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Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Videos | Lesson Plans | Additional Resources

Introduction:

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) is celebrated in May to commemorate the contributions of people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent in the United States. Congress passed a joint Congressional Resolution in 1978 to commemorate Asian American Heritage Week during the first week of May. This date was chosen because two important anniversaries occurred during this time: the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in America on May 7, 1843 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad (by many Chinese laborers) on May 10, 1869. Congress later voted to expand it from a week long to a month long celebration. – Wikipedia

Lessons Plans:

Cultural Heritage and Diversity:

• Teach about different countries and cultures with this must-have compilation of creative ideas
• An immigrant group’s “culture capsule” is created in this multidisciplinary lesson
• This lesson is on cultural awareness and sharing traditions
• Here’s an activity for developing a cultural calendar
• This lesson focuses on exposure to other cultures and building self-esteem
• This is a lesson plan about family and cultures
• Here students research the culture, language, and traditions of their native land of origin
• This lesson plan is on immigration and tracing one’s lineage
• This brief idea involves learning history from grandparents
• Clipart is used here to create a “Where is your family from” quilt square

• This is a set of lesson plans for an Oral History Unit:
  • This first lesson discusses how to do an interview
  • This one focuses on obtaining information through an interview
  • The last lesson addresses the interviewing of elders to learn about their life in the community

• This Eve Bunting “Smoky Night” lesson teaches students the value of getting along with people they do not know
• “We’re Just Like Crayons” by Stephen Fite is the centerpiece for this diversity lesson
• The “Colors of Us” are compared to food in this similar/different diversity lesson
• This lesson explores “The Color of We” with paint-mixing, puppetry, and poetry

World Geography and Culture:

• This is a geography lesson on “Finding your Spot in the World”
• “See The World” is another idea for studying other countries
• This is a good art-focused lesson on painting, the elements of light, and countries and their continents
• This activity involves creating travel brochures
• “Come to my Country” brochures are created in this geography lesson
• Students create a travel brochure to an imaginary or actual place in this lesson
• Here’s an idea for students to make flags for different countries
• This is a multidisciplinary lesson on “Music Around the World”
• Sixth graders make a foreign country photo story here

E-Pals:

• “Keypals” is a well-developed electronic foreign penpal unit
• This lesson is about E-Pal communication and the other cultures that may be encountered through it
• Here is another great international penpal idea

Asian/Pacific Countries and States (General):

• Here students create an Eastern Hemisphere/Asian ABC Geography book
• Here are two well-developed lessons on animals in Asia and Africa

Hawaii:

• This tissue paper craft activity is part of a “Day Camp in Hawaii Unit” suitable for after-school, summer school, scouts or other youth groups
• Here are instructions for creating the Hawaiian ‘Uli ‘Uli musical gourd rattle instrument used in hula dances

Japan:

• This excellent Asian Pacific American Heritage lesson features the book “Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes”
• This lesson on concept formation and equality under the law refers to Executive Order 9066 ordered all persons of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast to be held in internment camps, without trial or hearing
• Here students paint an Ikebana Japanese flower arrangement and learn of its relationship to Buddhist culture
• This Charlotte’s Web unit lesson is on writing haiku poems about spiders
• Students write haikus about their state here
• This Father’s Day card idea begins with the creation of an origami (Japanese art of paper folding) shirt
• Although not a lesson plan, this brief idea provides some good information for teaching about Pearl Harbor
• See cool timelapse HD videos of cherry blossom season and autumn in Kyoto, Japan
• Also see videos about the 2011 Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis in Japan and other recommended resources on the topic

China:

• This Chinese New Year lesson encourages appreciation of Chinese culture through celebration
• Chinese New Year is celebrated here with music and paper lanterns
• This is a Great Wall of China research lesson
• In this lesson, students experience Tiananmen Square
• This art lesson explores sophisticated finger painting and the ancient Chinese artist philosophy of Chih-hua
• “Ten Important Words” is a vocabulary building study skill strategy used here to identify China’s inventions and achievements with Post-its

