Ellis Island Simulation 2008
14 01 2009`
Officials checking in new arrivals
Official checking papers of new arrival
On the 25th of November, the whole fourth grade came together and did a simulation of Ellis Island. We learned about the process new arrivals to our country had to go through. We did this to get a better idea of how people immigrated and how hard it was.
We each got a character profile, and we had to write a autobiography about our character. The year we were simulating was 1900. Some of the characters were divorced, or exiled, or drunk, or rich, or tons of other characteristics. Some people were broke, while others had up to 41,000 dollars. We came up with costumes and props to make it all seem more real and to help us get into character.
We took the ferry (the elevator) up to the 9th floor. Some people got pick pocketed. You had to get a certain amount of points to be allowed in. You received points at each station. There was a line and officials who signed you in. Then you went to the vocation station. The parents and some of the teachers were the officials. They asked you questions about your job. Some people bribed officials to skip them to the front of the line. Some officials were nicer than others. Then you went to the character station, where they questioned you on your kind of character, whether you were a desirable addition to the country. At that station someone got caught stealing money from someone else. Then you went to the health station, where they saw if you had a disease or a mental illness. Some immigrants had to solve puzzles to show that they were mentally capable of taking care of themselves. Then depending on how many points you had, you went to either the clearance station or the deportation station. After we were done, we went up to the library to watch a movie, while we waited for everyone to finish.
Some kids were really nervous about being deported and others got frustrated at how many times they had to go back to stations to be questioned. There was a lot of waiting on lines and sometimes immigrants had to deal with unfriendly officials. We all had a really fun time, even the parents and teachers who helped man the stations.
Being questioned…
waiting…
This is a very detailed article.
-LF
The costumes look amazing. People look ether really rich or really poor. It shows how sad all of this was-JA
It was sooo fun. This article is so well written. I loved it.
I think this is great. It is soooooooooooooooooo detailed.
I so agree with Ja, the costumes look really, really good!
-KB
It was really weird dressing up as an immigrant. It was also really hard to act like a person that isn’t an American citizen and also talking their accent. The blog really described everything!
I liked the fact that some people had 41,000 dollars and others had no money at all. People in silk suits from being buisness man and people that were coal miners in rag clothes. The contrace is so huge and you also backed it up with photos good job.
From, c17sw