Our youngest students (Kindergarten through 2nd grade) were part of the whole school discussion focused on immigration stories. Reading picture books helped us compare the experiences of immigrants from different countries, such as Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine or Haitians bravely boarding boats looking for a better life in America. As we read each book we considered questions such as: Where did they come from? When? Why did they come? Who came first and what did they bring? What or who was left behind? What did they expect to find? This provided us with the information we needed to compare and contrast the many different experiences.
In addition the younger students listened to books such The Story of the Statue of Liberty by Betty Maestro. The students were so fascinated by the sculptor’s process that we decided to mirror this experience by making our own models of the statue out of clay.
In order to get a sense of the size of the statue we measured 150 feet across the parking lot by using a yard stick and then drew Lady Liberty in chalk. It was hard for some of us to accept that her nose is over 4 feet long!
Finally we decided to become immigrants ourselves! First each child had to choose a place they would like to immigrate to! We explained that this wasn’t a vacation! Then we considered what we wanted to pack in our suitcases, and what traditions we would take with us. Their ideas, in drawings and words are collected in a book to be shared with families.