the almanac J A N U A RY 21, 2024
SOUTH HILLS COMMUNITY NEWS
a thealmanac.net
facebook.com/SouthHillsAlmanac
@shillsalmanac
South Fayette High School students pose with the book they created and published during the Children’s Literature course. The semester-long course was recently added in the English department.
Magical experience
BEVERIDGE, LONGTIME OBSERVER-REPORTER JOURNALIST, DIES AT 67 PAGE A6
South Fayette students publish book By Eleanor Bailey Almanac Sports Editor ebailey@thealmanac.net
Vedika Jani has read her share of books, but the South Fayette sophomore recently had a fascinating experience. Along with several of her classmates, she published a novel. “It was truly a magical experience watching it all come together and getting to experience such a different perspective of a book,” she said. “The Lions Who Love Literature” was created by the high school students during the Children’s Literature course. The new class is a half-credit elective offered by the English department. It is designed to introduce students to a variety of children’s literature titles including classic texts, Caldecott and Newbery winners and other new publications. Students evaluate and integrate literature into learning and explore motivation for children to read. “The Lions Who Love Literature” is modeled after the district’s mascot. Since the beginning of the school year, the students met daily to develop the project. “I loved creating these new lion characters that came to life on the page and being able to enjoy myself while also truly thinking about how children would read this,” said junior Riyah Hajdarwish. Navya Paluri said she enjoyed the process of creating and imagining different illustrations to complement the words chosen for the pages. “We had a whole unit on picture books and illustrations so we could all incorporate unique ideas into our images,” added the sophomore. Paluri’s twin sister, Divya, noted the students were involved in choosing every detail of the word choice as well as the illustrations. She said that she enjoyed being able to collaborate with everyone. “It was so much fun to make (the book) and I learned so much about working together,” she added. SEE BOOK PAGE A2
PETERS TOWNSHIP GIRLS DOMINATING THE COMPETITION PAGE B1
PITTSBURGH’S MUSEUMLAB ACQUIRES CHROMA MAZE PAGE B4 What’s happening, B4 Real estate transactions, A2 Classifieds, B5,6 Pictured is the cover of “The Lions Who Love Literature”
Balancing act ‘Driven by mission’ Isler discusses Fred Rogers at speaker series By Brad Hundt Staff writer
bhundt@observer-reporter.com
Fred Rogers died more than 20 years ago, but the work to which he dedicated his life is thriving. “The company is still strong,” said Bill Isler, who led the Fred Rogers Company for 29 years before retiring in 2016. “The company is still driven by Fred’s mission.” That mission includes helping toddlers and preschoolers develop life skills and curiosity and have fun learning. It carries this out nowadays SEE ISLER PAGE A2
BRAD HUNDT/OBSERVER-REPORTER
Bill Isler speaks at South Fayette High School as part of the school district’s speaker series.
A squirrel performs a balancing act while raiding a backyard bird feeder filled with sunflower seeds during frigid weather conditions.
ELEANOR BAILEY/ THE ALMANAC