Movie Week July 2015 - Strange Magic

Strange Magic will be showing at Horne Learning Services during the last week of July 2015. It's a musical tale of two worlds that are merged into one by real love. Strange Magic fits in nicely with the theme for July, which is 'Music.'

As usual, students will be required to answer questions to test their understanding of the movie. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Movie Week - November 2014 - Tangled

It's movie week time again at Horne Learning Services, and this time it's Tangled.

Above are the main characters, Flynn Ryder, Rapunzel and Maximus, in the Disney hit, Tangled. A take on the story of Rapunzel, this movie is full of laughs and action.

Movie Week at Horne Learning Services is done under strict exam conditions of a listening test. However, students are free to laugh out loud and enjoy the movie while answering the questions :)

Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy - Movie Week September 2014

This month's movie should suit both boys and girls as it contains pirates and fairies. Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy will be showing at Horne Learning Services this week where a little sprinkling of fairy dust can go a long way!

As usual, students will have questions to answer, and due to the movie being a little shorter than usual, they will be engaged in a related speaking assignment for the remainder of the class.

Sit back and enjoy!

Movie Week for July 2014 - The Croods

The Croods is an excellent movie which depicts a family of cave dwellers who eventually open their eyes to new horizons. Mr. Crood is a stubborn father who only wants to protect his family and whose rules are threatened by the arrival of Guy, who becomes friendly with his daughter and offers greater optimism for the future.

As usual, we have prepared questions which will test students' comprehension skills. So sit back, get your pencils ready, and enjoy the show!

Movie Week in January - Home Alone 3

In January, students will be watching and listening carefully to Home Alone 3. A young boy, Alex, inadvertently comes into possession of an expensive and dangerous computer chip. Four crooks do all they can to find it, only to fall victim to Alex's many booby traps throughout his house!

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.

Johnny English Reborn - Movie Week

As it's Christmas, we are conducting another Movie Week this month, featuring Rowan Atkinson again, the famous actor who plays Mr. Bean and Johnny English.

In this Johnny English sequel, Rowan Atkinson stars once again as the MI7 detective who is charged with stopping the planned murder of the Chinese Premier by a secret organization called Vortex. He soon discovers that the key member of Vortex is one of his own. As can be expected, the story develops with many funny twists and turns. Eighteen questions await our students to test their reading, comprehension and listening skills.

November 2013 Movie: Johnny English

Rowan Atkinson provides the entertainment for our latest Movie Week as he stars in "Johnny English" as an English secret service detective.

Pascal Sauvage, a French heir to the English throne forces the Queen to abdicate so he can become King and create the largest prison in the world - encompassing the whole of England.

The nutty Johnny English, and his more rational sidekick Bov, set out to thwart Savage's plans, with many laughs along the way!

November and school holidays are fast approaching

November is almost here, which also means the long school holidays are upon us. We will soon be planning the schedule for November 2013 which will include "Movie Week", a student favourite, and "Games Week." Games Week includes games such as Scrabble, Pictionary, Boggle and Connect 4 among others.

Posing with students in our Tuesday morning class

We like to unwind a little with our students during the school holiday by planning some fun exercises and just going a little easier.

Two of my students on Tuesday night performing a dance routine at the end of a recent class

We wish a "Happy Holidays" to our students and hope you enjoy our November classes starting next week!

The Pink Panther - Movie Week September 2013

The Pink Panther features for movie week this September at Horne Learning Services.

Steve Martin plays the role of the haphazard police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. He is assigned to solve a murder case in which a diamond (the pink panther) is stolen.

There are many funny twists and turns as Inspector Clouseau unwittingly makes his way through the plot. I'm sure students will find this movie very entertaining while answering 16 questions to test their listening and observation skills.

Here's a little teaser for you to laugh at. English pronunciation humour!

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.

Movie Week for July - Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a 2007 movie made by Disney. A rat named Remy has developed quite a taste for food and one day discovers that he has been living in the marvellous city of Paris. Getting lost from his family, he ends up at a famous restaurant where an apprentice chef takes him under his wing, (or I should say, under his hat) and he becomes the architect of the most delicious food in town.

As usual, there are 20 questions prepared to test my students listening and observation skills. This is a fun movie and we are looking forward to watching it with our students next week!