As an extension of their social studies curriculum, fifth-grade students at W.S. Mount Elementary School stepped back in time to participate in an immigration simulation. 

Before the event, the students researched a family member who had immigrated to the United States and then created a fictional individual based on their research. On the day of the immigration simulation, the students dressed and acted as that individual as they embodied his or her persona.  

Once inside the cafeteria, or “Ellis Island,” they began the process of becoming an immigrant. Parent and staff volunteers were on hand in the school’s mini-gym monitoring the different immigration stations, which checked the immigrants’ background, vocation, character and health, and ultimately cleared them for citizenship. Once accepted as citizens, the students were asked to review a copy of the federal Constitution, were given a commemorative U.S. citizen identification card stamped with their fingerprints and were asked to recite the Oath of Citizenship. 

At the conclusion of the program, the fifth-graders gathered in the auditorium to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and the Oath of Citizenship in unison.