Sunday!

On Sunday we went to New York City; we visited Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Here are some interesting facts about Ellis Island.

• Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor, is a U.S. National Monument.Ellis Island served as an immigration station from 1892 to 1954.
• More than 12 million immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island. Roughly ½ of all Americans have at least one ancestor who passed through here.
• Ellis Island, originally about 3 acres, has been enlarged to 9 times its initial size. The earth used to make the island bigger came from New York City subway tunnels as well as other sources. How large is it now? How can we find out?

Ellis Island

After the immigrants had gone through Ellis Island they took a ferry to New Jersey where they could board a train to begin their lives in different parts of the country.

This is the ferry that Ms. Smith took to Ellis Island and then the Statue of Liberty, New York City is in the background.

Ms. Smith waiting for the ferry, I am NOT a happy camper; boats, water, and Ms. Smith are not happy campers! :)

Lamp post on the dock waiting for the ferry. There are 4 post and 2 lamps on each post. How many lamps are there in all?

My Mom riding the ferry, I could take an pictures of myself because I was turning green from riding the ferry!

A picture of New York City from the ferry.

This graph shows the amount of people who visited Ellis Island each year it was open. Each person equals 5,000 people, so a half of person is worth 2,500 people. The blue people represent whites and the red represents blacks.

Some young immigrant girls protesting child slavery. When many of these families came over they didn't have any money so all of the family members had to work, even the children. Some bosses made the children work long hard hours, not even letting them go home. Just like with slavery those who decided to fight against this injustice were treated very poorly.

Can you imagine looking out of this window; excited about your new life and the new friends you will meet, but sad about the life and friends you left in your old country?

A note and picture that an immigrant left on the wall during his or her stay on Ellis Island. Look at that picture, I think it was probably a boy, what do you think?

Look at their faces, what inference can you make about them?

A cool New Jersey sign, Cory this might help with your report.

A cool map of the state of Texas, Isabeau this might help with your report.

A cool California sign, Brandon this might help with your report.

Sunday started Scottish Week in New York City, they had Scottish bagpipe players at Ellis Island. What country were the bagpipe players from?

Statue of Liberty

• The Statue of Liberty was built by French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, with the help of tons of workers working ten hours days, seven days a week for nine years!
• The statue was finally finished in 1884 and presented to America on July 4th. It didn't arrive in the United States until many months later though, because all 350 individual pieces of the statue had to be packed into 214 crates for the long boat ride from France to New York.
• The name of the island that the statue was rebuilt on is Bedloe Island; the island is now called Liberty Island and is only accessible by ferry.
• The Statue of Liberty celebrates her birthday on October 28th.
• Visitors must climb 354 stairs to reach the Statue of Liberty's crown.
• There are 25 windows in Lady Liberty's crown.
• The seven spikes on the Statue of Liberty's crown represent either the seven oceans or the seven continents.
• The Statue of Liberty weighs 450,000 pounds (204, 100 kilograms).

New York City

When we finished touring Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty we drove to New York City. It was VERY busy and Ms. Smith had to practice patience!

Still practicing patience! :)

We sat in traffic from 4:00 p.m.-6:45 p.m., how many hours did we sit in traffic?

Picture of New York City!

Arlo can you read the note? :)

On September 11, 2001 our country was attacked when 2 planes flew into the World Trade Center Towers both towers fell because of the attack, another plane flew into the Pentagon, and the last plane crashed into Shanksville, Pa. Below are three pictures the first is of what the Trade Towers looked like before the attack and the last are what it looks like now.

Stay tuned, I'll post pictures from my adventures today very soon! :) I hope you're having a great Spring Break, I miss you guys! :) :)

**P.S. I got most of my facts from www.kidzworld.com. **