By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

Pelham—Kindergarten through fifth grade students in Pelham are playing with slime, designing robots and competing in their own “Olympics.”

It’s all part of Pelham City Schools’ 8-week summer camp program, Summer Labs, that launched June 1 at Valley Intermediate School.

“I’ve done camps throughout the county for years, and I like this one because it’s very curriculum-based,” said camp counselor April Ingram. “It’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) every day, and it’s science and math related. It takes the kids to a different place where they are doing something different every day.”

Each week has a different theme such as Get in the Game, a camp focused on athletics, and Globetrotting 101, where students explore the world and take a trip to the Birmingham Zoo.

“Last week, we were making all kinds of slime,” said camp attendee Kendall Washington. “It was cool. One slime we had to make was sand slime and we had to make a sand castle out of it.”

While some students pick and choose the themes they want to participate in, Ingram said there’s a group of about 20 to 25 kids who will participate in all eight weeks of the program.

Mike Grayson will be attending three of the eight weeks. He said he was excited to get involved with the camp.

“I heard a lot of my friends were coming, and I liked a lot of the activities they had,” he said.

Summer Labs is part of a calibration between Appleton Learning and Pelham City Schools. Lead teacher Jessica Huerta said she loves witnessing the experiments and fun the kids are experiencing.

“It’s so fun that they don’t even realizing they’re learning,” Huerta said. “This summer our students will be experimenting with everything from forensics to cultural studies, and they will get to take many fun field trips.”

Parents can still register their children for upcoming Summer Labs sessions. Interested parents may register their child at pelhamafterschool.com by clicking on the “Summer Labs” tab.

“My daughter is having a blast in Summer Labs so far,” Tracy Franklin said. “She loves the experiments that they’re getting to do.”