Ellis Island Worksheets 4th Grade

Press Print worksheet to match twelve Ellis Island terms, from immigrant and steerage to ferry, to their meanings.

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NameDateMade at homeroomtools.comDraw a line from each one on the left to its partner on the right.Ellis Island vocabularyimmigrantemigratehomelandjourneysteamshipsteeragepassengerportharborStatue of Libertyferrybaggagethe country a person was born inor comes froma person who has come fromabroad to make a new homea traveler on a ship who is notone of the crewthe cheap, crowded quarters lowdown in a shipthe trunks, bags and bundles atraveler brings alonga huge copper figure of a womanholding up a torcha coastal town with docks forloading shipsa seagoing vessel powered bysteam enginesa boat making regular shortcrossings with ridersto leave your own country andsettle in anothera protected stretch of water withroom for many shipsa long stretch of travel, oftenlasting days or weeks
NameDateMade at homeroomtools.comDraw a line from each one on the left to its partner on the right.Ellis Island vocabularyAnswer keyimmigrantemigratehomelandjourneysteamshipsteeragepassengerportharborStatue of Libertyferrybaggagethe country a person was born inor comes froma person who has come fromabroad to make a new homea traveler on a ship who is notone of the crewthe cheap, crowded quarters lowdown in a shipthe trunks, bags and bundles atraveler brings alonga huge copper figure of a womanholding up a torcha coastal town with docks forloading shipsa seagoing vessel powered bysteam enginesa boat making regular shortcrossings with ridersto leave your own country andsettle in anothera protected stretch of water withroom for many shipsa long stretch of travel, oftenlasting days or weeks
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All 36 terms

The voyage 12

  • baggage The trunks, bags and bundles a traveler brings along. The main building of Ellis Island has a Baggage Room.
  • emigrate To leave your own country and settle in another. A person emigrates from one country and immigrates to the next.
  • ferry A boat making regular short crossings with riders. Today a ferry is the only way for the public to reach Ellis Island.
  • harbor A protected stretch of water with room for many ships. Ellis Island and Liberty Island are both in New York Harbor.
  • homeland The country a person was born in or comes from. A ship's passenger list recorded where each traveler came from.
  • immigrant A person who has come from abroad to make a new home. About 12 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island.
  • journey A long stretch of travel, often lasting days or weeks. Steerage passengers finished the journey on a ferry or barge to Ellis Island.
  • passenger A traveler on a ship who is not one of the crew. First and second class passengers were inspected on board the ship.
  • port A coastal town with docks for loading ships. Most immigrants came in through the Port of New York.
  • Statue of Liberty A huge copper figure of a woman holding up a torch. It has stood on Liberty Island since 1886.
  • steamship A seagoing vessel powered by steam engines. Steamships carried immigrants across the Atlantic Ocean to New York Harbor.
  • steerage The cheap, crowded quarters low down in a ship. Steerage was also called third class.
Show all 36 terms (24 more)

On the island 12

  • Castle Garden New York's immigrant station before Ellis Island. It was used from 1855 to 1890 and is known today as Castle Clinton.
  • deport To send a person back to the country they left. About 2 of every 100 people who arrived at Ellis Island were sent back.
  • detain To hold a person back and not let them go on. Immigrants who were ill could be held in the island's hospital.
  • dormitory A big room with beds for many people. The island's baggage and dormitory building was finished around 1909.
  • Ellis Island The busiest entry point for immigrants to America. Part of the island is in New York and part is in New Jersey.
  • immigration station A government building for checking newly arrived people. The first one on Ellis Island burned down in 1897, and a fireproof building opened in 1900.
  • inspection A close check to decide if a person may enter. Doctors looked for signs of illness, and inspectors asked each person a set of questions.
  • inspector The official who questioned each new arrival. Inspectors checked an immigrant's answers against the ship's manifest.
  • interpreter A person who puts spoken words into another language. Interpreters for all the major languages worked at Ellis Island.
  • manifest A ship's written list of everyone on board. It gave each passenger's name and the answers to a set of questions.
  • port of entry Any seaport, airport or road crossing open to arrivals. Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans were other ports of entry.
  • Registry Room The great hall where immigrants waited to be questioned. It is also called the Great Hall.

A new home 12

  • ancestor A relative from many generations back. The passenger lists of 1892 to 1924 can be searched for an ancestor's name.
  • citizen Someone with the legal right to belong to a country. In the United States a person is a citizen by birth or by naturalization.
  • culture The language, beliefs, arts and habits a people shares. Music, food and stories are parts of a culture.
  • descendant A person's child, grandchild, great-grandchild and so on. Many Americans are descendants of people who landed at Ellis Island.
  • heritage A family's or a people's inheritance from the past. Songs, recipes and holidays can all be part of a family's heritage.
  • nationality The country a person legally belongs to. The Immigration Act of 1924 set a yearly limit, called a quota, for each nationality.
  • native language The first language a person learns as a child. An interpreter let an immigrant answer the inspector's questions in his or her native language.
  • naturalization The process that turns an immigrant into a citizen. It usually starts with an application to the government.
  • neighborhood A section of a city that feels like a small community. A city neighborhood can be home to many families from one country.
  • opportunity A chance to do something that makes life better. The National Park Service calls Ellis Island an 'Island of Hope', a first stop on the way to new opportunities.
  • tenement Housing where each floor holds several rented apartments. Families in a tenement share the stairway and the front door.
  • tradition A belief or way of doing things kept up over many years. A family may keep a tradition from the country its great-grandparents left.

How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-11. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day against the entry for the term in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/), or the English Wikipedia article on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/), both under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Steerage, Manifest (transportation), Port of entry, Castle Clinton, Naturalization, Citizenship of the United States, Immigration Act of 1924 and Tenement. The history in the meanings and the facts was checked a second time against the pages History and Culture and Frequently Asked Questions of Ellis Island, part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, published by the National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/elis/learn/historyculture/index.htm, https://www.nps.gov/elis/faqs.htm), the page Overview and History of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (https://www.statueofliberty.org/ellis-island/overview-history/) and the essay Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 of the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/rise-of-industrial-america-1876-1900/immigration-to-united-states-1851-1900/). The sentence after each meaning is our own. Licence: own work

How it works

These free Ellis Island worksheets for 4th grade are three matching sheets of twelve terms each, with an answer key. The first follows the voyage: immigrant, steamship, steerage, harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

Read the full guide

On the island

In Set, the second sheet has what came after the boat docked: Ellis Island, immigration station, Registry Room, inspection, inspector, interpreter, manifest, detain, deport, dormitory, port of entry and Castle Garden.

A new home

The third has ancestor, descendant, citizen, naturalization, heritage, tradition, culture, nationality, tenement, neighborhood, opportunity and native language. Under the tool each term has a fact, checked against Wikipedia and pages of the National Park Service and The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.

  • These sheets are vocabulary only: they do not tell the stories of the families who were held or sent back.

Questions and answers

When was Ellis Island open?

From January 1, 1892, to November 1954. Most immigrants came through before 1924; after that, papers and health checks were done at American offices abroad. The main building reopened in 1990 as a museum of immigration.

What happened to immigrants at Ellis Island?

Steerage passengers were brought over from their ship. Each one walked past doctors and then, in the Registry Room, answered an inspector's questions. With papers in order and good health, a person was through in a few hours.

Are there Ellis Island worksheets for 3rd grade and 2nd grade?

A shorter sheet of the same words. Pairs prints four, five, six, eight or ten terms in place of twelve, and The voyage has the plainest ones, such as passenger, ferry and baggage.

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