Our countdown to the end of the year has officially started! Checkout the themes for the each day until we reach Summer Break!
Biography
Hi Decatur Family!
My name is Kevin Roper. I have been teaching for the past six years. This is my third year at Decatur! I am originally from Northwest Indiana. I received my Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education from Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia. Two summers ago I attended a SEED seminar focusing on social justice, diversity, and equity. This summer I was able to attend another seminar called RESEED focusing on DEI resources around our beautiful city. We traveled to Pilsen to tour the neighborhood and enjoy the murals. We viewed the Gerber-Hart Library in Rogers Park learning about the history of LGBTQIA+ community that has been established here in Chicago.
When I am not teaching you can find me walking with my dog, reading, playing volleyball or near the lake. I am excited to be teaching 1st grade again at Decatur and looking forward to a great year!
Posts
Today our students met an author! Author Kandace K. Qaiyim wrote and illustrated the book "Boundless Strength, My Hair is My Crown." She talked with out class about the process of creating a story and how she became a published author!
As our school year nears the end so does our time to check out and take home books! Please be sure to return any books that belong to our school library by May 30th!
Come one, come all! Mark those calendars because STEM fair is right around the corner! Join us for a night of fun and exploration with Math, Technology, Science, and Engineering activities.
This week our students worked with our school counselor to talk about autism awareness month. Students created stripes with words that described who they are and what makes them unique.
Students discussed Quarter 4 goals and created posters of their classmates achieving their goals.
If you have any school library books, please make sure they are returned before break! Thank you!
Students used context clues and glossaries to create images and define vocabulary words in the story "Who Built This?"
Our first grade class took on Readers Theater to end the week. We had a blast putting on productions of "The Veggie Thief," "The Stinky Cheese Man," "The story of Henny Penny," and "I gave Myself A Haircut."
This week, we had an extra special visitor from the North Pole! Our friendly Elf came in to read to our class, and spread some joy throughout the school.
Students were tasked with creating habitats for frogs. During their group work, students were allowed to ask questions about the other habitats created by their group members. At the end, students were asked to shoutout a group member and say one thing they enjoyed about their habitat.
Nate The Great Book Study! Our students are beginning a novel study. This week students worked to identify important vocabulary to enhance our knowledge of the story.
A few of our students at Lou Malnati's Pizza Fundraising for Decatur!
This week our students began explore parent and offspring traits! Here you will see them observing parent, and offspring cards. They were tasked to talk about their defenses and how they could similar yet different in physical looks.
Our students paired up with their buddies this week, to create kindness chains in honor of Kindess Day this past Wednesday.
