The Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Through Ellis Island

Split your class up into groups of five to practice a reader's theater script that relates to immigration and Ellis Island. The script includes information about the island, and some descriptions of vocabulary terms. Also provided are...

Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource provides...

What do your pupils know about Ellis Island and immigration? Expand their knowledge with a series of activities related to the topic. The resource includes a history analysis exercise for each level of Bloom's Taxonomy, as well as...

Through this set of three lessons about Ellis Island, class members will learn about why immigrants came to the United States, find out about the difficulties that went along with coming to America, become familiar with the immigration...

We are all immigrants to this country and the study of immigration can help learners connect to history in a personal way. Students will listen to audio clips from the Ellis Island web site, discuss the treatment of immigrants in the...

Middle schoolers identify both views on U.S. immigration policy. They write a persuasive essay defending either a liberal or restrictive immigration policy. Students identify the major laws regulating immigration since 1875. They create...

Fifth graders study the immigration station on Ellis Island. Through several activities, they see that immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island came to America from different countries, mostly those in Europe, for a variety of reasons.

U.S. immigration is the focus of a unit on social justice. Over the course of a school year, young historians read a variety of texts to learn about four waves of immigration that have occurred over time in the U.S. An emphasis on...

Students share their knowledge of Lewis and Clark, then read a news article about the redesign on the U.S. nickel to commemorate Lewis and Clark's expedition. Introduce the article with a discussion and vocabulary activity, then students...

Middle schoolers explore immigrant experience at Ellis Island, New York, at the turn of the century, and answer questions that challenge them to use thinking skills from various levels of Bloom's taxonomy.