Immigration: Ellis Island Activities - Immigration Project

This Ellis Island & Immigration unit includes 44 pages of printables to engage your students while learning about immigration in the early 1900s. No fluff or filler here: this unit provides solid, high-quality content that will deepen students' understanding and simplify complex concepts, while taking them on a steamship journey across the Atlantic to New York Harbor and through Ellis Island. You’ll find these printables to be thoughtfully designed, easy to use, thorough, and engaging for kids!

Fourteen reading passages, along with primary source photos documenting the immigration process, bring the era to life. Key vocabulary is introduced and defined in simple, kid-friendly language, while a variety of comprehension resources include writing prompts, cut & paste activities, concept webs, and more.

*** The pages of this printer-friendly resource print beautifully as presented in sepia tones, or in grayscale. Simply choose the "grayscale" option in your printer settings! ***

Included in this Ellis Island & Immigration unit:

• 14 Reading Passages:

- What is Immigration?

- Why America?

- Preparing to Leave

- The Journey to America

- A Symbol of Freedom

- Arriving at Ellis Island

- Health Inspections

- A Time for Questions (legal inspections)

- Deportation from Ellis Island

- Spending the Night at Ellis Island

- Eating at Ellis Island

- Entering a Free Country

- Life After Ellis Island

- Immigrants Contribute to America

• Primary Source Analysis for Kids:

- “Think Like A Historian” – A kid-friendly guide to analyzing and responding to primary source historical photos

- 8 pages of primary source photos from the height of Ellis Island’s immigration era

• Using Graphs & Data: Bar Graph and Pie Chart

- Immigrants Arriving at Port of New York, 1902 – 1910 (interpreting data in a bar graph)

- Number of Immigrants by Region of Birth (interpreting data in a pie chart)

• Comprehension Checks & Graphic Organizers:

- Push Factors & Pull Factors (cut & paste concept sort)

- Preparing to Leave (drawing and written reflection)

- A Nation of Immigrants (making connections in a written response to photo)

- Island of Hope or Island of Tears? (graphic organizer and prompt for structured paragraph writing)

- The Journey Through Ellis Island (cut & paste sequencing activity)

- Coming to America (cut & paste concept web)

- My Diary: Coming to America (half-page “diary” printables with writing prompts)

• A Closer Look at Key Documents, in Kid-Friendly Language:

- Gateway to America (map of New York Harbor, highlighting key locations)

- A Special Poem (excerpt from “The New Colossus”, the poem inside the Statue of Liberty pedestal, explained)

This resource also includes a “Journey to Ellis Island” cover page for packets.

Please see the PREVIEW above for a closer look!

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