From Bear Hunt to Child-Led Inquiry: One Story, Two Very Different Drama Experiences

 

Buy on Amazon is a wonderful starting point for drama with young children. It has movement, repetition, imaginary environments, obstacles, tension and a clear journey. It is also a useful way of exploring the difference between adult-led drama and child-led, inquiry-based drama.

The interesting thing is that you don’t need different resources to create these two experiences. You can use the same story, the same group of children and the same empty space.

What changes is the role of the adult.

The Adult-Led Bear Hunt

In a traditional drama experience, the adult might begin:

“We’re going on a bear hunt. Everybody get your backpacks ready.”

The adult then leads the children through the familiar journey.

“Here’s the long grass. Let’s push our way through it.”

The children mime moving through the grass.

Next comes the river.

“It’s very deep. We’ll have to swim across.”

Then perhaps the mud, the forest, the snowstorm and finally the cave.

The adult builds the tension.

“It’s very dark in here. Stay close together. I think I can see something…”

And eventually:

“It’s a bear! Run!”

Everyone races back through the imaginary environments until they arrive safely home.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of drama.

Children are moving, pretending, imagining and entering into a shared fictional world. They may be developing language, physical expression, confidence and their ability to sustain belief within dramatic play.

But it is primarily adult-led.

The adult knows where the children are going.

The adult decides what they will encounter.

The adult decides how they will cross the river.

And the adult already knows that there is a bear waiting at the end.

So what happens if we keep the Bear Hunt but change the way we facilitate it?

An Inquiry-Led Bear Hunt

We can begin with exactly the same words:

“We’re going on a bear hunt.”

But instead of telling the children what happens next, ask:

“What do you think we’ll need to bring?”

Now we don’t know what the children are going to say.

One child might want to bring food.

Another might need a torch.

Someone might suggest binoculars.

A rope.

A blanket.

A map.

A first-aid kit.

Or something that would never have occurred to us.

Instead of correcting or directing their ideas, we can use them.

“Why might we need that?”

“Where will you put it?”

“Does everyone need one?”

Then everyone can mime getting an imaginary backpack and packing it.

Already, something important has changed.

The children are not simply copying the adult’s mime. They have begun to create the fictional world themselves.

Off We Go

Once the backpacks are packed, ask:

“Which way should we go?”

Let a child decide.

Start the journey.

After travelling for a little while, stop.

Look into the distance.

And instead of announcing that there is long grass ahead, ask:

“What can you see?”

This simple question can completely change the drama.

Perhaps a child sees a river.

Perhaps somebody sees a mountain.

Another child might see a dark forest, a swamp, a huge wall or a field full of something strange.

Whatever they see becomes part of the shared imaginary environment.

Then ask:

“What do you notice about it?”

If they have created a river, perhaps it is very deep.

Maybe it is moving quickly.

Maybe there are rocks.

Maybe somebody thinks they can see something underneath the water.

Now we have something to investigate.

Don’t Solve the Problem Too Quickly

Imagine the children have decided that a huge river is blocking their journey.

It would be very easy for the adult to say:

“Let’s build a bridge!”

But compare that with:

“How could we get across?”

The difference is small in terms of words, but enormous in terms of children’s thinking.

If we suggest the bridge, the children are carrying out our idea.

If we ask how they might get across, they have to generate possibilities.

Perhaps they swim.

Perhaps they find stepping stones.

Perhaps they make a boat.

Perhaps they decide to build a bridge.

And if a child does suggest a bridge, the inquiry can continue.

“What would we need?”

“Where could we get the materials?”

“How are we going to build it?”

“How will we know if it’s strong enough?”

The children can now mime collecting materials, carrying heavy pieces of wood, tying ropes and constructing their bridge.

Perhaps somebody suddenly remembers:

“I put a rope in my backpack!”

This is a lovely moment in drama.

An idea introduced by a child at the beginning of the experience has suddenly become important to the developing story.

Let Problems Emerge

Suppose one child volunteers to test the imaginary bridge.

Rather than deciding what happens, ask the other children:

“What do you notice?”

Someone might say:

“The bridge is wobbling!”

Now there is tension.

Resist the temptation to solve it.

Ask:

“What should we do?”

The children might strengthen the bridge.

They might use their imaginary rope.

They might rescue the child.

They might decide the bridge isn’t safe after all and look for another route.

The drama has become an investigation.

Continue the Journey

Once the problem has been resolved, keep going.

