Sixth-graders recreated Ellis Island immigration days at Grover Cleveland Middle School on Friday morning.

Students dressed and took on the persona of their ancestors or self-created immigrants from throughout the world.

All of the sixth grade social studies teachers, including Mike Teshkoyan, who created the event, Arleen Perkins, Dana Spina and Beth Strangeway, along with other sixth-grade teachers, created a poignant experience for the students.

Designed to complement a unit on "Industry Changes the Country" that takes students from the rise of big business through the Great Migration, Immigration Day comes toward the beginning of the unit that spans the years from 1878 to 1920.

More than 50 parents, grandparents and other friends and relatives spent the morning helping as processors and observers throughout the activity.

The students rode "the boat" to America, went through medical and financial checks and took the oath of allegiance.

Several students were deported, but no one was deported for good—and by the end of the simulation each student was sworn in as a citizen of the United States, signed the Oath of Loyalty and headed to the Statue of Liberty.