Room 5

Welcome to Room 5!

Kia ora everyone and welcome to Room 5’s page! My name is Amy Rodger, and I am lucky enough to be teaching the awesome bunch of kids in Room 5 this year.

A little bit about me... I'm Amy, a 29 year old Kiwi lass with a zest for life and a passion for education. I grew up on the Thames Coast (attending a fantastic, rural school myself) and am an extremely family oriented person that loves adventure and socialising, whether it be through sport, the arts or with friends and family.

I am currently in my 7th year of teaching (both in NZ and in the UK) and it is safe to say I have well and truly found my passion. As of July 2019 I completed my two year working visa in England, and after a great time traveling and teaching in inner city London, I am excited to have returned to the motherland and to have found a place at Tauwhare School where children’s dreams are encouraged and children are provided with the opportunities for success.

It is a real privilege to get to teach this wonderful group of children. If you have any questions at any stage, please feel free to pop in anytime (my door is always open!) or flick me an email at amy.rodger@tauwhare.school.nz . Alternatively, feel free to visit our page regularly to see what we have been up to or visit our class Facebook Page.

Term 2 , 2022

Charlotte Wilkinson

This week we were lucky enough to have 'Charlotte Wilkinson' -a wonderful mathematician, and author of the Pearson maths books, visit each class and work with the teachers as professional development. It was a great opportunity and Room 5 really showed her what wonderful mathematicians we are, and will continue to be throughout the year. As teachers, we are so lucky to have these opportunities for professional development at Tauwhare School. We are always learning and growing alongside the children and it is fantastic for them to see that we are learners too!

New Junior Playground

Having fun on our new playground. Thanks Ms Bradley, we love it!

ANZAC Day

At the beginning of this Term we learned all about ANZAC Day and why we commemorate it. We looked into 'mascots' and learned all about Caesar the dog, a brave companion and war hero that saved many soldiers lives. We wrote about the war from the perspective of Caesar and described what he would have experienced. We produced some awesome writing and really used our senses to paint a picture in our readers' minds. Check out our art and some of our fantastic writing here.

Term 1 , 2022

Autumn Art and Writing

We love Autumn in Room 5. Check out some of our fantastic writing and Autumn art that went alongside learning about changing seasons. What is your favourite thing about Autumn?

Star writers

Room 5 truly brought the classroom to life with their use of personification, adjectives and adverbs this week in their writing. We even had some Principal awards handed out!

Great work Room 5. Don't forget me when you are famous authors please!

Our School Garden

Picking tomatoes from our wonderful school garden. They were delicious!

Thanks Mrs Reeve and Room 2 for all of your hard work in our vege garden this Term. It's looking fantastic!

Term 4 , 2021

Merry Christmas from Room 5.

Thank you all for such a wonderful year. Have a safe and happy holiday and look after yourselves! We will see you all in the new year.

Virtual visit to Auckland Museum and the Hamilton Zoo

What. A. Week! Phew, I'm exhausted. This week we; made fossils, had three calls with the Auckland Museum (to learn about dinosaurs, sea monsters and insects), completed in depth research AND went on a virtual tour of the zoo.

It's been a fabulous week! What was your child's favourite part? Thanks for another awesome week Room 5. You all rock!

Water Safety:

This Term is all about water confidence and safety. We have been learning lots of awesome survival skills to ensure we stay safe in, on and around water this Summer. Great work finding out what could keep you afloat should you ever capsize Room 5! And remember, always check what is under the surface before you dive on in.

Potato Olympics

Room 5 have had a fantastic time following along with the Olympics this Term , so we decided to combine forces with Room 2 to compete in our very own 'Potato Olympics'. We had all kinds of events; the potato roll, horse races, pass the potato- to name a few! We had to design an "athlete", come up with it's profile (researching its country of origin) and plan the event, not to mention use our measuring skills to decide a winner. It was a great day! Well done to all "athletes" that took part. I hope your potatoes did you proud!

Term 3 , 2021

Cross country

Wow, what an awesome effort at today's cross country! Every single person in Room 5 tried their absolute best and we are so proud of them all. Well done for your perseverance today Room 5 and for having such positive attitudes.

A big thank you to our wonderful Mrs Reeve for organising such a great cross country course and for making it happen, even under the current circumstances.

Harold

How lucky were we to have had Harold this week! What an incredible learning experience for our Tamariki. We learnt all about our emotions, our brains and how we can best help ourselves respond to situations, rather than react. Awesome work Room 5!

What did your child learn with Harold and Sarah this week?

X-Man

Room 5 have had the most fantastic week with X-man, learning all about reducing, reusing, recycling and compost. We loved X-man's enthusiasm and passion for the environment and came away with some very practical ways we can do our bit to reduce waste heading to the landfill. Thank you X-man! It was great working with you and your tiger worm friends!

Term 2, 2021

Geometry work

We've had an awesome week this week starting our 'Geometry' topic. We learnt about lots of different shapes and their attributes, found shapes around the school and even built 3D shapes using nets. What shapes can you find around your house? How many 3D shapes can you name?

