Virtual teas and crafts planned for Mother’s Day this year

Your child’s Mother’s Day present won’t be coming home in their backpack this year.

With schools only online now, teachers have had to get extra creative this Mother’s Day.

Shantel Blanke teaches kindergarten for the Chinook School Division in Swift Current.

Everything has to be done online these days due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The challenge this year is trying to find an activity that the students would have supplies for at home to work with because we didn’t want students to have to go out and buy something or find certain supplies,” Blanke said.

A cut and colour craft was sent home in an email package and moms were asked not to peek.

Students also have a celebration planned this year, but that too will look different. They’re having a virtual Mother’s Day tea.

“We are going to sing songs, have snacks together and play games,” Blanke said. “We are going to celebrate the special ladies in (the students’) lives online this year.”

The 18 students in Blanke’s class have been practising the songs together — but apart, through Google Meet — for weeks.