Love is...

Valentine’s Day or Day of Love ❤️ is celebrated annually on February, 14 when people all around the world express their affection with greetings and gifts. English Speaking Club for adults conducted an online meeting yesterday where we of course 😉 talked about love. We started off with a warm up activity “Talk for 1 min about something you love”. English Practice 🇬🇧🗣, Reading 📚, Food 🥘, Job 💻 were on the list of favorites of our members. After that we watched a short video clip and tried to think about its message. Then we came up with some ideas where people usually meet friends or partners nowadays and what stages they go through. We also looked through some phrasal verbs such as ask out, go out, open up, move in, settle down, lead on and break up. At the end we did a fun activity “Mad Libs” which was exciting.

"I have a Dream"

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American activist who became the visible spokesman and leader in the civil rights movement and becauseof him there is a federal holiday in the USA, which is observed on the third Monday of January each year. 

Thus, January 18 Window on America Center for Future Leaders held a meeting of English Speaking Practice which we dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We looked through the history of this holiday in the USA and discussed questions like “How can we fight against unfair treatment today?” and “What is freedom for you” which are still very important to think a out. We also watched a short video clip of Martin’s famous speech “I have a dream” and shared our own ideas to this topic. Most of people said that their dream was to have peace in the world and find some cancer and COVID 19 treatments.  

Love Your Pet Day

On February 20th, pet lovers everywhere observe National Love Your Pet Day, so Window on America for Future Leaders Kherson held an online meeting of Speaking Club dedicated to animals and pets. Anna Reznik prepared some discussion questions and after that we learned some useful phrases and idioms. A lot of our visitors have more that one pet so they shared some funny stories about their domestic animals.

Whoever your pet companion is, we are sure you enjoy spending time with them. So don’t forget to show your appreciation to your pets 😊.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today, February 14th when lots of people are celebrating the Valentine's Day, Window on America for Future Leaders Kherson had two meetings of English Club for kids and teens. We were so happy to meet children at the library after a long break. And of course we talked  about “St. Valentine’s Day” holiday, learned some words and phrases related to it and played games such as "Bingo" and "Pictionary". 

Teenagers discussed some questions and worked with the presentation to know more facts about this holiday. We all had an opportunity to practice our English with each other and looking forward to our next offline meeting.

Knowing Martin Luther King Jr.

On January, 18th the USA celebrated the Martin Luther King day or the MLK Day - a federal holiday in the United States. The MLK Day of Service is observed as a “day on, not a day off”. And the topic we chose to discuss yesterday was dedicated to this significant person. We tried to find answers to such questions as:

Why is it important to celebrate MLK Day?

What is the main idea of MLK speech?

What do you like to do for others? 

What is your “dream” for our country?

It is always very interesting to get to know about different holidays from other countries and compare them with ours.

Let's reflected on 2020

On Monday, December 28th Window on America for Future Leaders Kherson had an English Speaking Practice where we gathered for the last time in 2020. We all reflected on year that passes and shared the most memorable moments of it with each other. But of course there was something that we all regretted in some way so we learned how to use "Wish: expressing regret". Firstly we looked at the grammar rules and then practiced them doing a "Photocaption activity". We also made up a story which is one of our favorites. It is a great way to improve our speaking. Thank all our friends from the United States, Kazakhstan and different Ukrainian cities (Lviv, Kharkiv, Kherson) for participating. See you all next year 😊.

Holiday Celebrarions

There’s one good thing about online English practices and that is meeting people from different cities and even countries. Yesterday, Window on America for Future Leaders Kherson met visitors from Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kazakhstan and the Netherlands. We all gathered via Zoom and had a great opportunity to practice our English with native speakers, our friends from America. We did the activity called "Christmas brainstorming" where we went through some categories such as Food, Decorations, Traditions and Christmas problems that can appear during the holiday season. It was also exciting to compare the celebrations of Christmas around the world and share some our vivid memories with each other. Thank you all for participating and having a great time together. See you on Monday at 4pm.

The Countries We Live in

Yesterday Ukraine celebrated its holiday so this session of English Speaking Club Window on America Center for Future Leaders dedicated to the topic “The Countries we live in”. We started with an activity “My country” where all members of the club said one sentence about Ukraine one by one. After that we discussed our opinions about the two countries: the USA and Ukraine and then compared their lifestyles. And of course we had a chance to dream while we made up story about our perfect vacation. Overall it was a nice club where we spoke English a lot with American volunteers that helped us to improve it.

The US Independence

Every year Window on America Center for Future Leaders has meetings dedicated to "The 4th of July" and this year was no exception but it was in a different format - we had an online meeting of English Speaking Club where we talked a lot about the USA Independence Day. Thanks to american volunteers  who helped us to learn more about this holiday, its traditions and activities that are popular on this day! The participants also compared traditions of celebration the Independence Day in the United States and Ukraine. At the end we played "Taboo" game which was fun because we had to explain the words about America without saying any unmentionables words.

What is love?

It’s a really hard question to find the answer on it. And yesterday during the khersonspeakingclub we tried to discuss this and other questions!

About 20 adults, members of #speakingclub came to woafl_kherson to improve their english with peacecorpsvolunteers. At the beginning we watched a video about the history of valentines_day and learned new vocabulary on this topic, some new phrases, idioms and lovequotes.

Then, working in groups we made a list of words, connected to love and then presented it to others. We had a really great meeting and even didn’t notice that the club had finished. Hope to see all of these wonderfulpeople next time

The Beatles

January 16th is the world holiday “The Beatles”. 63 years ago the club “Cavern” was opened where The #beatles began their career. So @woafl_kherson had 2 meetings dedicated to this legendary band 🎤🎸. 

