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Hammers pounded and wood glue dripped while 10 special education students built firehouse-shaped coin banks at Home Depot on Thursday.

The class from Glenvar Middle School took a field trip to the home improvement store in Northwest Roanoke, where the staff hosted a special children's workshop. It also was a lesson in life skills and pre-vocational training for the students with disabilities, who ranged between 12 and 16 years of age, said teacher Kathy Mallette.

"They are learning how to put things together, how to build," instructional assistant Ruth Herron said. "These are things that can transfer to jobs."

Dusty Turman, a 13-year-old student with Down syndrome, was all smiles as he hammered, first timidly tapping the nail and then hitting with more force once he grew more comfortable.

Dusty took a break from hammering, put his arm around instructional assistant Kathy Figaro's neck and told her he loved her. She returned the affection and turned his attention back to the project. About a minute passed before he interrupted her again.

"I love you," he said, drawing out the "you" sweetly with his face inches from hers.

Other children around Dusty worked on their projects. One boy stacked the pieces of wood on top of one another, instead of looking at the sheet of directions. Several of the instructional assistants started the nails and let the students drive them the rest of the way in, which gave the students a chance to test their hand-eye coordination and motor skills.

Dusty finished building the bank with Figaro's help and he labeled it with "spend," "save" and "share" decals. Then he proudly paraded around the room to show everyone what he built -- unconcerned that his classmates were all at work on the exact same project.

His mother, Crystal Turman, said she thought the field trip was a wonderful opportunity for Dusty's class.

"Everything they do in there will help him in his life," she said. "We try [at home] to make him do things he will have to do."

Dusty said he likes to help his dad chop wood (Dusty's job is to stack it) and fix dinner. He planned to put his firehouse bank in his room and he wanted to share his money with his big brother Travis.

His favorite part of Thursday's project?

"The stickers," he said.

Home Depot holds monthly workshops for children on the first Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to noon. The public event is geared to children ages 6 to 12. December's project is a toy wagon.

"We are grateful to Home Depot for making this happen," Mallette said.