Upper Elementary Im/migration Unit Plan

Explore students’ prior knowledge of im/migration with a contemporary photograph.

Chart and discuss push and pull factors for im/migration.

Construct a timeline for the study of im/migration in your classroom.

Define “primary sources” and analyze one contemporary and one historic source.

Students learn about Victoria Confino through her 2nd grade report card from 1913.

Explore how im/migrants get started through an actual factory inspection report from 1892.

Teach using an oral history from the child of Italian immigrants in the 1930s.

Teach about community action through a 1980’s video of a Chinatown garment factory.

Students chart parts of their identity before listening to an oral history from the child of a Chinese immigrant.

Students learn about a German community that worked together through an 1870’s Charity ledger.

Students consider what it means to be American through media seen by a 1950’s refugee family.

Teach students about labor movements with the 1910 census and a 16-year old immigrant’s story.

Teach students about how a Puerto Rican family made a difference with their oral histories.

Learn about the Baldizzi family, who came from Italy in the 1930s.

Learn about the Confino family, Greek Jewish immigrants who lived in 97 Orchard Street in the 1910s.

Learn about the Epstein family, Jewish refugees who lived in 103 Orchard Street in the 1950s.

Learn about the Gumpertzes, a German American family who lived in 97 Orchard Street in the 1870s.

Learn about the Levine family, a Jewish American family who lived in 97 Orchard Street in the 1890s.

Learn about the Moores, an Irish American family who lived in 97 Orchard Street in the 1860s.

Learn about the Rogarshevsky’s, a Jewish American family who lived in 97 Orchard Street in the 1910s.

Learn about the Saez Velez family, who lived in 103 Orchard Street in the 1960s-1970s.

Learn about the Wong’s, a Chinese American family who lived in 103 Orchard Street in the 1970s.

Track the different neighborhoods an Irish immigrant family lived in and consider why they moved.

Students find 8-10 facts about the people in this building 150 years ago. Who is the oldest? Who is the youngest? Where were people born?

Investigate how an immigrant family in the 1870’s got help in a time of need.

See how an immigrant from Germany, Natalie Gumpertz, is supporting her family in 1880.

Learn the ins and outs of the garment factory the Levine family ran out of their own home.

See the type of work an immigrant family from the early 20th century, The Rogarshevksys, are doing based on this census.

Find the Confino family on the passenger list of a ship that brought immigrants to the United States in 1913.

Look at a report card from 1914 and see how a 12-year-old immigrant girl, Victoria Confino, did in school.

Find Adolfo Baldizzi, an immigrant from Italy, on this 1923 Ship Manifest.

See an artist’s depiction of one of the most important days of the year for Irish families in New York City in the 1870’s.

Imagine the sights, smells, and sounds of the lower east side in 1898.

Postcard of the city of Kastoria, Greece in 1900.

See portrait of the Confino family shortly after they were reunited in New York City after immigrating from Greece in 1913.

View a garment factory that employed many young immigrant women in the early 20th century.

Look at two women fighting for better working conditions in the garment industry in 1911.

Check out who was in José Velez’s 3rd grade class in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1959.

A photo of present-day immigrants, migrants, and their families taken in July 2016.

Hear Alison Wong, who came to the United States from China as a baby, talk about watching American TV.

Listen to Josephine Baldizzi, the child of Italian immigrants, remember her home and childhood in a tenement in the 1930’s.

Listen to Bella Epstein, a child of refugees, discuss the music heard in her 1950’s childhood home.

Hear the story of how a 5th grade student went from Yat Chung Wong to Kevin Wong.

Listen to a migrant from Puerto Rico, José Velez, remember an important rule he had to follow as a child.

View 1980’s Garment Factory Footage.

Watch a migrant from Puerto Rico, José Velez, tell us how he maintained his Spanish in New York City.

Watch a TV shampoo advertisement from the 1950’s and consider the messages.

Watch a child of refugees, Bella Epstein, discuss how she wanted to “look American” in the 1950’s. 

A child of refugees, Bella Epstein, discusses returning to her childhood home.

Watch a Tenement Museum costumed interpreter plays Bridget Moore in 1868. 

Interactive guided lesson for all grades exploring immigrant family traditions.