• In this inspirational story, a teacher wrote a letter to prevent the deportation of a ESL student from China and reaped great rewards
• In this technology lesson, ESL learners create a video in English about Chinese culture
• Chinese students learn how to ask directions at Disney World in this ESL lesson
• This is a great card game for teaching months in a foreign language or any vocabulary words (was used with Chinese ESL students)
• “The Cheap Crazy Doctor” is an acting dialog written for Chinese ESL/EFL students to practice and act out
• This EFL lesson on soft and hard vowels employs the yin/yang symbol (sent to us from China)

• “Grandfather Tang’s Story” by Ann Tompert is used in this tangram (ancient Chinese puzzle) math lesson
• A Chinese folk tale about fox fairies is used in this intriguing tangram lesson
• This geometry lesson uses homemade tangram puzzles
• This 3-day lesson is devoted to creating, exploring, and manipulating tangrams

• This is a shared reading Chinese tall tale about the Emperor and the kite
• This multidisciplinary kite building lesson is a great way to apply geometry and computer skills
• Read this lesson and then “Go Fly a Kite”
• Here students “Go Fly A Kite,” and learn about drag, thrust, lift, and gravity

• Here’s a brief idea for making “Firework Art” on construction paper
• Create artful fireworks here with a little paint, glitter, and a plastic hammer
• This art lesson involves making a simulated fireworks display (for 4th of July)

Pakistan:

• This unit introduces the Handicrafts of Pakistan:
  • Introduction to Pakistan’s Handicrafts
  • Jewelry Making – decorating salt dough pieces
  • Metal Craft – engraving a foil-covered dish
  • Clay Seals – modeling designs in clay
  • Patchwork Collage – arranging wrapping paper shapes

• This EFL lesson encourages children to critique the many cultural holidays and festivals of Sindh, Pakistan

Saudi Arabia:

• These are PE balance and ball activity ideas from Saudi Arabia
• Sinbad the Sailor teaches jumping in this PE movement story

New Zealand:

• This lesson looks at the U.S. and New Zealand in terms of location, transportation, and apples!

India:

• This Indo-Islamic art unit introduces students to Mughal miniature painting
• This is a lesson on the Union Parliament of India
• We have included this lesson on “Chessays” – chess-related essay ideas – because chess was invented in India
• This general science filler lesson has several questions on the space program of India

Tibet:

• Here students make colored sand and sand pictures (like Tibetan Mandalas)

Vietnam:

• Here is a lesson on the Vietnam War that uses music
• Paul Cameron’s sent this inspirational message about his Vietnam War experience
• After choosing from this great list of Vietnam War topics, students conduct their own original research and write a paper on the subject

Cambodia:

• This is an inspirational lesson about how student activism in WWII can serve as a catalyst for student activism today (refers to the Pacific Theater/reducing land mines in Cambodia/Southeast Asia)

Other/Multiple topics:

• This collection of brief music lesson plans include a Japanese and New Zealand folk song
• This lesson on multicultural fairy tales includes “Yeh-Shen” retold by A. Louie and “The Korean Cinderella” by S. Climo
• After learning the cultural history of pottery, students design and make a functional piece here (Japan/China/India)
• This lesson uses fortune cookies (invented either by a Chinese immigrant, a Japanese immigrant or the Chinese 49ers) to motivate students to “find the verb” or other parts of speech
• “Write Me A Picture!” is a beginning lesson on calligraphy
• Students create a political cartoon here illustrating imperialism prior to WWI – topics include the annexation of Hawaii, forced modernization of Japan, Japanese imperialism in Asia, and Great Britain in India
• This lesson on U.S. foreign policy in the 70′s and at the turn of the millennium refers to China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, and Japan
• This globalization and the environment unit culminates with a mock Kyoto Protocol negotiation
• This is an ESL Level 3 literature lesson on culture shock
• Students develop a basic understanding of Buddhism and its traditions in this lesson by compiling online research into a narrated photo story

Videos:

