Beauty and the beast lesson. Prolonging winter holiday mood

Although our winter holidays are over, we still have a winter holiday mood and we want to share it with you through this wondrous worksheet for teens and adults. This magical story of Beauty and the Beast with its snowy scenes makes us want to prolong the New Year spirit for as long as possible. Enjoy with us.

Age: 14+

Level: Pre-Intermediate and higher. 

Lesson activities: Speaking, Listening, Reading. 

Time: 50 minutes. 

Number of students: a one-to-one lesson or a group lesson. 

At the end of the lesson your students will be more confident in movie discussions, they will learn how to express their opinion on various topics, review the vocabulary on such topics as “cinema” and “winter holidays”. They will develop their listening comprehension by watching videos related to the movie. 

Task 1. Warm up. Brainstorming activity

First, ask your students to brainstorm different categories that could be associated with winter holidays such as “food”, “music”, “movies”, “activities” etc. Then have them look at the following mind map and think of more associations for each category.

Focus on the “movies” category. Say that sometimes movies that are not directly related to winter holidays can have magical holiday vibes such as Harry Potter movies, for instance. 

Task 2. Lead-in. Watching a video

Your students might not name “Beauty and the Beast” in the previous step, it is okay. Tastes differ. Anyway, show them the following video.

Let your students watch the official trailer of the movie. Ask the students to express the feelings they get from watching it. Some more questions you might ask them are:  

1. Have you watched this movie? If not, would you like to after you’ve seen the trailer?
2. Have you seen the original Disney version of “Beauty and the Beast”? How did you find it?
3. Can you guess what will happen in the movie? 
4. From this trailer what can you say about the atmosphere of the movie, its decorations? What can you say about the actors and their characters? 

Task 3. Pre-reading. Vocabulary work

In the next step (task 4) your students will read a short summary of an original fairy tale Beauty and the Beast. To get your students ready for reading, work with the vocabulary that will help them understand the text better.

They’ll need to match the words to their meanings:

1. Merchant
2. To grieve
3. Former
4. Slight
5. To wander
6. To beg
7. To banish
8. To be served

a) relating to the past.

b) someone who sells goods.

c) to be provided with the things that someone needs.

d) small, inconsiderable

e) to ask someone for something, especially in an anxious way.

f) to feel intense sorrow.

g) to walk or move in an aimless way.

h) to send (someone) away from a country or place

Keys: 1 -b; 2 -f; 3 -a; 4 -d; 5 -g; 6 -e; 7 -h; 8 -c;

Task 4. Reading Beauty and the Beast

Have students read the summary of a fairy tale and then answer the questions below.  It is an excerpt from the story. Your students are likely to get interested in reading a full version of the story as soon as they finish with this activity.

The fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast is about a young girl. She had a good life in a big house with her father and two sisters. Due to a terrible storm, her father lost all his ships (he was a merchant), so they were forced to move into a smaller house. The two sisters kept on grieving for their former life, but Beauty kept her sadness to herself and tried her best to help her family.

One day Father found out there was a slight chance he could get back a part of his fortune when one of the ships got back. The two sisters started to demand all sorts of things, but Beauty just wanted her father to come back safe. He persuaded her to tell him what she wanted and, in the end, she asked him for a single rose.

On his way home, Father got lost and wandered into a castle. He was getting ready to leave when he saw beautiful roses and decided to pick one. At that moment the Beast caught him and Father, begging for his life, said the rose was for his daughter. The Beast let him go under the condition of him sending one of his daughters to the castle, but the daughter had to want to come.

On his way home he didn’t want to tell Beauty what had happened, but she found out and accepted to go to the castle. The beast banished the father and told him never to come back again.

Beauty’s life was pleasant. She had her room and she was served. The Beast never appeared. Beauty only heard his voice. As time passed, they started enjoying each other’s company…

Adapted from:https://www.booksummary.net/beauty-and-the-beast-beaumont/

Answer the questions:

1. Who did Beauty live with?
2. Why was her family forced to live in a smaller house?
3. What did Beauty ask from her father when he went on his journey?
4. What happened to the father in the forest?
5. When the Beast spoke about saving Beauty’s father’s life, he set one condition. What was that condition?
6. What was Beauty’s life in the castle like?
7. Did she see the Beast?
8. Would you like to find out what happened next?

Task 5. Post-reading and listening. Consolidation

In this task, students need to figure out whether the facts they read were mentioned in the book or the trailer.

1. The Prince refuses to marry his governess, so she turns to be an evil fairy and curses him out of spite.
2. Belle’s father is an eccentric adventurer who leaves his town one day and eventually stumbles upon the Beast’s castle.
3. Belle’s father spends a night in the Beast’s castle before he is noticed by the horrifying master of the house.
4. Belle’s dad sends her to the Beast’s house after explaining to his daughter what has happened to him.
5. One day the Beast saves Beauty from terrifying wolves.
6. Beauty likes the Beast from the very beginning. The only thing that she worries about is his hideous physical appearance.
7. The Servants in the Beast’s castle are real people who were turned into the household objects.
8. Gaston, a hunter and a vain handsome, is determined to marry Belle.
9. The Beast would never transform into a handsome Prince after the magical rose falls off.
10. Just right after the Beast and Beauty’s wedding, Prince’s mother comes to a castle and claims that she is totally against this marriage.

Keys: 1. Book. 2. Trailer 3. Book. 4. Book. 5. Trailer. 6. Book. 7. Trailer. 8. Trailer. 9. Trailer. 10. Book. 

Task 6. Listening Beauty and the Beast

Finish your lesson with fun and relaxing activity. Crank your volume up and listen to this fascinating movie soundtrack together with your students and check their listening comprehension with the final task.

Students listen to the song and fill in the gaps with the missing words.

Tale as old as ______

True as it can be

Barely even _____

Then somebody bends

Unexpectedly

Just a ____ change

Small, to say the least

Both a little ______

Neither one prepared

Beauty and the Beast

Ever just the same

Ever a ______

Ever as before

And ever just as sure

As the sun will rise, oh woah

Ever just the same

And ever a surprise, yeah

Ever as before

And ever just as sure

As the sun will ______

Oh, oh, oh

Tale as old as time

Tune as old as ______

Bittersweet and strange

Finding ______can change

Learning you were wrong

Certain as the sun

Certain as the sun

Rising in the east

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the ______

Tale as old as time

Song as old as rhyme

Beauty and the Beast

Woah

Beauty and

Beauty and the Beast

Key: time; friends; little; scared; surprise; rise; you; Beast

Suggest your students to use the LyricsTraining version to make the task interactive or to use it in your online lessons.

We hope this lesson has served its purpose of prolonging the winter holiday mood. May you and your students enjoy the first days of the New Year and feel the vibes of magic and miracles in your hearts. ✨