SPANISH MISSION FLOOR PLAN PROJECT

Imagine that you are a Spanish explorer wanting to build a new mission in Texas in the 1600’s. You have never built a mission before and you need to come up with ideas of how to make yours the best mission ever built. You are trying to persuade the Spanish government to approve your mission floor plan to be the “leader mission” for all other missions to come.

With your group of 3 answer the following questions to get a good foundation for your mission.

  1. What kind of problems might you encounter?
  2. What base of knowledge would you have for building new structures for the people to live?
  3. How might the type of environment and geography of the new location affect the building of the new settlement?
  4. What kind of things would your new settlement have to include?
  5. Would you want some sort of security such as police?
  6. How would you protect yourself from possible enemies?
  7. How would you get food to your citizens?
  8. Would it be necessary to make plans of your settlement?

These are some of the same questions that many of the early Spanish settlers who came to Texas had to answer. Now, you and your group will create a floor plan of your mission. Read the list of REQUIREMENTS for your mission. Include all the following:

  1. 4 main outer walls with entrance/exit gates in each wall. Additional buildings in your mission MAY be located outside of these walls
  2. In the lower right hand corner of the poster, add a compass rose with CARDINAL AND INTERMEDIATE directions.
  3. Create a primary entrance to your mission. The one that is most used. Make it more elaborate than the other entrances
  4. Add your security guards or security sources to your mission
  5. Add a GENERAL STORE, BLACKSMITH, TAILOR, CARPENTER, and BAKERY to your mission- inside the main walls
  6. Add a GRANARY (building that stores grain)
  7. Add two churches- one main church and one smaller church.
  8. Add horses’ stalls, soldiers quarters, and Native American quarters.
  9. Add priests’ quarters near the main church
  10. Add a farm that is fenced near the outside of the mission. Label it with the crops that you would grow there.
  11. Add a river near the mission and label it with a name (you can create the name or use a name of a current river in Texas)
  12. NAME your mission and write the name at the top of your poster.

Materials needed for the project

  1. Poster board or other large sized paper
  2. Ruler
  3. Pencils, colored pencils, markers
  4. Black pen

ESSAY

When your floorplan is complete, you will write a persuasion letter to the Spanish Government explaining why they should pick your floor plan to be the “Leading floor plan” for all other missions to come. YOUR ESSAY MUST INCLUDE ATLEAST 20 SENTENCES AND BE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES.

PRESENTATION

Be prepared to present your letter and floor plan to the class. You will need to designate a presenter from your group.