Immigration Unit Study
Immigration Unit Study has free and low-cost activities, lesson plans, worksheets, study guides, and more.The information here is for a wide range of ages, grades K-12, depending on which objectives and activities are selected, so please check first to make sure your choices are appropriate for your own family. New information will be added as time allows. Links to lesson plans and activities here represent materials that can be printed and added to your notebook for this unit.
Learning Objectives:
Many parents and teachers will need to create their own goals. You can compare the goals at these sites to create your own goals depending on how stringent your requirements need to be. All links have several suggested activities for different ages.
- Basic Course structure https://www.worldbook.com/free-educational-resources#tcos
- Michigan Department of Education https://www.michigan.gov/mde/services/academic-standards
- Maine as an example of state level requirements https://www.maine.gov/doe/ela/standards/index.html
- California state level requirements https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/
- https://www2.mcrel.org/compendium/ National Level
- Ontario Canada K-8 Expectations https://www.dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/curriculum#elementary
- Abeka Scope and Sequence https://www.abeka.com/HomeSchool/ScopeAndSequence.aspx
- The series of books called “What your nth Grader needs to know” May also be helpful nth representing the grade your child is in. This series only Goes to grade 8
Bible References:
Look up and compare scriptures at the sites below. In your journal note how the different translations and versions help you to have a fuller understanding of the text.
- American Standard Version https://ebible.org/asv/
- King James Bible in Mp3 https://www.audiotreasure.com/indexKJV.htm
- World English Bible in Mp3 https://www.audiotreasure.com/webindex.htm
- World Wide Study Bible https://www.ccel.org/wwsb
- Free software that will allow you to compare many translations at the same time https://www.e-sword.net/
- New World Translation https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/study-bible/books/
- Leviticus 19:33-34 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
- Exodus 22:21 Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 23:9 Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 10:19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Immigration Timeline
Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/immigration-timeline A timeline showing forces behind immigration and their impact on the immigrant experience. https://web.archive.org/web/20160822193300/https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/~/media/ArtsEdge/LessonPrintables/grade-3-4/immigrating_to_america_timeline.ashx
Timeline – Immigration History. Survey of the most important United States immigration laws, policies and court rulings since the founding of the country.
Global Immigration Timeline
Immigration Vocabulary
colonization
culture
immigrant
immigration
motherland
http://dictionary.reference.com online Dictionary
http://wordweb.info/free/ free downloadable software to look up words.
Immigration Book Resources
Annushka’s Voyage by Edith Tarbescu
Coming To America The Story Of Immigration by Betsy Maestro
Dreams in the Golden Country The Diary of Zipporah Feldman, A Jewish Immigrant Girl (Dear America Series) by Kathryn Lasky
Hannah’s Journal The Story of an Immigrant Girl by Marissa Moss
If Your Name Was Changed At Ellis Island by Ellen Levine
Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman
Journey to America by Sonia Levitin
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell Freedman and Lewis Hine
Kids Like Me: Voices of the Immigrant Experience by Judith M. Blohm and Terri Lapinsky
So Far From Home The Diary of Mary Driscoll, An Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts 1847 (Dear America Series) by Barry Denenberg
The Memory Coat by Elvira Woodruff
When Jessie Came Across the Sea by Amy Hest
Immigration Poetry & Music
America the Beautiful. Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 2002. Online Text.
Lyrics to print out from Purple Heart
Audio recording Ward, Samuel, and U.S Marine Band. America the Beautiful. [, Monographic, 1953] Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress
Immigration Video Resources
Instructional Videos on Immigration https://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/best-instructional-videos/immigration.shtml
Immigration Recipes
The Great American Potluck is an online recipe book that you can sort by region.
Immigration Field Trips
Johnstown Heritage Discovery Center in Johnstown, PA. The Frank & Sylvia Pasquerilla Heritage Discovery Center is full of dramatic Pennsylvania immigration history, pictures and interactive displays. Through Immigrants’ Eyes tells the true history of Central Pennsylvania and what brought immigrants from around the world to settle in the Allegheny Mountains.
The Anna Wagner Ritter House Museum in Johnstown is an immigrant experience too.
(FYI inexpensive tickets cover the 3 museums and include the Johnstown flood museum too)
Immigration Activities & Lesson Plans
Immigrating to America Learn what it was like for new immigrants to come through Ellis Island—a symbolic heart of American immigration—at the turn of the 20th century.
Have the children create a family tree to explore where they come from.
Give a child a series of squares. Have them draw a picture on each to represent any of the following based on personal choice (a square for each family member, each nationality, or just different things they like), put the pieces together and focus on how all these different things result in one beautiful thing just like all the different cultures together make one beautiful America.
Speak to the local historian and see what primary cultures settled your area and research it.
America, A Home for Every Culture. Introduce American immigration, touches various immigration paths & time periods, but primarily centered around Ellis Island & the major immigration waves of the late 19th to early 20th century. From Kennedy Center Education
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/lessons-and-activities/lessons/3-5/america-a-home-for-every-culture/
Meet Young Immigrants Hear the immigration stories of real immigrant kids who have recently immigrated to the United States from Asia, Africa, and Europe. See videos, maps, and photos.
Worksheets:
Make your own worksheets with these worksheet creation tools:
- SchoolHouseTech http://www.schoolhousetech.com This company gives away two free software worksheet factories one for Basic math and one for wordsearch utility that will make wonderful complements to this unit when you include the clipart listed in the clipart section.
- Start Write – This program makes nice reports and handwriting worksheets for the unit. https://www.startwrite.com/
- Teacher’s Pet will turn any text into a worksheet I like to use it with the Wikipedia text or texts from Project Gutenberg. Open up a Microsoft Word “New” and then open the template and add ins’ for Teacher’s Pet and add one paragraph at a time and click the appropriate tab for the type of question you want. https://www.teachers-pet.org/
- TeachNology has several online worksheet makers and a ton of Rubric makers. Rubrics work great with Homeschool Tracker because they give you total points and you count up exactly how many points your child gets. https://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/
- Online Crossword Puzzle Maker to use with your vocabulary words or locations or even dated from the timeline. https://www.happychild.org.uk/wks/english/ssm/crosswords01.htm
Ready-made worksheets:
A Nation of Immigrants – Ellis Island and Beyond
From Sea to Shining Sea Calling All Immigrants create a brochure worksheet to attract immigrants to settle in their community. Also has a research worksheet.
Create little books about Ellis Island.
Curriculum Materials – Ellis Island Part of Statue of Liberty National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)
Immigration Complete Units
Klara’s New World Unit
Immigration Web Information
Mr Donn Ellis Island Unit Study
A snapshot of some of the many scenarios that we hear about in the refugee assisting circles.
Alaska History and Cultural Studies Alaskan Immigration
Library of Congress Immigration Trace the immigrant experience and study contributions by immigrant Americans through historic film clips; images of Ellis Island, Angel Island and immigrant groups; presentations, letters and manuscripts.
Teacher Vision Immigration You can view some items for free
Evaluation Ideas:
Assemble a three ring binder and please include:
- A copy of this unit
- Course Description (Highschool Students)
- Write a summary about books read for the unit
- Your Lapbook created for the unit (K-8 Students)
- Any worksheets or activity books created with Teachers Pet https://www.teachers-pet.org/ or the SchoolhouseTech Software https://www.schoolhousetech.com/
- Your journal and its contents
- Your Log of activities from Homeschool Tracker https://www.homeschooltracker.com/free-homeschool-tracker-basic-edition Its Free!
- Your Timeline