Mr. Cherry Bio

Ryan Cherry is from Brooklyn, Michigan and attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He is a highly qualified educator who spent the last 16 years working in various educational settings around the Midwest. After seeing his high school soccer coach be an influential role model in the lives of his elementary students, he studied elementary education in college as he sought to also positively impact the lives of students. This is his 9th year at Decatur. He did his student teaching in 5th grade at Cleveland School in Chicago. He taught Language Arts and Math in a 5th grade classroom in Brookfield, IL, all subjects in a 4th through 6th grade room at a public Montessori school in Indiana and at Hibbard Elementary in CPS before coming to Decatur in 2017.

Mr. Cherry is inquisitive and curious about the people and world around him. He enjoys reading as it a great avenue to better understand people and our world. He agrees with Dr. Seuss that "the more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." Mr. Cherry is filled with immense excitement about the chance to teach physical education, as it combines his passion for physical activity and sports with the joy of engaging with students and supporting them enthusiastically. He is fascinated by neuroscience and its intersection with physical activity and is grateful for the chance to have students four days each week to encourage their physical activity.

He is passionate about seeing students gain confidence in their abilities to be successful in both the classroom and the world and become well rounded individuals who care for others as they care for themselves. In his free time, Mr. Cherry enjoys playing sports, spending time with friends and family and enjoying a delicious slice of pie with some strong coffee.

Posts

2nd grade game day Oct 24, 2025

2nd graders had the choice of several different activities for game day. The goal is to move our bodies and have fun doing it! Students could hula hoop, jump rope, play bridge tag or climb on the traverse wall.

8th grade Boom City Game Oct 24, 2025

Students used their throwing and catching skills in the quick paced game called Boom City. In this game, the each of the two teams are broken into 3 roles- thrower, catcher and blocker. The catchers have to catch the ball on the mats and then run to grab a popsicle stick for their team. Teams try to make as many catches as they can in 5 minutes and prevent as many catches from the other team as they can.

3rd grade soccer games Oct 20-24, 2025

3rd graders competed against their classmates in a series of soccer matches to practice their skills.

Jr High Soccer games Oct 14-17, 2025

Jr. High students broke into 5 teams to compete in a soccer round robin tournament.

Speedway Fitness Game intermediate grades Oct 6-10, 2025

In this awesome fitness game, students are broke into 6 teams and took turns running around the "track" and when they finished they high fived the next person in line or passed them a track baton and went to grab a popsicle stick to add to their teams bucket. The team with the most popsicle sticks at the end of 5 minutes is the winner for that round.

Intermediate grades soccer games Sept 29- Oct 3 2025

Students in 3rd-5th grade sharpened their soccer skills through a series of matches against other teams in their class.

Primary grades Sideline soccer Sept 22-25, 2025 PE

In the Jr. High soccer units, students practiced trapping, passing and evading defense through various Rondo drills.

Primary Fitness Day

Each week students work on different fitness activities to help expose them to different ways they can be moving their body for the rest of their lives. Students jogged laps and then learned some new exercises through FitDeck cards.

We spent time introducing our kindergarteners to the our traverse wall. They did such a good job following directions and were so excited to use that space!

Intermediate grades dribbling shark attack Sept 8-12, 2025

Students dribbled their ball around and tried to avoid getting their ball stolen by the "sharks." If the ball was stolen, the player becomes a shark and keeps going.

2nd grade soccer dribble relay

Students worked in groups to dribble down to the cone and back

Primary Soccer Dribbling Sept 2-5, 2025

Students following the leader video while I can go around to give feedback and encouragement

Hula Hut Relays Jr. High Aug 25-29 SY25-26

Students continued with their team building unit working through different challenges. They engaged in the leveled game called Hula Hut Relays where students have to work as a team to build a hula hut out of hula hoops and get it to stay up after which they need to complete a series of challenges connected to their hula hut. Next week students will start their soccer and handball units.

Fire and Ice Tag Intermediate grades Aug 18-22 SY25-26

Students got back into the PE routine working through a series of team building activities including Fire and Ice Tag where 4 students have blue pool noodles to "freeze" their peers. There are also 3 players with "fireballs" (red yarn balls) who can unfreeze peers by throwing and catching. Next week, students will continue with different team building activities.

Name: Ryan Cherry
Position: Physical Education
Email: rrcherry@cps.edu