Episode 414: Appreciation Day

Bear in the Big Blue House
Premiere	July 7, 2003
Written by	P. Kevin Strader
Director	Dean Gordon
Theme	Appreciate

Shadow with Bear & Tutter

Bear greets the viewer and says they have a very unique smell. He checks his calendar to see if there's anything special coming up and finds that tomorrow is Teacher Appreciation Day. Bear heads over to Mouse School just before soccer practice to see if Tutter and his classmates know, and finds that they were all just in the middle of talking about how much they like Miss Maxwell. Bear explains what "appreciation" means and inspires the mice to show Miss Maxwell how much they appreciate her the next day.

To prepare for the surprise party, Bear splits the mice up in teams of two and assigns Tutter and Lilly to make Miss Maxwell a gift. At first, Tutter's not so sure about the arrangement and worries that the shy and quiet Lilly won't be very good at helping him, but Bear persuades Tutter to give Lilly a chance. Tutter proposes some silly gift ideas (like a ball of lint, and a photo of himself), but Lilly suggests writing a poem. Together, Tutter and Lilly decide to write a poem comparing Miss Maxwell to the "great cheeses of the world".

Later, Shadow appears and tells Tutter and Bear the story of The Lion and the Mouse. The story inspires Tutter to show Lilly his appreciation, so he lets Miss Maxwell know the poem was Lilly's idea after they recite it the next day. Back at the Big Blue House, Tutter and the rest of the gang surprise Bear with a plate of corn fritters and let him know how much they appreciate him for taking care of them.

That night, Bear and Luna express their appreciation for each other. Bear says goodbye to the viewer and encourages them to show their appreciation for the people they care about.

Songs

• That's "Appreciate"

Gallery

Notes

• Teacher Appreciation Day (also known as National Teacher Day) is celebrated on the first Tuesday of the first full week of May. Bear's calendar in this episode shows Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday, May 7th.
• This episode marks Shadow's first appearance since "Welcome to Woodland Valley Part 2".

Previous episode:	Next episode:
Great Ball of Firefighters	Show Your Stuff