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 14 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. 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

Science 4th Grade Vision and Light Models

Students have been working throughout this unit to understand how animal vision works and this week they started creating their models to show their understanding and explain the process through which animals see and light moves from a source to the brain.

4th grade Valentine's Day Placemats

Students created Valentine’s day placemats and they were delivered to a nearby senior center to bring some good cheer!

4th grade Chicago History Field Trip

Students went on a field trip to the Chicago History Museum to be a part of their special City on Fire Enhanced Field Trip. Students heard from live actors about two famous Chicagoans, Joseph and Anna Elizabeth Hudlin, who both played pivotal roles in helping Chicago recover from the Chicago Fire. Students also got to meet Chicago comic Victor Dandridge, who showed them how the medium of a simple thing like folded paper can help add layers to a story.

3rd Science Celery Investigation

Students created an investigation using celery, food coloring and water to test how inherited traits can be impacted by the environment. In groups, students planned out different experiments to conduct that had only one variable to increase the validity of the results

Winter Beatles Show 3rd and 4th grade Performances

This week students participated in the fabulous Winter Show based on Beatles numbers. It was fantastic to see our students hard work in action!

4th Science Jigsaw activity

Students participated in a jigsaw activity where they started in a base group and chose an animal they wanted to research how its eyes functioned. Each person in the group chose a different animal so later when they reported back everyone could share about a different animal. They researched with another partner how these organisms see and shared with their group what they learned.

3rd grade Science Gathering Data- Wolves and Inheriting Traits

In their unit on Inheritance and traits focused around several wolfpacks, groups reviewed and discussed data from the Wolf Family Data Cards and the informational texts, The Code and The Handbook of Traits and recorded their information on a graphic organizer.

3rd grade Holiday activities

We wrapped up the week with some fun seasonal themed activities like winter bingo, a winter escape room of a series of puzzles, and a snowflake number review activity.

4th Grade Holiday Party

We wrapped up the week with a fantastic holiday party organized by our amazing room parents! Thank you to Lisbeth, Ginna, Jocelyn and Nicole for coming into our space to help facilitate creating bookmarks, playing bingo and a minute to win it challenge of drawing a snowman on a plate on top of their heads and of course laughing!

Clay Creature Offspring Lab

We conducted a lab where students received a set of instructions for different traits from 2 parents to model what happens in real life. Then students used their set of instructions and the code that went along with the instructions to find out the traits to the offspring. Next, they created out of modeling clay an offspring that demonstrated the traits that it was supposed to have based on the genetic instructions. Students really loved getting active with their hands and seeing in action how traits and genetics can work.

Here is an example of the type of math problem we are incorporating into our curriculum to deepen understanding of a skill like adding mixed numbers while also reinforcing number sense and problem solving skills.

Two more of the types of clouds we learned about science so we could answer the question "“How can we predict when it is going to storm?"

Two of the types of clouds we learned about science so we could answer the question "“How can we predict when it is going to storm?"

4th Cranberry Lab

Students explored whether or not cranberries float in water through an investigation.

Mystery Box Lab

Students engaged in an investigation with a Mystery Box where they considered what animals need to find their food and imagined that what was in the box was their food. They looked inside of the box to see that it was not possible to see if there is no light and then talked with their groups to decide what changes could be made to allow someone to see inside the box and came to the conclusion that light is needed to see inside the box.

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