“When summertime ends and the weather turns cool, most little bears are ready for school.”
—Opening quote for The Berenstain Bears Go to School
The Berenstain Bears Go to School is a book in the Berenstain Bears First Time Books series. It was published on July 12, 1978.
It was later adapted to an episode of the same name for the 2002 TV series The Berenstain Bears.
Synopsis[]
Summer vacation has wrapped up and it's time for the cubs in Bear Country to start getting ready for school. Brother is excited about going back to school, but Sister isn't, as she is about to start kindergarten. She is nervous about what will happen during her first day.
Plot[]
The Bear family spent their entire summer going swimming and boating at the lake, picnicking in the woods, and took walks along sunny paths. One day, as they were returning to their treehouse, Mama noticed the air getting cooler, the leaves on the treehouse were changing colors, and the birds getting ready to fly south for the winter.
At supper one evening, Brother announces that he is tired of summer vacation and is ready to go back to school, to which Papa tells him that school is starting again very soon. As Sister's ears perk up at the word "school", Mama announces that she and Sister are going to meet the new kindergarten teacher.
The next morning, Mama and Sister walked down the dirt road to Bear Country School where they saw Handybear Gus fixing the school's rooftop. Inside, Mama and Sister meet Miss Honeybear, who takes Sister's hand and guides her around the classroom. During lunch, Miss Honeybear tells Sister that in kindergarten, she'll do various things such as read stories, sing songs, learn the ABCs, paint pictures, play games, build things out of clay, and build with blocks. Sister then went around looking at big paint jars, the barrel of clay, and a stack of building blocks. As Mama and Sister left to head home, Sister thought school will be fun after all.
However, on the first day of school, Sister started worrying about whether or not she won't like school. As the school bus approached their house, Brother grabbed Sister's hand, tells her to stop worrying and that school will be fun. Along the way, the school bus made frequent stops to pick up the cubs, with the big cubs getting noisier and the little cubs getting quieter. A worried bear sat next to Sister. She smiled at him and held his hand. When the school bus arrived at Bear Country School, Sister went with the little cubs to Miss Honeybear's classroom/
Immediately after, the kindergarteners got noisy. Two cubs wanted to play with the same dump truck, two cubs wanted to read the same book, and several cubs wanted to be first to play with the building blocks. When Miss Honeybear yelled out "STORY TIME!", the kindergarteners immediately quieted things down and went to the Book Corner. After story time, Sister painted a picture, helped build a block city, made a doughnut out of clay, and read books. She ate her bread and honey at snack time and fell asleep on a cot at nap time.
After school that day, Sister excitedly told Mama and Papa about the painting she made. A few days later, Brother wished it was summer vacation again so he doesn't have to go to school. Sister then grabbed Brother's hand, tells him school is fun, and raced to the school bus with him. On the bus, various bears talked about the things they were going to do at school, making Brother think that school is fun.
Cast[]
Trivia[]
- This marks the final appearance of the 1974-1978 Berenstain Bears logo.
Gallery[]
