Prairie Makeover

The robot unit provides an important foundation for students before they progress through Primary, Middle, and Upper School where co-curriculars like Coding Club and classes like Robotic Design become options. However, the prep for success begins even before Kindergarten, in Early School, where lessons rooted in kindness and creativity impact student readiness.

“Having so many of our kids start in Early School at Prairie is always great because they come in prepared to do something like robotics,” says Shay Borzynski ’00, Kindergarten Teacher.

This year that preparation is happening inside the Leipold Johnson Early Childhood Center, the 10,500 square foot building that opened this fall. Unsurprisingly, the space is a hit with Early School teachers like Stephanie Hoffman.

“The rooms are big, clean, and absolutely beautiful,” Hoffman says. “The space allows children to extend their learning and creativity outside the smaller borders of our defined centers, and gives us the flexibility to come together as a whole grade to practice a song or learn new sign language for one of our units.”

This story originally appeared in the April 4th edition of The Racine Journal Times.