The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble at School

This is a book I really remember, as when I was a kid I had chicken pox and missed a whole week of school, and oh lordy, the make-up work was a fucking pain in the ass and I didn't want to do it either, so I TOTALLY felt for Brother Bear!

I loved The Berenstain Bears as a child, and I'm thrilled that my children love them too. We've had Berenstain Bear books and movie/videos in our collection for years.... each of my 5 children have loved them, and has gone through a Berenstain Bears phase at some point..... my youngest, 7, is currently in this phase. These books are part of our bedtime reading every night.

Summary:
This fantasy book starts with Brother Bear and Sister Bear coming home from school and Brother "sneezing and wheezing." Mama Bear takes his temperature and tucks him into bed because of doctor's orders. Mama and Papa try to make Brother as comfortable as possible and bring him the TV and toys, so when Sister brings him his schoolwork he barely looks at it. Also while Brother is home sick one of his teammates temporarily takes his spot on the soccer team. Overwhelmed by all the things he missed Brother fails a quiz and then skips the next day of school not knowing what else to do. After having a talk with Gramps and then Mama and Papa, Brother goes back to school and gets control of his school and soccer situation by getting show more ahead of his problem.

Personal Reaction:
I really liked this book because although it is targeted at younger children it actually helped me to realize that I was downing what Brother was doing. I caught a pretty nasty cold that just won't seem to go away and it has really affected my school work. I have gotten behind in quite of few of my classes because naps just sound so much better when your sick then homework does. This book helped me to buckle down on the school work and try to reprioritize and get ahead of my problem instead of making it worse.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. There always times throughout the year that not only kids but teachers too seem to get sick the most at, like the beginning of the school year, the obvious flu seasons, and when the weather changes. I think this book would be good to read doing those times as a reminder at how important keeping up on school work is.
2. I think this would make a good lesson for problem solving.
3. I also think that this could lead into a discussion on how to try and get ahead of sickness altogether. show less

In my opinion this was a good book. This book is about getting in trouble at school. The main idea of this book is responsibility and doing your school work. If you don't do your school work then you will get bad grades, it's your responsibility to get your school work done and study for your tests. One of the reasons I really liked this book was because of the illustrations. For example, throughout the book it gives you the main picture of where they are, but it also leaves some of the page blank for the writing. It's just an interesting way to set up each page. I also really enjoyed the colors of the book. For example, if you go through the book the colors are very calm, even when they were meant to be bright colors, but the colors show more have a way of drawing your eye in, because they choose warm colors for each page. Another reason why I really liked this book was because of the plot of the story. The book goes through to show how Brother bear doesn't do his school work and gets a bad grade. "Not only did Brother get every problem wrong, but Teacher Bob wrote on the paper: "very poor! Must be signed by parent."" Therefore not only does he get a bad grade, but he has to share it with his parents. Therefore, this book is showing you what could happen if you don't have responsibility for doing your work. I really liked this book. show less

As a children, my brother and I had a ton of The Berenstain Bears books.

As an adult, reflecting, these might have been some of the better books for children available. I think I'll read a few more...
And then likely see if my mother has ours tucked away in storage somewhere.

In this book, Brother becomes ill, and then he does not attend school for an amount of time. During this time, he falls behind on his work. When returning from being sick, Brother does not take responsibility by completing his work. He begins to fall further and further behind.

Reflection: This book is great when looking at the concept of responsibility. Brother shows what it means to not be responsible with his work.

This is a great picture book for children. It is a story about Brother bear getting sick with the sneezes and wheezes. He falls behind in his schoolwork and therefore fails a math quiz, which he has to get signed by a parent. In addition, he loses his spot on the soccer team to Freddy. With everything going wrong for him, he decides not to go to school the next day and ends up at Gramps and Grans house where he gets some good advice. Gramps takes Brother bear home to get his quiz signed. Mama bear takes Brother bear to school and his class is retaking the quiz; he ends up making a good grade this time. In addition, he gets his spot back on the soccer team. Everything begins to work out for Brother bear.
I think this is a good book to show more read to children in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade. A good time to read this book is when students have a quiz or a test coming up because it will encourage them to study in order to make a good grade. It will also help them to learn from their mistakes. show less