The lessons plans and resources below can be used to teach the history and stories of the immigrants who arrived when Ellis Island to elementary, middle, and high school students. Ellis Island Immigration Station opened in 1892, one year after the Federal Government was given the responsibility of regulating immigration through the 1891 immigration act. Almost 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island on their way to the United States between 1892 and 1954. While the immigration station operated until 1954, the number of immigrants received at Ellis Island diminished dramatically after the 1924 Immigration and Naturalization Act. 

The busiest day at Ellis Island saw over 11,000 immigrants make their way through the processing more than double the average of 5,000 immigrants a day. This video below, from the Library of Congress, is of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in 1906.

• The lesson plans and resources in the Ellis Island collection to all aspects of Re-imagining Migration’s Learning Arc.
• Each resource below can be paired with an appropriate thinking routine to create an instructional activity or lesson.