Originally published April 24, 2024
Latest Update May 3, 2026
Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month elementary music activities with a diverse lineup of musicians, folk songs, and interactive games. This post is a “one-stop shop” for busy music educators, featuring everything from Yo-Yo Ma’s classical brilliance to Mista Cookie Jar’s kid-friendly hip-hop.
Use the playlist below to navigate through regional folk songs, plus trivia that will keep your students guessing and engaged all month long. Jump straight to the Arirang Orff Arrangement & Pronunciation Guide.
What is AAPI Heritage Month?
According to Britannica, “Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month is a monthlong commemoration of the history and achievements of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States.”
Let’s celebrate the contributions of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander musicians!
The Playlist
What areas create AAPI ancestry?
AAPI is meant to include people who can trace their ancestry to the continent of Asia or the island nations of Oceania.
Lists of locations are oversimplifications because cultural identifies are fluid and identities often overlap.
Asia
From the Far East, South East, or the Indian sub-continent, including, but not limited to Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Native Hawaiian
Native Hawaiians are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.
Pacifica (Pacific Islander)
The subregions of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia and include but not limited to the people of Samoa, Tahiti, Guam, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea. For more detail, check out the information
AAPI Heritage Month Elementary Music Activities
Orff Arrangements For Asian & Pacific Islander Folk Songs
Arirang | Korean Folk Song
Bring the beloved Korean folk song Arirang into your classroom with this culturally researched Orff arrangement, perfect for AAPI Heritage Month and beyond!
Scaffolded, no-prep slides walk you through every step so teaching feels effortless, while interactive games and activities engage your learners. Unlike resources that just hand you the parts, this lesson guides you through the full teaching sequence from start to finish.
Includes accompaniment mp3.
Pronunciation & Community Vetting
Ensuring the highest level of cultural accuracy is a priority. The pronunciation guide for this arrangement was developed through an extensive vetting process. Rather than relying on a single source, I cross-referenced traditional musicological texts with varied performances and instructional videos to make editorial decisions that were easy for teachers to teach to children.
Most importantly, I collaborated with native speakers on reddit in the r/Korean community to navigate the specific challenges of phonetic simplification for elementary students—such as the “flipped r” sounds and vowel shifts. My goal was to create a version that is accessible for young singers while remaining deeply respectful of the source material.
What’s included in the resource: The full Arirang Orff Arrangement includes the original Korean script (Hangul), standard Romanization, an English translation, and my curated student-friendly phonetic breakdown to help you lead your students with confidence.
Songs from AAPI Areas
Leron, Leron Sinta (Philippines)
A bouncy folk song about papayas, likely sung during harvest time.
Bahay Kubo (Philippines)
Bahay Kubo is about a house made of bamboo (bahay kubo or field house) and is frequently sung by Filipino children, similar to the ABC song in the US.
Sitsiritsit (Philippines)
Sitsiritsit or also known as Sitsiritsit Alibangbang, is a humorous folk song about a woman and a store owner.
AAPI Musicians
This is a growing list of musicians and in no way represents all of the areas that encompass AAPI areas. If you have a musician to suggest, please leave me a message! I welcome everyone’s input! Here’s an amazing website from Summer Swee-Singh with lots of interviews from AAPI musicians!
Norah Jones
Norah Jones is a singer, songwriter, and pianist and was born in 1979 in New York City to American concert producer Sue Jones and Indian Bengali musician Ravi Shankar. Her music crosses several genres but she’s best known for her jazz renditions.
Trivia Question #1: Norah Jones’ hit song, “Don’t Know Why,” was featured on the Masked Singer! Was the singer dressed like an alien, a globe, or a butterfly?
🦋 Butterfly Check out the video!
Christopher Tin
Christopher Tin is a composer born in California in 1976. His ancestry is Chinese. He has most often composed music for film, tv, and video games. In 2011, Tin’s choral piece Baba Yetu, from the video game Civilization IV, became the first piece of video game music to win a Grammy Award.
Try this rhythm stick play along to Baba Yetu!
Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo, Filipino-American, is a singer/songwriter and actress. She was born in California in 2003.
In talking about her dad’s family she says, “My great-grandfather immigrated here from the Philippines when he was just a teenager. He’s my grandma’s dad, and my grandpa is also Filipino as well. My dad grew up in a house where they were always making Filipino food, his grandpa always spoke Tagalog. All of those traditions have trickled down to our generation.” (CAAM, 2018)
Trivia Question #2: One of Olivia’s early acting jobs was on the Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark. What was her character’s name? Paige Olvera, Amelia Duckworth, or Frankie Wong
Paige Olvera Check out the video!
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is a cellist and was born in Paris, France. At an early age he and his parents moved to the United States. His ancestry is Chinese.
🔷 He is best known for embracing many music genres besides classical. Those genres include folk songs from around the world, pop, jazz, opera, bluegrass, and many others.
🔷 He speaks English, Mandarin Chinese, and French.
🔷 He began playing instruments at a very young age and performed at age five for presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
Can you sing along to the “scat” parts of Hush Little Baby?
H.E.R.
H.E.R. (Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson) is an American singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist who was born in 1997 in California. Her mom is Filipino-American and her dad is African-American.
According to BuzzFeed, “H.E.R.’s favorite Filipino food is sinigang (a classic sour and savory tamarind stew). “My grandma makes the best sinigang,” she added. Here’s H.E.R. (Gabi Wilson) as a 10-year-old explaining her influences.
Trivia Question 3: What does the acronym H.E.R. stand for?
🔍 Having Everything Revealed
H.E.R. performs from many musical genres from R & B to Musicals. Here she is as Belle in Beauty and the Beast.
Her musical influences are Prince, Filipina ballad singer Sharon Cuneta, Jay R, and family members who are musicians.
Jake Shimabukuro
Jake Shimabukuro is a ukulele virtuoso and composer who was born in 1976 in Hawaii. He is a fifth-generation descendant of Japanese and Okinawan parents who immigrated to Hawaii. He plays many genres of music and is known for his fast and complex finger work.
Trivia Question #4: About how many ukuleles does Jake own/keep at home? 5, 15, or 50?
😊 Just 5…
Ruby Ibarra
Ruby Ibarra, born in the Philippines in 1988, is a Filipino-American rapper, music producer, and spoken word artist whose family immigrated to California when she was a young child. Her raps (in English, Tagalong, and Waray) come from her experiences as an immigrant to the US from the Philippines.
Trivia Question #5: Ruby was featured in a Mastercard commercial with a famous R&B singer. Was it The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, or SZA?
😎 It was SZA! Check out the video!
Paolo Montalban
Paolo Montalban is a Filipino-American singer and actor. Born in 1973 in Manila, Philippines, he and his family immigrated to the United States when he was a year old. He is best known for playing the Prince in Cinderella opposite Brandy. He has performed in many Broadway and off-Broadway musical theater productions.
Trivia #6: Montalban was an actor in which action-adventure game? Wizards & Warriors, Mortal Kombat, or Legends of Zelda?
⚔️ Mortal Combat
Mista Cookie Jar
Mista Cookie Jar is a children’s music band featuring three Filipino-Americans, Little Miss Ann, Ronnie Boy Kids, and Mista Cookie Jar.
Calamansi, also known as a “calamondin” or “Philippine lime,” is a citrus fruit staple of Filipino and Southeast Asian cooking. Its flavor is a very tart combination of lemon, lime and orange.
Do the movement in Calamansi Twist!
Trivia Questions | Bonus Videos & Answers
Trivia Question video EXTRAS!
Upcoming Additions: Kiki Wong (Smashing Pumpkins)
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