UP FRONT
The Ellis Island Experience
For the 12th year this spring, Latin School
second graders completed their unit on
immigration by reliving the experience of
some 12 million Americans who arrived in
the United States between 1892 and 1954
– including some of their own relatives –
through the annual Ellis Island simulation.
In the months leading up to Ellis
Island, second grade students work on a
comprehensive series of exercises in which
they learn about America's immigrant past,
and often about their own family histories.
Students read a book about a family's
emigration from Sweden in the 1800s; they
take a field trip to the Swedish American
Museum in Andersonville; they do a firstperson interview with an immigrant and record
it; and, they choose a country to come from
– either one that is part of their own family
history, or one that interests them – and find a
costume that represents that country.
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L AT I N M AGAZINE
The culmination of their study is their
arrival at the lower school version of Ellis
Island. Parent and faculty volunteers act the
parts of immigration and health officials,
barking orders, searching luggage and giving
exams, while the students get a sense of
the hardships people endured as they went
through the process of being admitted into
their new homeland.
As always, in addition to serious aspects of
this learning experience, the second graders
had great fun creating their characters and
dressing up in clothes worn by those who
arrived at Ellis Island from all over the world.
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