Can Bears Ski?

Product Information

Join Deafinitely Theatre on Saturday 23 September 2023 for a one-night special charity fundraiser performance of The Vagina Monologues! Boy Bear cannot hear Dad Bear coming to wake him up in the morning but he can feel the floor vibrate with his heavy footsteps. He can only grasp little bits of what his teacher says to him at school. He cannot catch what his friends are laughing at. And, all the time, Boy Bear keeps hearing the question, “Can Bears ski?” What does it mean? With the support of Dad Bear, Boy Bear visits an audiologist and, eventually, he gets hearing aids. Suddenly, he understands the question everyone has been asking him: “CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

Can Bears Ski? | Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Can Bears Ski? | Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

While competing in the 19th series of Strictly, Ayling-Ellis performed a touching routine with dance partner Giovanni Pernice during which they paused the music and danced in silence as a tribute to the deaf community. As Bear and his Dad walk to school, Dad Bear talks a lot. Friends call hello. Bear hears only the crunch of the snow until his father asks him again, “CAN BEARS SKI?”The CLPE teaching notes are brilliant for starting discussions around this book and they also link to some brilliant resources and further reading for children who want to learn more about the Deaf community and want to improve their own ability to communicate with Deaf children and grown ups. Can bears ski? What a random question to ask little bear. This book follows the story of a little bear who we find is hard of hearing. Antrobus and Dunbar have created a lovely book to show children what it is like to be hard of hearing. With the help of family and professionals the young bear who struggled to hear people talk and know what they were saying learns different techniques to help him such as lip reading and heading aids. This year brings a very special collaboration with Paula Garfield, the Artistic Director of Deafinitely Theatre to create ‘Can Bears Ski?’ for both a hearing and deaf audience. For Deafinitely Theatre, Paula’s previous productions include: Two Chairs, Motherland, Children of a Greater God, Playing God, Double Sentenceand Gold Dust. She also devised and directed The Boy and the Statuefor Deafinitely
at the Tricycle Theatre and on a London schools tour. Paula has directed two productions at Shakespeare’s Globe: Love’s Labour’s Lostfor the Globe to Globe Festival, as part of Deafinitely’s 10th anniversary celebrations, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her most recent productions for Deafinitely include: Tanika’s Journey(Southwark Playhouse), Grounded(Park Theatre), a national tour of family show, Something Elseand Contractionsat ND2 in 2017.

Can Bears Ski? by Raymond Antrobus, illustrated by Polly

Tina has written, adapted, directed and produced over twenty five plays for the company including a large scale national tour of Anne Fine's 'The Book of the Banshee', and 'A Little Princess'involving eight actors and eight young people. This is a lovely story showing a positive message about children with hearing loss. Boy Bear can feel the rumbling and noise of the curtains and his dad’s footsteps when he is woken up in the morning. He enjoys getting ready for school and then the snow outside, but then, while on his way to school, his dad tells him that he just ignored his friend and then asks him if Bears can Ski? But is that really what Dad Bear asked, or is Boy Bear suffering some problems with his hearing? This brilliant book has shown my children and I a little of what life might be like for a deaf child Can Bears Ski? will be the first ever BSL-signed story on CBeebies and it will see Ayling-Ellis speaking only to introduce the story and at the end of the programme to say goodnight to the young audience. The story will also have subtitles.

Tina’s original plays have had four residencies at The Fortune Theatre in London’s West End. Her most recent titles include ‘My BIG Little sister’, 'Robin’s Winter Adventure’, The Big ENORMOUS Present’ and ‘Zoom' which she co-wrote with Nicola Sangster, alongside ‘DIG!’ Pied Piper’s first play for babies and young toddlers. A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. The illustrations are just lovely and capture the expressions of Boy Bear and his father, among others, and I just love how everyone looks. The pictures just look perfect, showing some of the emotion that Boy Bear and his dad go through when he’s at the doctor and the difficulties Boy Bear has in understanding those around him. The story has a great ending and I just love the last part where Boy Bear finally understands the question he though everyone was asking ‘Can Bears Ski’! This book describes life as a deaf person who uses vibrations, loud noises, and lip reading to communicate with the outside world. I think it's a great thing to include little bear's appointment with the audiologist. This part of the book could really be beneficial when helping decrease anxiety with those who also need to go see the same type of doctor. Plus, it gives information to those who don't, knows what people with hearing issues sometimes do to help them.

Can Bears Ski?: Antrobus, Raymond, Dunbar, Polly

Even though little ones think they are only having story-time, actual learning is going on, too. One way to bring additional insight about someone with a hearing loss would be to think of other words, or sentences, that might sound different. For instance, the sentence, “can you hear me,” might sound like, “can bears ski?” Awareness of this and other challenges of hearing loss can clear up what may have seemed like a case of being ignored, to just a misunderstanding of words. The Pied Piper Theatre Company and Deafinitely Theatre present a retelling of a story by Raymond Antrobus and Polly Dunbar It is an incredibly emotional journey for the reader and gives a tiny taste of how that journey might feel for the parent and child, a chance for us to look through the window and begin to understand and empathise so that we may better support families that we know. I love how most of the read-aloud for this book includes ASL signing in the video. It is quite inclusive, and what this book is all about. My favorite illustration overall is when the little bear is getting ready in the morning, and he describes the colors of his clothing. In the picture, he stands confidently and comments how he likes his colors LOUD! It's completely adorable. It is a good thing to include a wide array of books for your students/child, but great when it includes positive and confident representation like this book does.Tina was head of Youth and Education at The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford for fourteen years and toured nationally with YAT. Her plays have been performed in Europe and in Singapore. She has also directed ’Snowflakes’ for Oxford Playhouse. In the story the boy bear unintentionally ignores his friends’ greeting, and he is unable to join in with the laughter of his friends at school lunches.

Can Bears Ski? by Raymond Antrobus, Polly Dunbar, Hardcover Can Bears Ski? by Raymond Antrobus, Polly Dunbar, Hardcover

Speaking about signing for CBeebies, Ayling-Ellis said: “I am super excited to read my first CBeebies bedtime story in British Sign Language and it’s even more wonderful to share a story written by a deaf writer. I love how although the found bear can’t hear what people are saying and repeatedly hears can bears ski? Instead of can you hear me? The attention the authors gave to the small sounds that the bear feel including the crunch of snow as he walks along it, but also the silence. For example when dad bear has the TV on, the small bear cannot hear the tv but can see the man in a blue bodysuit skiing fast down a slope.What a fabulous children’s book this is. I can hazard a guess that there aren’t many children’s books out there that are about hearing lose/deafness. I commend the author who is deaf himself for writing a book he would have loved as a child.