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‘‘I thought we were going to be outside all day. My sister and I were, like, did Mom lie to us?” Shea said in mock incredulity as her mother, Christina Hendricks, gathered her three children together at the end of Thursday’s session.

But the sisters said they soon discovered the camp’s half-day sessions took the pain out of being back in class.

‘‘The best thing, in my view, are the teachers. They’re so fun we like to come here,” Shea said. ‘‘And when we go back to school [in the fall], we’ll already know half the stuff they’re teaching us.”

That’s the goal of the educational camp that began five years ago at Bells Mill but now involves the other Churchill cluster elementary schools: Beverly Farms, Potomac, Seven Locks and Wayside.

‘‘The idea is that students get a preview of the first semester of next [school] year. They’re looking at the reading and math curriculum and they’re getting a jump start for next year,” said Beth Brown, Beverly Farms Elementary School principal.

She shares oversight of the camp with the principals of the other cluster elementary schools and helped select the teachers heading the two classes per grade level during three-week camp. Some 210 students from all five schools attend the camp at a cost of $300 each.

‘‘I encouraged parents to enroll their kids. It keeps skills fresh,” Brown said, adding that the small class size enables individual attention for students that range from those learning to speak English to those working at advanced levels.

For teachers the small class-size and emphasis on fun is proving to be something of a holiday in itself.

‘‘It’s only for three weeks, and it’s fun to have a new group and to try out some new teaching techniques,” said Ellen Jimenez, a Beverly Farms Elementary School reading instructor, of her first-grade campers.

‘‘These kids are just flying, doing beautifully,” she said. ‘‘They’re excited to be here and to learn. At this age, they don’t see [summer school] as a negative.”

Fifth-grader Tahyjus Pancholi agreed the camp offers plenty to enjoy, from bingo games in math class to snacks to familiar faces from his school, Wayside Elementary.

‘‘It’s not torture. It’s not like school. You’re learning and you don’t even know it,” Pancholi said.

The camp may be school-lite, but the students are doing more than just playing around, Jimenez said.

‘‘We try to include more games and songs but it’s still similar to my regular class. I want these kids to come away having learned something,” she said.

Assistant principals Amy Alonso, of Beverly Farms Elementary, and Toi Davis, of Potomac Elementary, are responsible for the camp’s daily operations. They, too, are in full learning mode.

‘‘The beauty of it is, we’re getting to meet the kids and their families in a more relaxed setting,” Alonso said. ‘‘In the fall, there won’t be a barrage of new faces for us to meet.”

Should the first half of this quote be three separate sentences? The second sentence doesn’t seem to make sense:

‘‘The best thing, in my view, are the teachers. They’re so fun we like to come here,” Shea said. ‘‘And when we go back to school [in the fall], we’ll already know half the stuff they’re teaching us.”