Our Journey to America Chapa Elementary 2019 Christmas Tree

OUR JOURNEY TO AMERICA

CHAPA ELEMENTARY
2019
CHRISTMAS TREE

America has always been known as, “the land of opportunity”. Throughout the years, immigrants from all over the world have made their journey and have helped create the America we live in today. This year our school focused on the journey to America and contributions made by immigrants to our country.

First, our tree skirt is made out of blue fabric to represent bodies of water, such as oceans or rivers, in which most immigrants may have had to travel to come to the United States. It is also adorned in burlap to represent the land immigrants came from. The bottom of our skirt is decorated with suitcases and personal items from different countries that may have been brought by immigrants.

We included a garland of ribbon that looks like a fence that represents the barriers that immigrants may encounter as they begin to enter the United States. Our garland contains the different modalities of transportation that immigrants have used in the past years. We included boats to represent how some of the first immigrants from Europe traveled by steamboat. We also included train boxcars to represent, “The Beast”, the way some immigrants from South and Central America travel. We also included shoes to give representation to all the immigrants who travel by foot and we included planes to give representation to those who have traveled by plane.

Throughout the tree, you will find flags from the countries where most of the immigrants came from. Our tree is also draped with people who are wearing traditional clothing from their country. You will also find traditional food that has been brought to America as well as musical instruments, and traditional items that represent their culture. We also included ornaments covered in pieces of world maps.

Our tree also includes pictures and a short biography of famous immigrants that have made great contributions to America. We included the stories of some of our staff members and students from our district explaining their own journey to the United States.