Having Reflections & Making Connections

Trying something new can be a little scary, but it just might surprise you! The Berenstain Bears Go To Camp by Stan and Jan Berenstain is another entertaining, delightful book by these two renowned authors. Like their other Berenstain Bear books, this one is about the Bear family activities and experiences. School had just ended for the summer, and Bear Brother and Bear Sister had nothing to do. After Mama Bear read about a summer camp and shared the information with the cubs, they were unenthusiastic about signing up. Brother Bear was not sure what it was like to go to camp, and Sister Bear did not like the thought of an overnight sleep out. After pondering awhile about camp, and still having nothing much to do, the two cubs decided to give camp a try. They experienced many of the classic camping adventures such as canoeing, swimming, arts and crafts, and so many other activities that they forgot all about their initial fears and participating in the sleep out. The cubs had such an amazing time at camp, and they even won some medals on the last day of Field Day games.

This is a wonderful book that students can relate to their own personal experiences. The cubs are bored at home with nothing to do over the summer, they have fears of participating in some activities and about sleeping overnight, and they have new and exciting experiences. There are connections to be made on almost every page!

A wonderful activity to have students participate in would be this Making Connections worksheet I downloaded for free at teacherspayteachers.com. Students will write a sentence directly from the book in the first section, and then write how it relates to them , what it reminds them of, or someone they heard about having a similar experience. Then, the student would circle what type of connection it was.

This activity would be a great way to allow students to show what they got from the text. It would also give the teacher an idea of what each student perceived from the text. This is a valuable tool in the classroom because the teacher gains insight on how his or her students acknowledge what happens when they read a story and how well they can make a connection to what is happening when they read.