Chandler celebrates AANHPI Month 2022

At each grade level, the students took part in fun, educational and uplifting activities with the primary focus of sharing the wide range of cultures, histories and accomplishments within the AANHPI community. Here is a sampling of the opportunities our students took part in: 

In Kindergarten, both classes spent time with Jennifer Johnson as she read them a beautiful story entitled The Story of Hula and led the students in a short hula demonstration. In addition, students participated in an interactive book talk hosted by TeachAAPI and Children’s Book World. This talk featured children’s book author and illustrator Benson Shum, who is also an Animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios that took part in films including Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, Frozen 2, Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto.

Our first graders were joined by Chandler parents, Jennifer Johnson and Kim Perez, who taught them all about lei making. During this lesson, the students learned about the tradition behind leis and where they come from. They also had the opportunity to assist in stringing a flower lei and candy lei for their teachers and learned the etiquette for presenting these gifts of gratitude and aloha. 

2nd and 4th-grade students had separate opportunities to engage with violinist Akiko Tarumoto and violist Teng Li who are both part of the LA Philharmonic. While enjoying the performance of beautiful classical music, the students learned about both artists' journeys to becoming professional musicians as well as the immigration story of Ms. Akiko’s family. 

The 3rd-grade classes were excited to have an author visit with Oliver Chin, the author and cartoonist who wrote the Tales from the Chinese Zodiac series. During the visit, he engaged the students by reading portions of his book and offered them a fun opportunity to match their drawing skills against his own. Middle School students also took part in their own meeting with Oliver Chin as they learned about his career and many of the important figures in his book, Awesome Asian Americans: 20 Stars who Made America Amazing.  

Our 5th-grade students had the chance to speak with Mina Fedor, a former Chandler student and the founder of AAPI Youth Rising. The students learned about how Mina and her team created the mission for their organization to “take small actions to make positive change in our communities”. Mina and her team shared the message that young people can make positive change in their own community, no matter their age. 

AAPI Youth Rising also joined our Middle School students for a special presentation of their ONE DAY of AAPI History project. This project highlights some of the important moments from the history of Asian Americans and also celebrates modern AAPI heroes and contributions. 

Last but not least, our Lower School students ended the month with a wonderful and interactive lesson from Bollypop. This lesson engaged our students in a dance tour of India where each class had the opportunity to learn and practice dance forms from throughout India. Additionally, the whole school took part in our weekly All School Assembly featuring The Immortals Lion Dance Team. 

All of these wonderful events would not have been possible without the time, energy and talents of our AAPI Heritage Month Planning Team. Their dedication to ensuring so many cultures were represented in authentic and engaging ways was a gift to our community and I am immensely grateful for their contributions.

 

Thank you also to all of the families who have taken part in the May Book Project dedicated to filling our middle and lower school libraries with important and representative AAPI books. If you are still interested in donating to this book drive, please do so here. 

Wishing each of our families a beautiful last day of May and a wonderful summer break! 

With gratitude,