Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
 

Adventures in Time and Place
Grade 5: United States
Infographic #9: The Immigrants, 1870-1924
Page 548

Name___________________________________________    Date________________

1. Take a tour of Ellis Island, the first stop on American soil for more than 12 million people. What do the information and photographs reflect about the people and their experiences? Visit Ellis Island: Gateway to America.
http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5101/

  • Read the opening page and then click A Brief History of Ellis Island.
  • Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click and read each of these sections:
         Ellis Island at a Glance
         The Exams
         The Immigrants
  • To see some photos of Ellis Island from 1880 through 1920, go to http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/070_immi.html.

Online Activity: First Stop, Ellis Island!
Use the information from the Web sites to answer the following questions. Type your answers into the spaces provided.



   What geographic features made Ellis Island an ideal immigration portal?
   

   Immigrants came to America for many different reasons. List one of the reasons and tell how an immigrant might have thought life in America would be different.
   

   The immigrants had to pass mental, physical, and legal exams to gain access to America. Explain why the legal test was the most feared.
   

   Look at the number of immigrants who came from each country. What can you infer about Italy and Russia? Finland and Switzerland?
   

   Why do you think that the experience at Ellis Island was frightening and unhappy for many immigrants?
   

   Although Ellis Island is no longer used for immigration, tell why you think it is still important today.
   


2. Listen to the words of Mr. Greiner from Germany, Mr. Lafata from Italy, or others as they set foot on Ellis Island. At this site you will experience the excitement, the hopes, and the fears of immigrants who came to America. For a memorable journey, go to Ellis Island from HistoryChannel.com.
http://www.historychannel.com/ellisisland/index2.html

  • Read the opening paragraph. Then click one of the people's names to hear an audio clip of Ellis Island experiences. Then, in the left column, click Who Are You?
  • Complete the form. Choose a country from the dropdown menu. Then click Submit for facts about that country’s immigrants.
  • Click Try Again and repeat until you have read about each country on the list.
  • Then, in the left column, click Gateway.
  • Read the caption and then click Click for more information about this step in the Ellis Island immigration process.
  • Read Main Fact 1 and Main Fact 2.
Offline Activity: Will You Be Allowed to Enter?
As you read the information and listen to the audio clips on the Web site, listen for hints about how the immigrants must have felt and what they experienced as they entered a new land. Put yourself in the place of one of the immigrants by selecting a country of origin. Write a diary entry from the perspective of the immigrant telling what the hours or days that you spent on Ellis Island were like. How was it different from what you expected? What were your hopes? Your fears?

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