Fourth Grade Immigration Unit

Students in Suzanne Alexander’s and Janine Snyder’s 4th grade class at Driver Middle School enjoyed the fruits of their labor as they held a traditional foods’ “feast” as the culmination of their social studies immigration unit. The unit focused on the influx of immigrants into the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Among the topics and concepts studied through the unit included Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the many reasons that influenced the immigration of people from around the world into the United States. Of particular note was the simulated factory setting that Alexander and Snyder created as a component of the learning experience. Students produced “paper airplanes” in a turn of the 20th century setting that simulated both assembly line and individual space factory formats. The 4th grade learners also had the opportunity to write about their experience through the use of Document Based Questions (DBQs). Students were also able to access a variety of resources related to the topic of immigration through the use of the classroom “Smart Board” and Learn 360. Learn 360 offers classrooms across the country a database that includes more than 8,000 digital video titles, as well as speeches, images, articles, and audio files. The offerings can then be projected onto the Smart Board to generate hands-on student interaction. The immigration unit culminated with a traditional foods’ feast with each student sharing a “dish” symbolic of their own individual heritage. The feast included foods from countries such as Italy, Germany, England, and the Ukraine. Dishes included perogies, sausage bread, pretzels, German potato salad, tea, scones and a variety of delicious desserts.