Mrs. Browning's social studies classes took on the roles of immigrants as they studied why people left their homelands to make the perilous voyage to America during the wave of immigration between 1850 and 1920. Research resulted in a family scrapbook consisting of information about their homeland and journal entries about their immigrant experiences. The following pictures show the Ellis Island simulation in which the immigrants try to gain entrance into the United States. Immigrants line up for a long wait before entering the processing center at Ellis Island. A family of immigrants answer the questions of an Ellis Island official.
Immigrants check in with passports and visas hoping that all paperwork is in order.
Doctors check immigrants for head lice. Doctors reject some immigrants for medical reasons. Immigrants must pass a mental test. Those who don't pass could be refused entrance into the United States. Immigrants show papers to another Ellis Island official and answer more questions.