Active members of #coolspeaking club and @khersonspeakingclub had a chance to learn new information about the #singers and their popularity through the activities which were prepared by #peacecorpsvolunteers and other American guests🇺🇸.

 We discussed a lot about the music 🎶 in general and rated for the most famous songs of this band. During both meetings we sang along #yellowsubmarine, #letitbe and #yesterday songs. And one more fun activity was #runningdictation where visitors of @khersonspeakingclub had to read the line of one of the song and say it to his team as fast as he could. At the end of today’s meeting @antonivkawithnina (our friend and Peace Corps volunteer) played the guitar while the rest group of people sang the “Let it Be” song.

Kherson Speaking Club is back to work

After a long break Kherson Speaking Club came back to Window on America center for future leaders and yesterday there was a meeting dedicated to New Year’s Day. Peace Corps Volunteers Nina Jackson and Whitney Cravens came with other American citizens who are currently live in Ukraine as volunteers. We started with the Year End Reflections and answered some questions about the last year. Then we compared the traditions of celebrations winter holidays in the USA and Ukraine and remembered all things happened in 2019 through the "Trivia". And of course everybody heard about the resolutions and so we all came up with 3 of them. At the end we had time to talk with native speakers for a while.

Winter Fun at Cool Speaking Club

Cool Speaking Club began its work yesterday at Window on America for future Leaders Center where active members came to improve their English with American volunteers. We started with WordGames and revised all words and phrases about Christmas and New Year (christmas tree, "Home Alone", carols, Santa Claus, hot chocolate, reindeers, family, fireworks, stockings.....) 

Then we talked about "Gifts & Presents" and everybody discussed some questions, such as "What is the best present you’ve ever had?", "Have you ever got weird gifts?" etc. and we watched a funny video “Giving weird Christmas presents” with further discussion. And of course our favorite kind of activity is playing board games so we chose "Alias" to play. Thanks to our guests we always have fun during the meetings. So if you're interested in learning English in fun way - join us every Wednesday at 4pm

Ukrainian Independence Day

23 серпня наші постійні відвідувачі Cool Speaking Club зібрались в Херсонській обласній бібліотеці для дітей, щоб поспілкуватись з нашими волонтерами- американцями, Ryan Santero, Troy Burton  та Ethan Robison про День Незалежності України.

Наші користувачі інформаційного центру «Вікно в Америку для майбутніх лідерів» мали змогу порівняти це свято з американським, адже минулого місяця ми відначали День Незалежності США. Діти розповіли англійською мовою, що вони знають про видатних людей України, граючи в гру «Вгадай хто я?».

Також була проведена цікава гра «Ukrainian Flag», у якій присутні розподілились на дві команди: «Yellow» і «Blue» і грали в Assosiation, де кожна  з присутніх команд повинна була назвати більше слів-асоціацій кольорів прапора України.

На закінчення зустрічі відвідувачі клубу поділились один з одним своїм баченням того, якою повинна бути рідна країна, в якій вони живуть. Потім на дошці діти створили «Sunflower» - квітку соняшника, де на жовтих і блакитних паперових пелюстках записали вивчені англійські слова, які означали те гарне, веселе і щасливе, за що вони люблять Україну.

Happy Birthday, America!

Сьогодні, 4 липня, Сполучені Штати Америки відзначають День Незалежності. По всій країні відбуваються святкування, паради, пікніки та сімейний відпочинок. А вже ввечері яскраві феєрверки запалають у небі по всій країні.
Інформаційний центр «Вікно в Америку для майбутніх лідерів» провів захід, присвячений «The 4th of July», на який запросили наших друзів зі Сполучених Штатів – Роланда Самуеля та Патріка Хенсена. Учасники заходу мали змогу дізнатися про особливості свята, слухаючи розповіді американських гостей та пісні про Америку, що звучали англійською. Одну з таких - «The Star-Spangled Banner», американський гімн, ми навіть заспівали разом.
Всі присутні багато спілкувалися, ставили запитання, - і все це виключно англійською мовою.
На завершення кожен мав змогу отримати маленькі презенти із символікою центру "Вікно в Америку для майбутніх лідерів" на згадку про сьогоднішню зустріч.
Тож, всіх наших друзів американців – З Днем Незалежності США!

Mother's Day at English Club

Чергове засідання English Club відбулося в інформаційному центрі «Вікно в Америку для майбутніх лідерів» 12 травня 2019 року. Клуб був присвячений усім матусям, адже саме сьогодні більшість країн світу відзначають День Матері. Отож працівники сектору документів іноземними мовами підготували низку цікавих та пізнавальних завдань. Розпочали захід з прослуховування англійською мовою пісні «Happy Mother's Day». Завдяки цій пісні діти мали змогу ознайомитися з фразами, які ми використовуємо щодня, наприклад «Here’s a gift I’ll give to you», «I clean my room», «I make my bed», «I put my toys away» та інші. 

Наступним завданням було заповнити інформацію про маму «Best MOM Ever!» та написати про її улюблену квітку та колір, про найкраще, що вона готує, що завжди каже та звісно ж, найкращий спогад про неї. 

Та наостанок, діти зробили подарунок для своїх мам «Flower Card», в якій зазначили найкращі її якості та риси характеру. Майже всі написали, що їх мама – найкрасивіша, найдобріша, найдивовижніша, весела та чарівна. 

Приєднуємося до привітань усіх матусь у світі та чекаємо на завершальному засіданні у цьому навчальному році вже 26 травня.