IN THE CLASSROOM:

Kaiser Elementary teachers wanted their students to learn about California’s history with missions in a more exciting way than just reading from a text book, so they asked the kids to make models of the more notable missions. When they came back a bit more sophisticated than one would expect from elementary school students they grew suspicious the parents were the ones getting the education with a little too much involvement in the homework.

The Kaiser teachers, though, came up with a clever way to keep the parents involved. Now the parents come to school and help their kids collaborate on the mission models.

Rather than the traditional method of having students build their mission individually at home, Kaiser had the students collaborate on the building plans for their mission and then devoted one school day to building.

“The students are doing the work and making decisions,” teacher Cheri Karg said. “Not only is the textbook coming to life, but this is a culmination activity of academic study.”

The school had its sixth annual mission-building project last week when 96 students from three fourth-grade classes got together to build 20 of the 21 missions in one day.

“It’s super-duper absolutely fun,” 9-year-old Ashley Bustan said.

Parent volunteers are vital, teachers said, but the activity is mostly just for the children.

“The students are able to take their creativity and use that,” Karg said.

Students, teachers and parents started preparing for the build two weeks ago, and there was considerable pre-planning, Karg said. The building is part of a one-month lesson about the missions and California history. The goal is to teach the children about the historical context and perspective found within the missions.

“This was the center for living during that time period [in California],” fourth-grade teacher Brian Mena said. “They learn the missionaries’ intent and we get them to understand what the Native Americans thought.”

The children worked in teams based on their own research, Karg said. The children were allowed to deviate from the original design and play with color schemes and construction, using blues and greens for the building colors to give the missions a distinct look.

“My favorite mission is San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo,” 9-year-old Alexis Boyd said. “That’s where Father [Junipero] Serra and Crespi died and were buried.”

Students completed the build in about two hours with the help of the teachers and parents.

The missions will be on display at Kaiser’s open house in the fourth-grade classrooms May 22.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].