​Designing Garden Dioramas

As a fourth grade rite of passage, California students learn about our Spanish Mission history.  In Long Beach, students visit the Mission San Juan Capistrano and learn about the farming and cooking practices that supported mission life.  To reinforce the importance of farming and early agriculture for mission survival, we created old-school dioramas of mission-style gardens.  Using modeling clay and a variety of found and salvaged materials, students created beautiful miniature scenes of gardens, harvests, fishing, livestock management, and other aspects of outdoor life.  The dioramas were beautiful and wildly creative.