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Over the last few weeks we have been learning all about keeping ourselves safe. This is such a valuable programme and we are so lucky to have the support from our fantastic community constables Tom and Mario. Together we learned the proper names for body parts, talked about our bodies being our own, what makes us unique, how to say no confidently and what to do if we get lost. We even got to see some cool police gadgets and explore a police car. How fun! Keep an eye out in your child's homework book for some work you can complete together to keep these conversations happening at home.

One idea I also thought I would share is the idea of a family 'safe' word. This word can be used to pass on if another adult is picking your child up that doesn't usually, and shows your child that that person has your permission to collect them. Something to think about...

Human Energy Generator

This week we were lucky enough to have a 'human energy generator' on loan, kindly supplied by Genesis Energy. The kids had a great time learning about power and where it comes from, enjoyed experimenting with LED and standard light bulbs, and worked out which light bulb is more cost efficient long term.

A HUGE thank you to Genesis Energy for letting us borrow this machine! What an awesome learning experience.

Which do you think is more cost effective long term?

Term 1, 2021

'Eat Right, Be Bright' Magic Show

We had an AMAZING time at the 'Be Bright, Eat Right' magic show. What a fantastic way to teach children about healthy eating! Just quietly, I think a few of the teachers were spellbound too. What was your child's favourite part of the show?

A tiger in our classroom!

We had a frightening start to our week this week...there was a tiger in our classroom! Can you believe it? Luckily he was friendly and he didn't gobble any of us up (although I'm sure he was tempted!).

To get ourselves acquainted with our new friend, we have been busy researching different species of tigers, reading non-fiction texts and factfiles, creating surveys for our statistics studies, comparing lengths and weights and even been creating some tiger art! I'm exhausted just thinking about it! We are now extremely knowledgeable, so do stop by and ask us some fun facts about tigers. I'm sure we'll blow you away!

Floating and sinking:

This Term we have been learning all about floating and sinking. We investigated why some objects are more buoyant than others and why some objects sink. We have had some really interesting conversations about density, natural force, shape and air, and even formed our own hypothesis and experiments. Were there any objects that surprised you in our experiments Room 5?

Making boats

To wrap up our 'floating and sinking' topic this Term we made boats out of recycled materials. The kids drew up some fantastic plans, made equipment lists and produced some designs (based on some pretty solid research!). We had so much fun racing our boats from one side of the pool to the other! What do you think about our creations?

Teddy Bear's Picnic

To celebrate the end to a fantastic Term we had a 'Teddy Bear's Picnic'. We even got to drink fruit tea! What a lovely way to end the Term. Have a safe and happy break Room 5- you definitely deserve it!

2020

Funfair

We had an awesome time at the Funfair organised by our wonderful Year 5 and 6's. We had animals, games, crafts and all kinds of other exciting things. Well done Year and 5 and 6 for putting on such an engaging afternoon. I think the teachers had as good a time as the kids!

Sports Waikato

This week Room 5 enjoyed a visit from Kara at Sports Waikato where we learnt a new game called Te Uru. The game required us to develop our ball skills and space awareness, and really helped strengthen our teamwork and communication skills. It was a great new game, similar to netball and we had a lot of fun learning these new skills. Thanks Kara!

Maths work

Room 5 is filled with fantastic mathematicians that like to solve problems (using a variety of strategies) in the most efficient ways. We have got pretty good at fractions, multiplication, division and place value this Term and have been displaying our learning in exciting ways. Great work Room 5. You are mathematicians indeed!

First aid

Tauwhare School was lucky enough to get a visit from Saint Johns this Term, teaching us some basic first aid and how to remain cool, calm and collected in an emergency. We had a go at bandaging our friends up, practiced calling for help in an emergency and got to ask some important questions to our very experienced instructor. It was a great day and we certainly learned a lot. Thanks Saint Johns!

This Term we have been learning to use speech marks and have been planning and creating our very own comic strips. They are pretty awesome! So is our superhero art- check it out!

Procedural writing

Room 5 had a great time this Term making popcorn and jelly lollies as part of our procedural writing. We had to write down the equipment and method and make sure our instructions were clear enough for anyone to follow. We did a fantastic job of including precise verbs and listing our instructions in order. Our popcorn and lollies tasted delicious!

Magic Jelly Beans

Some very mysterious things have been happening around Tauwhare School this Term.

This week Room 5 received some magic beans and some instructions on how to plant them. We planted the beans under an old oak tree, and you'll never guess what happened...they grew into lollipops! We couldn't believe it. We did some awesome writing about our experience and are hoping this isn't the last of the magic to happen this year. It is definitely very mysterious indeed. Who do you think left us the magic seeds? Have you noticed anything unusual around Tauwhare lately?

Teamwork activity:

To start off the Term, Room 5 had to complete a 'teamwork art' challenge, where they were to produce a piece of art in groups in keeping with their chosen theme. The challenge... to work together sharing only one pencil, one glue stick and one pair of scissors between the group! Each group worked extremely well, listening, sharing, communicating to produce their shared art piece and it was a great exercise in collaboration. Well done Room 5 artists!

Holiday fun

Room 5 wrote a recount about their holidays and put their stories in their sunglasses!

drive.google.com/drive/folders/11PJm4QlyvfW7MPGiM-HpdR29B3HtD8JX?usp=sharing