A look at the missions of California

Suzie Harrison

Studying California history, fourth-grade students at El Morro

Elementary School turned the landscape in the multi-purpose room into

a tiny version of the “El Camino Real,” the trail that linked the 21

Spanish Missions.

Each student chose a mission to study that included an intensive

report, and either constructing a model -- duplicating its

architecture -- or putting together a video or multimedia guide to

capture it visually.

Teacher Marshall Klapman’s students acted as tour guides on this

California adventure.

Dylan Bush, 10, constructed in great detail the Mission San

Antonio de Padua, built in 1771.

“It was the first mission ever to have roof tiles,” Dylan said.

“For the architecture I used Styrofoam for a template, cut it out and

put clay over it and shaped it. I baked the clay.”

Bush’s mission was in the San Antonio Valley near the Mission San

Carmel. He used pictures from the Internet to model its exactness.

To surround the building, he used sand for the grounds and sticks

and mosses for landscaping.

“It was kind of a day mission, not as luscious as the other

missions,” Dylan said. “The first people ever in California came to

my mission.”

Dylan said there’s evidence of Native American drawings and

crosses at the mission. Mission San Antonio de Padua was liked most

by the Native Americans because the people were nice to them, Dylan

said.

“Modern scientists think that the Indians might have believed in

Christianity before the Spaniards came to teach it to them,” Dylan

said.

Grace Clark, 10 created a multimedia presentation of Mission San

Luis Rey de Francia. Grace chose the mission because of its beauty.

Grace thought a slide show with music was more apt for her.

Located in nearby Oceanside, she was able to explore the mission

first-hand.

“It was the 18th mission, founded on June 12, 1798,” Grace said.

“It had a lot of pretty statues and was made out of white stucco.”

Grace said it was nicknamed “king of the missions” because at one

point it was the biggest building in California. It was named after

King Louis IX.

“One of the ‘Zorro’ movies was filmed there, and I thought that

was really interesting,” Grace said. “At the cemetery, they put a

skull and crossbones over the entrance. That was my last picture. I

thought it was a good ending because it reminds me of death. And

death is the end of life and my slide show.”