PHOTOS: Chelsea Students Re-create Ellis Island Experience

fourth-graders did some role-playing recently as a way to better learn what the Ellis Island experience was like for immigrants. 

As part of a study program done in conjunction with reading the novel If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island, readers dressed up with suitcases and bags, pretending to be immigrants who came through Ellis Island. School administrators and staff members acted as government officials. The students then went through examinations with doctors, took intelligence tests and other examples of what it was like for someone from another country to come to the United States via Ellis Island.

View the media gallery for a look at this role-playing activity for students.