California Mission Pojects

It is so much fun to see the California Mission projects when the kids start to bring them to school. It is always enjoyable to see each students interpretation of the mission that was assigned. Some kids are so creative, they use the most unique materials in their projects. Thinking outside the box and not purchasing pre-made kits! Michael's carries a paper mache that once it is mixed with water is easily moldable, as in this Mission of San Francisco.

Raffia, used for the roof! Inexpensive and creates a wonderful roof top that any fourth grader can assemble. Precut the raffia into four or five inch pieces and adhere with a craft glue. Save your cardboard! Especially the board that has the ripples. Doors to your mission can be cut out of the board and painted. The cardboard can also make perfect head stones if you were to make an adjoining cemetery.

Styrofoam cut into squares and then colored with a brown dye, makes a realistic building. Mixing your media with some homemade items and some purchased, always looks nice. Purchased Mission items are expensive though. Michaels' stores generally have a "sale" section. I would check here first if you wanted to mix and match your media. Some Mission items find themselves in the sale section just because of the sku numbers being dated.

Adding jewels to the Mission makes a wonderful entrance. Windows can be made from jewels, or in this case the front embellishment above the door adds the right detail.

Make sure when you build your Mission, it is on a sturdy base. Styrofoam boards can be purchased at the craft store and then cut down to the required size. Do not make the base too big, as it will be hard to carry - and hard to display. I have seen beautiful projects that have been left on top of the cabinets only because there was no room left to display them when it came time for Open House. A manageable display always gets displayed.

Rooftops can be assembled using pasta. Lasagna pasta, Rigatoni, and Farfalle (bow tie pasta) are used the most. Pasta is easily glued on to the project, and pasta is easily painted. This student took it a step further and sprinkled colored sand on top of the roof to add a rustic element to his project. Gives the mission a feel for being out in the middle of no where - like how they were. Roof tops are usually painted a reddish color or brown. I discussed the use of
pasta on mission projects on an earlier post.

 A California Mission made from a cake mix (actually they used five cake mixes), came out beautiful! I have not seen this done before, but apparently it was easy and alot of fun to do! This student even included the step by step instructions on how they assembled this masterpiece!

For more ideas click here! And if you found this helpful, please let me know by making a comment.