After a while, ask again:

“What’s ahead of us now?”

The next obstacle comes from the children.

As the journey develops, some very useful questions are:

“What do you notice?”

“What do you think is happening?”

“What makes you think that?”

“What are you wondering?”

“How could we find out?”

“What could we do?”

“Is there anything we brought that might help?”

“What should we do next?”

These questions don’t mean that the adult has disappeared from the drama.

The educator is still very much present.

The difference is that we are facilitating possibilities rather than controlling outcomes.

What About the Bear?

Eventually we can bring the original purpose of the journey back into the drama.

“We’ve travelled a long way. Do you think we’re getting any closer to the bear?”

But even here, we don’t have to decide what happens.

Ask:

“What makes you think that?”

Perhaps someone sees footprints.

Another child hears a noise.

Someone notices an imaginary cave.

Instead of confirming that these things mean the bear is nearby, ask:

“What do you notice?”

“What does that make you wonder?”

“How could we find out?”

The children might become trackers, explorers or investigators as they follow the clues they have created.

And When We Find the Bear?

This is where the inquiry-led version can become very different from the familiar story.

In an adult-led Bear Hunt, we might decide:

“It’s a bear! Run!”

In the inquiry-led version, pause.

Ask:

“What do you notice about the bear?”

The answers might surprise you.

“It’s angry.”

“It’s frightened.”

“It’s hurt.”

“It’s sleeping.”

“It’s lonely.”

“It’s only a baby.”

Instead of deciding which interpretation is correct, ask:

“What makes you think that?”

And then:

“What should we do?”

The children may decide to run.

But they may not.

They might want to help the bear.

They might offer it some of the food they packed.

They might decide it is lost and needs to find its family.

They might hide and observe it.

They might even discover that their Bear Hunt was never really about hunting a bear at all.

And that is the exciting part.

We don’t necessarily know where the drama is going.

From Drama to Inquiry

An inquiry-led drama can move naturally through a simple cycle:

Notice → Question → Investigate → Discover → Reflect → Re-question

A child notices the river.

That creates a problem or question.

The group investigates ways of crossing it.

They try something.

They discover whether their idea works.

They reflect on what happened.

And that discovery may generate another question.

The process doesn’t have to happen in a neat sequence. Children may move backwards and forwards between noticing, questioning, investigating and discovering.

That is part of the inquiry.

Adult-Led Drama Isn’t “Wrong”

It is important not to turn this into a simple argument that child-led drama is good and adult-led drama is bad.

Both have a place.

An adult-led Bear Hunt can be joyful, energetic and imaginative. It can introduce children to movement, mime, role play, tension, fictional environments and shared storytelling.

The difference is where the agency lies.

In the adult-led version, the educator largely determines the journey.

In the inquiry-led version, the educator provides a starting point and enough structure to hold the drama together, while children’s observations, questions, theories and decisions influence where it goes.

Sometimes we will lead.

Sometimes we will follow.

And often the richest drama happens somewhere between the two.

A Small Change in Our Questions

One of the easiest ways to begin moving towards inquiry-led drama is simply to listen to the questions we ask.

Instead of:

“Shall we build a bridge?”

try:

“How could we get across?”

Instead of:

“Is the bear angry?”

try:

“What do you notice about the bear?”

Instead of:

“Should we use our rope?”

try:

“Is there anything we brought that might help?”

Instead of:

“Shall we run away?”

try:

“What should we do?”

We haven’t stopped teaching.

We haven’t stopped planning.

And we haven’t handed complete control of the experience to the children.

We have simply created more space for their ideas to matter.

Plan the Possibilities, Not the Children’s Responses

For me, this is one of the most useful ways of thinking about inquiry through drama.

We can plan the starting point.

We can think about the space.

We can have drama strategies in mind.

We can anticipate possibilities.

We can prepare questions that might help us deepen the experience.

But we don’t have to plan exactly what the children will say, do, discover or decide.

Sometimes the child who packed an imaginary rope will suddenly use it to rescue someone from an imaginary river.

Sometimes the children won’t want to run away from the bear at all.

And sometimes their version of the story will be far more interesting than the one we had planned.

Plan the possibilities, not the children’s responses.

 

 

 

For more flexible, child-led drama inquiries, Buy Drama Start: Inquiry and Play on Amazon.

Related Drama Start resources: Explore the Inquiry-Led Drama hub or see how the same approach works with The Three Little Pigs as a child-led drama inquiry.