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 28 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 6th 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 being slightly scarred for life from the British education system and the inner city London schools) 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, 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