By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Shelby County Schools enrichment campers were hard at work the week of June 19, as various Lego creations and hydraulic machines were being assembled at a community education enrichment camp focused solely on building.

For four days, campers attended Helena Intermediate School for a few hours each day and made various hydraulic machines out of wood such as a cherry picker, excavator, scissor lift and a platform lift.

Helena Intermediate School Gifted Resource Teacher Amanda Miller led the camp each day.

“The campers here get to participate and make a different project each day as well as complete various Lego activities,” Miller said. “We have also done some activities on the iPads and all of the projects they finish they get to take home each day.”

The students at Camp Build were upcoming third, fourth and fifth graders and the camp was open to anyone willing to participate. Not just gifted resource students.

On Wednesday, June 21, students were building a scissor lift and also had the challenge of building a boat out of Legos. After building the boat, the challenge was to see how many passengers the boat could hold by using marbles that acted as passengers.

Miller has hosted enrichment camps before and she believes they are a big help to any student during the summer who attends.

“I think this camp is more laid back than actually being at school,” Miller said. “A big advantage is that the upcoming third graders can come here and already get use to being at a new school and a new building. The kids can also make new friends and be social with other students who are like-minded.”

Shelby County Schools specialty enrichment classes will be offered at Calera Elementary, Helena Intermediate, Forest Oaks Elementary and Oak Mountain Intermediate this summer.

The classes are open to students who are zoned for Shelby County Schools and may be limited to certain ages or grade spans.

For more information on enrichment classes, visit Shelbyed.k12.al.us/community/enrich.html.