Friday, November 20, 2009
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California Missions

Fourth-graders in California schools are assigned projects which teach the origin and development of the missions founded in the state between 1769 and 1828.

The links below discuss each mission and provide insights into their history.

California Mission Site Featuring two histories for each of the twenty-one California Missions, with beautiful color photographs, fascinating green and white sketches, and, for the first time ever, authentic mission music. This music was written in the missions during the late 1700’s by the Spanish padres and the Native Americans who lived and worked there.
 
California Missions Much of California’s history began with the Spanish Missions. The chain of 21 missions along California’s El Camino Real (“The Royal Highway”) represent the first arrival of non-Native Americans to California. Life for the California Native Americans was forever changed. In addition to Christianity, the missions brought many other things to California such as livestock, fruits, flowers, grains and industry. This was also the start of the civilization in which we live today. However, as a result of the arrival of the Spanish, many Native American lives were lost. [Although the information on this site appears fairly accurate, there is no indication of who is responsible for it.]
 
California Missions Information Includes a list of the missions with links to descriptions of each; year founded; founder; and modern city in which each mission is located.
 
California Missions-
History and Facts

by Students at Joe Nightingale School, Orcott, CA
 
Created by fourth grade students at a California school, this page provides a very brief overview of the mission system and a short look at missions near the students’ home town.
CMSA: California Mission Studies Association For the study and preservation of the California missions, presidios, pueblos, and ranchos and their Native American, Hispanic, and early American past.
 
Junipero Serra and California Mission “Junipero Serra is an extremely important figure in the development of present-day California. His missions not only served as the centerpiece to the development of Catholicism in California, but also as a key foundation to the growth of the major California cities such as San Francisco, San Jose, and San Diego. His legacy still remains along the former El Camino Real (present day Hwy 101&5) in the form of twenty-one missions, nine of which he personally founded and developed. Each has its own individual identity, history, and unique traditions.” Includes a biography of Serra, addresses and telephone numbers of the missions, and links to those missions which have webpages.
 
Spanish Missions of California This site is the work of Tobin Fricke and Lauren Bradford, who created it during the summer of 1996, largely between the hours of 9pm and 2am. Lauren and Tobin were both Juniors at the time, Lauren at Santa Monica High School, and Tobin at Mission Viejo High School in Southern California.

“Why did we do it? We created this site both to compete for a ThinkQuest Scholarship (we didn’t win) and to show that the Internet is a viable learning tool in the classroom. We hope that our site will excite all those fourth and fifth graders out there in California who study the Missions as part of the California State Curriculum, and we hope that teachers will find it useful as well. Of course, this site is for anyone and everyone, not just California’s fourth graders.”

 

 
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