QUINCY, Ill. (AP) — Lincoln-Douglas third-graders Emma Smith and Alaina Nichols sat at their table, brainstorming ideas about a Thanksgiving parade float for a writing assignment.

Alaina settled on a pumpkin pie theme.

"Pumpkin pie goes with November," she explained. "Thanksgiving is in November."

The pair say they've settled into a school year like no other — wearing masks that Emma said "feel normal to me to have on all day," socially distancing and exchanging elbow bumps instead of high fives.

It's also a year like no other for teacher Hannah Marks, spending her first year in charge of a cl...