2nd grade teacher creates clever socially distant class photo

School picture day is not necessarily known for being an enjoyable day, but it is a rite of passage each year nonetheless — except perhaps in 2020, where masks, social distancing and other pandemic guidelines seem to dominate the school year.

But instead of skipping the class photo altogether this year, one teacher got creative.

"I was pretty sad my class wouldn’t get their class photo taken," Kat Laryssa, a second grade teacher at Ruth Hooker School in Selkirk, a city in Manitoba, Canada, told "Good Morning America." "I keep it every year, and I’m sure my students do too," she said.

Her principal, she said, had sent along a similar idea to the photo Laryssa ended up taking. Each of the children sit inside a box, separated from one another but still in the same photo.

"So, I found a box and went with it," she said. "I think parents appreciate the creativity to give their kids a sense of fun and normalcy in these times."

The kids, she said, "ran with it" once they heard their teacher's vision.

"They had me draw the boxes out on chart paper and make stick men to show what positions/faces they would be doing," Laryssa told "GMA." "They really loved it, and when it all came together they just lit up. It’s now my desktop background at school, and they love seeing the photo regularly.