Escape from Ellis Island: Gilded Age Immigration Activity: 

Students step into 1907 as young reporters trapped inside Ellis Island during its busiest year.

This exciting “escape room” style lesson is a simple print-and-go lesson that doesn’t need locks, boxes, or complicated prep. Just print the readings, set up six stations around the room, and let the escape begin.

The lesson includes 6 illustrated readings to use as stations, where students follow the journey millions of immigrants made between 1880 and 1920:

• Push and Pull Factors
• The Voyage
• Arriving at Ellis Island
• Life in the Tenements
• Immigrants at Work
• Nativism and Closing the Door

Along the way, students learn about steerage, the six-second exam, Jacob Riis and the tenement buildings, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Angel Island, and more.

Each station has 4 questions that ask Who, What, Where, and Why & How. Students fill in their answers on a special worksheet, one letter per box. Certain letters are highlighted, and once students finish a station, they unscramble those letters to reveal missing words from the Emma Lazarus poem “The New Colossus.”

After visiting all six stations, they restore one of the most famous lines ever written about immigration and earn their ticket out of Ellis Island!

Students play reporters who witness the immigrant experience, rather than role-playing the people being inspected. The readings tell real immigrants’ stories with honesty and respect, including the hardships and discrimination many faced.

You’ll also get Google Slides directions, Google Doc versions of the readings and worksheet, teacher notes, a complete answer key, and extension ideas.

Here’s everything included in your PDF download:

• 6 illustrated station readings, including a primary source political cartoon
• Station question cards
• Student escape room worksheet
• Printable and Google Slides directions
• Google Doc versions of the readings and worksheet
• Teacher notes with background on “The New Colossus” and extension activities
• Complete answer key

It’s a great fit for Gilded Age, Progressive Era, and immigration units in U.S. History, and your students will love the challenge of this escape lesson while learning about the people who helped build America.