Fourth grade at Swain studies Ellis Island and immigration, specifically as it occurred during the peak years of 1880s-1920s.
Each year, our 4th-graders study Ellis Island and immigration. Typically, this lesson includes a field trip to Ellis Island where our young historians get to experience the arrival to Ellis Island from an immigrant's perspective. This field trip also gives our students a look into life an immigrant leads after they arrive in America through a visit to a tenement house.
Since the field trip wasn't possible this year, students read both fiction and nonfiction books, watched videos and looked at pictures to gain a better understanding of the immigrant experience coming to America.
Each student also created their own immigrant journal. Their journals included stories of a fictional immigrant, from a country of their choosing (many chose countries from where their ancestors came), that told daily accounts of life as they traveled by boat to America and arrived at Ellis Island.
Students also wrote a welcome greeting from the perspective of the Statue of Liberty to immigrants on boats as they passed.