ESF Kindergarten Trip To Watch We’re Going On A Bear Hunt At The HK Academy Of Performing Arts Drama Theater

On Rockstar’s last day of school before the CNY hols, I brought my parents along on his school trip to watch the theater production of the best-selling children’s book We’re Going On A Bear Hunt. Live theater adaptations of best-selling children’s picture books are totally starting to grow on us, thanks to Rockstar’s school’s practice of reading the book and then having an outing for the children to watch the production, usually before a break.

Rockstar queueing to go in

So my parents are all psyched to be getting a chance to see what Rockstar’s school trip is like (my mum even bought a new bag for the occasion), and as expected they get all impressed with the little kids all lining up to go in. Eyeing navy wrap-around skirts over winter tights, I overhear my mum remarking rather wistfully, “The little girls’ uniforms are nicer.” Sigh. Well it’s not like I can do much about that now, can I? Oh, the burdens of being an only child.

Months ago when I read the book to Rockstar, I didn’t understand why it was a best-selling children’s picture book (not… being an early learning educator or young child haha). It took watching the theater adaption for it to sink in (d-uh no wonder Rockstar thinks he’s smarter than us) – a dad with a baby on his shoulders, two siblings and a dog expedition encounter tall grass, water, mud etc and each time they’ll experiment, for e.g., “Grass. Tall wavy grass. We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it – we have to go through it…” and of course lots of commentary about what the grass, water and mud feel like, and interaction with the audience making them repeat the words and all. They finally find what they’re looking for, namely a bear, and tear off home and hide under the covers. The end.

Rockstar was particularly impressed with the “dog”, who also played some music instruments for sound effects and could howl in tune. However it’s possible my mum still had more fun that Rockstar did. She was waving and cheering along. Glad this only child could oblige that time. And it was a wonderful play and we really love school trips to watch live theater adaptations of the books Rockstar is learning to read because every time he goes we can virtually see all the gears turning in his little head as the characters on stage flesh out his imagination. But… it was such a simple storyline and plot. Doctor Watson would have told you it was elementary. It was far simpler than Snow Dragon, another theater production Rockstar went on school trip to see (and btw, I’m still psyched my post was visited and commented on by one of the show’s writers/ producers in the UK)

Then I read how in the late 60s a certain tv producer named Joan Gatz Cooney set out to make a certain children’s tv program “stick.” It might be a case study to marketing students who read Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, but what I found useful were the observations about children’s learning and attention span they used, to make the tv program “sticky” to the little kids: What would make the children watch the show and keep watching, picking up what the producers intended? How to get them hooked?

Back then, the “epidemic” they were trying to “infect” 3-5 year old children with (Gladwell’s words, not mine) was literacy, their target market children from fairly impoverished homes who were struggling to keep up with literacy rates of their counterparts from more well-to-do homes, who were often simply parked in front of the tv. The tv program? Sesame Street.

According to the book, “virtually every time the show’s educational value has been tested – and (it) has been subject to more academic scrutiny than any television show in history – it has been proved to increase the reading and learning skills of its viewers.” (Um.. Translation: “If you must park your child in front of the telly, make it Sesame Street?” Um… Anyway here’s an old post about Rockstar and tv, with my views on it…)

So then it finally occurred to me how pauses on stage might be slightly longer than if it had been meant for adults, how repetition to a young child is not boring, unlike to grownups. And how in Sesame Street they had to learn to simplify things to keep the children’s attention span and well, mix puppets with real people… Well Rockstar is still going on periodically about “can’t go over it, can’t go under it” re everything under the sun. Like when we dropped my parents off at the airport and picked up my inlaws, he was talking about the bridges and highway roads along the drive.

Bear Hunt is certainly “sticky”. It’s possible our second one is going to be “can’t go over it, can’t go under it,” when he/she gets out and learns to speak in a couple years.

And that’s my OIC moment. You have both the Snow Dragons and the Bear Hunts. Bear Hunt has a simple, repetitive concept meant to stick in your 3-5 year old’s mind – when they go on their own fictitious animal hunt/ expedition. And it can happen anywhere – not least of all a little stage with 3 boards on it. Heck, I just love getting to take Rockstar to the theater – I’m still going “Can’t go over it, can’t go under it…”