• The Library of Congress hosts an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month audio-video page filled with multidisciplinary webcast lectures and cultural performances
• “Asians Rock – What’s Your Story?” is the YouTube question posed by the Asia Society and responded to here by over 200 proud Asian Americans
• Access the Asia Society’s channel and additional videos about all things Asian
• These are video interviews of children’s authors Laurence Yep and Janet Wong
• Asian Pacific Americans veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq are interviewed here for the Veterans History Project
• This a series of video interviews of past and present Asian Pacific American congressional leaders
• Arar Han, co-editor of “Asian American X: An Intersection of 21st Century Asian American Voices,” discusses her struggle to reconcile her ethnic identity with Asian American media stereotypes in this Boston College video (59 minutes)
• KQED promotes educational videos with flash activities, lesson plans and educator’s guides on Asian American communities, Japanese internment, Cambodian refugees, a Sikh family, the Angel Island immigration station, South Asian diversity and local heroes
• The Korean Society hosts a large collection of podcasts. Click on “publications” for educational podcasts and over 100 downloadable Korean Studies K-12 lesson plans
• The Center for Asian America Media site presents these resources for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
• Asia for Educators developed several well-supported multimedia video units and offers a searchable database of video resources to order
• “The Power of Place: Geography for the 21st Century” is a series of 26 free video-on-demand programs for high school classrooms, eight of which are on Asian topics
• HowStuffWorks.com lists video geography units on Asia and the Pacific Islands
• TVE Asia Pacific offers a nearly free collection of issue oriented video film resources here for “learners, teachers, and trainers”
• Here is a searchable database of Asian related audio-visual resources, as well as teaching units, a catalog of K-12 resources and links to related websites provided by the Asian Educational Media Service (University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign)
• Berkeley’s Asian, Pacific, and South Asian American Video Media Resources Center hosts a large collection of videos and videographies, some of which you can view online
• Access classroom guides with related discussion questions, timelines, and links for the PBS television “documemoir” series “Ancestor’s in the Americas” by Loni Ding here (Check local listings for other APAHM PBS programming throughout May)

Additional Resources:

• HotChalk.com – Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Resource Guide kicks off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with videos from National Geographic and Globe Trekker.
• Scholastic.com – Dream In Color lesson plans and student activities “empower your students to learn more about Asian American heritage and celebrate heroes from a variety of Asian ethnic backgrounds.”
• Asia for Kids thoroughly and concisely answers the following questions:

  Who are Asian Pacific Americans? How did Asian Pacific American Heritage Month come about? What is the history of each Asian Pacific American cultural group? What books and videos do you recommend for schools?

• This Asia Society site presents great K-12 lesson plans for teachers, as well as special activity pages for students and younger kids and a guide for starting a Chinese language program in your school.
• The Kansas University Consortium for Teaching About Asia K-12 Lesson Plan Collection is excellent, extensive, and easily accessible by grade, standard, and country. They also provide online professional development courses for K-12 educators wishing to incorporate East Asian topics into their classroom teaching.
• Asia for Educators – A Columbia University Initiative offers multimedia teaching units, core curriculum faculty guides, timelines, Asian art museum resources, recommended websites, and an extensive teaching material database searchable by subject area, file type, country or time period.
• Library of Congress – Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month and specifically their Teacher’s Page connects your classroom to powerful primary sources and related ready-to-use lesson plans, audio and video webcasts, online teacher resources, special presentations and an excellent K-12 bibliography.
• The Smithsonian Asian American Teaching Resources Library also pairs its primary history, culture, world music and art sources with lesson plans and multi-media curriculum guides on interesting Asian Pacific American topics.
• Infoplease.com – Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Page brims with useful information including interactive quizzes on Asian-American History, Asian-American Leaders, Asian-American Entertainers, and an Asian Influences Crossword.
• EDSITEment – APAHM May Feature Page highlights original lesson plans, activity “trips” to Asia for K-5 and 6-12
• IMDiversity.com offers many Asian Pacific American Heritage and History Month features including Frances Kai-Hwa Wang’s marvelous Asian Pacific American Heritage Month for Kids article and her (More) APAHM Sites to See list.
• Kids Web Japan is another fun site for young students.
• HistoryOnTheNet offers a short treatment of the WWII Japanese-American internment camps topic with work sheets, word searches and crossword puzzles for a younger audience.
• Colorín Colorado bilingually celebrates the “rich diversity of Asian and Pacific Americans with books, activities, resources, and ideas for ELL educators.”
• PBS Teachers thematically looks at the Asian American/Pacific Islander community, offering many activity ideas across multiple disciplines