South Fayette Elementary provides a unique and inviting place to learn for students in grades K-4. Our staff provides a creative and exciting environment that makes high level learning fun for all of our students. Parents can obtain updates of activities in our school throughout the school year by visiting our website — you’ll find photos of recent events, class lists, program updates and much more!

Each school year begins with Meet the Teacher/Curriculum Night. The children have the opportunity to meet their new teacher for the coming year, visit with old friends and perhaps meet a few new friends. Parents are welcomed into our school and given a glimpse of what the year has in store. Our transportation department provides a school bus for the students to tour to help alleviate the fear of riding a bus for the first time.

The Little Lions’ Academy takes place every summer at South Fayette, giving children one week of interesting classes and unique opportunities to learn. Over 250 students took part in the Academy this summer in such classes as photography, cooking for kids, introduction to soccer and scrapbooking. Each year the popularity of this program continues to grow as more children hear of the fun they can have learning at South Fayette.

Last year, South Fayette also held its second annual career fair for the 4th grade students. In May, the students learned about careers from the experts who work in these fields every day – a pharmacist, an optometrist, a scientist, two nurses, a flight attendant, and a physical therapist were among those professionals who shared their backgrounds and a glimpse of their work with the students.

An important component for many of the programs in our school is the involvement of our parents. The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is a critical partner in many of the activities we do each year. Each year, the PTA sponsors many exciting activities for our families and students including Family Reading Night that features a book swap, staff members reading books to the children and a puppet show. Last year, the children also had the opportunity to make personalized book marks and enjoyed a treat of cookies and a drink.

Physical Education teacher, Mr. Jim Bohn also taught the students an important lesson about exercising their bodies as well as their brains. As part of the Log It! program, South Fayette students learned to add more activity to their days by keeping track of the number of footsteps they take. These steps equate to miles across the country and the students combined their physical education with their computer skills and learned a little about each state as they went. It took the students approximately four months to travel enough miles to cross the country - not bad for students not yet old enough to drive.

Read Across America Day is an exciting celebration of the works of Dr. Seuss and our love of reading. These lines (right) from Dr. Seuss’ “I Can Read with My Eyes Shut” sum up the day’s events at South Fayette Elementary School as students and staff celebrated the event and the birthday of the incomparable Dr. Seuss on March 2, 2004. In a day full of events designed to encourage the students’ love of reading, Dr. Linda Hippert, Superintendent of Schools, read that book to the entire Elementary School via the public address system, while the students followed along in the classroom with their teachers. In addition, students made hats to wear throughout the day, ate green eggs and ham for lunch in the cafeteria and teachers shared their favorite Dr. Seuss books with their students.

Throughout the year, many fun and informative events happen in the elementary building. Last fall, South Fayette teachers teamed up with The Bridgeville Historical Society to hold an art contest for 3rd and 4th graders with a theme of “Thanksgiving.” Elementary art teacher, Debbie Sneberger submitted the artwork of over 200 students and entries were displayed along Bridgeville’s main street the week before Thanksgiving. Among the contest winners were Karianne Wade (1st place, Andrew Knez Jr. Award), Maria Cardillo (1st place Bridgeville Area Historical Society Award - 4th grade), Shannon Gillespie and Rachel Closky (1st place Bridgeville Area Historical Society Award - 3rd grade), Kylie Campbell. Haillie Schwab, Haley Barnes, Stefanie Phillips (1st place Josh Smith Awards), Rachel Sherbody (Jim Quinn Award), Jeremy Lucas (Peoples’ Choice Humor Award), and Kylie Campbell, Joe Cochran, Rachel Reid, Jonathan Walasik and Marissa McKee (Peoples’ Choice Awards).

In March, South Fayette 4th graders were treated to a visit from some furry (and some not so furry) friends as part of their current science curriculum. In the third nine weeks, the students completed a research project to learn about the habitat, food, life cycle, enemies, and adaptations of a wild animal of their choice. Sponsored by the Elementary PTA, Wild World of Animals brought in a wide array of mammals and reptiles for the students to view including a scorpion, an alligator, a legless lizard, a monkey and even a small leopard.