, I would . . . ."

1pm session treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

1pm session group photo:

4.30PM SESSION

Treasure hunt winners:

2nd place:

4.30pm session group photo:

Thanks to all of the children who attended this English Workshop, and for their parents who support us in this event.

The final English Workshop of the year will be held some time in November, 2012.