Parkersburg Art Center Managing/Education Director Jessie Siefert demonstrates the use of acrylic paint for students in the Wood County Distance Learning Academy on Wednesday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

PARKERSBURG — Fourth-grade teacher Mollie Shuman enjoyed doing an art activity Wednesday afternoon with her students.

It was only the second time she’d met them in person.

Shuman teaches in Wood County Schools’ Distance Learning Academy, which was established last year in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m so happy,” Shuman said Wednesday as her students used acrylic paints to make images featuring Christmas trees on the third floor of the Parkersburg Art Center. “I love spending time with them. They’re such great kids.”

Distance learning students from kindergarten through fifth grade came to the art center Tuesday and Wednesday to supplement their online learning with a session focused on art, said Lee Moore, dean of students, off-campus learning, for Wood County Schools.

Wood County Schools Distance Learning Academy fifth-graders Elyse Gainer, left, and Aaliyah Summers paint their canvases during an activity Wednesday at the Parkersburg Art Center. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

“With the pandemic and the kids being apart for so long, it was just nice for them to see each other in person, see the teachers in person, just to have some sense of normalcy,” he said.

The children know each other and interact online, Shuman said.

“But this is different. This is personal,” she said.

Fifth-grader Aaliyah Summers said she was excited to be side-by-side with classmates and her teacher, Lauren Farley.

Her mother, Noel Summers, said her children didn’t want to wear the masks the school district has required everyone to wear inside at schools while the county is classified as red or orange on West Virginia’s County Alert System map monitoring the spread of COVID-19. She also has a younger child with immunity issues so she felt it was safer for her kids to learn at home.

Wood County Schools Distance Learning Academy fourth-grade teacher Mollie Shuman, left, speaks to students George Church and Beretta Spurrier during an activity Wednesday at the Parkersburg Art Center. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

But they do miss aspects of attending class with their peers, like being involved in activities.

“This opens up the opportunity for them to have some kind of normalcy,” Noel Summers said. “They’re very active.”

Students also were encouraged to explore the Artist Tree exhibit with their families in a scavenger hunt-like format.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.