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4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 4 of 8

Missions, Presidios & Ranchos

Spain and Mexico in California

What your child practices

Early explorers, the Spanish missions, presidios and pueblos, the great harm the mission system did to California Indian peoples and their resistance, Mexican independence and the rancho era. Told plainly and balanced, with California Indian nations as living communities today.

California Content Standards learning standard: 4.2.2; 4.2.3; 4.2.4; 4.2.5; 4.2.6; 4.2.7; 4.2.8 · early routes and settlements, Spanish colonization and the missions, daily life for native and nonnative people, the Franciscans' changes, and Mexican rule and the ranchos

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Who led the first European ship to explore the California coast, in 1542?

    • Christopher Columbus
    • Lewis and Clark
    • James Cook
    • Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo

  2. Question 2

    Toypurina, a Tongva woman, is remembered for…

    • building a railroad
    • finding gold
    • leading resistance against Mission San Gabriel in 1785
    • founding a mission

  3. Question 3

    Spain built missions in Alta California to…

    • start a railroad
    • spread Christianity and claim the land
    • make movies
    • build gold mines

  4. Question 4

    Mexican Californians who owned and lived on ranchos were called…

    • forty-niners
    • Puritans
    • Californios
    • pioneers

  5. Question 5

    The Franciscans changed California's economy from hunting and gathering to…

    • farming and ranching
    • gold mining
    • factory work
    • fishing only

  6. Question 6

    Descendants of the peoples brought into the missions, such as the Chumash, Tongva, Ohlone and Kumeyaay…

    • are living communities working to keep their cultures strong
    • all moved to Spain
    • no longer exist
    • only appear in old paintings

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