Charlie's 2nd Grade Immigration Day (Feb 24)

Here's another delayed post from last month that I am just getting to.  It's amazing what can be achieved during Spring Break! :-)

The entire 2nd Grade was involved in what was called Immigration Day.  They learned about how immigrants back in the day traveled through Ellis Island and what they experienced trying to get into the United States.

Charlie was given his role of a 22-year-old dairy farmer coming in from Germany.  He is traveling with his "wife" and are trying to make their way by train to his aunt and uncle who lives in Pennsylvania. 

We tried our best to dress Charlie up based on that era without having to buy anything in the store:

I think we nailed it??!  Now... with a little pizzazz :-)

Photographs were taking prior to the event and was posted in the MPR (Multi-purpose room). It was taken in black-and-white to make it look like it was taken a long time ago.  Would have been fun if the photos were taken when they were dressed up for the part.  I think they were told not to smile either. Ha ha!

Here is the "boat" that the immigrants arrived in:

Here is Charlie on the boat.  He looks so cute:

In the meantime, I have been walking around in just my socks because my shoes/clogs totally crumbled!!!

I had these shoes in Graham's closet for maybe a year now and I guess the dry air just made the rubber soles literally crumble to pieces!!! I actually left a trail of black rubber crumbs in the MPR which I had to later sweep up.  But as you can see, I even tried to "MacGyver" it with a rubber band but nope, totally failed.  So into the trash they go!

Here is the line through the "interrogator".  Charlie had to defend him and his "wife" so they can get into Ellis Island a.k.a. the MPR:

I managed to find this old-school suitcase at a discounted store. Maybe a bit heavy for Charlie but it definitely looks the part!  He packed some clothes, a pack of cards, some dice, and some jacks :-)

What a fun project with the kids!  Although I heard later in the day that some kids were in tears because they did not get through interrogation or perhaps they did not pass the health inspection or whatever else that went on at Ellis Island. Some kids that were grouped into families had to decide whether to split up or stay together.  Can you imagine actually going through that in reality??! Everyone learned something for sure today!