When Disney’s Beauty and the Beast released in 1991, I was 11 years old. I was a huge reader! I read a new book every day, and I loved classic literature. However, like Belle I didn’t seem to quite fit in. I think that’s why Disney’s Beauty and the Beast became my favorite movie. It was one of the first movies where I really related to the protagonist. Therefore, when my son’s friend requested, we do a Beauty and the Beast STEM Day next, I started thinking about ideas right away.

So, this post summarizes our Beauty and the Beast STEM Day. I hope that your family or your students had as much fun as we did!

If you like fairy tales or story book STEM activities, be sure to subscribe! We are doing Frog and Toad Day and Cinderella Day soon. My son is also talking about a pirate day, so we will see!

ELA

Comparing Two Fairy Tales

Materials

• Two books about Beauty and the Beast
• Difference/same/difference chart found in the Beauty and the Beast STEM Activity Packet

Buy the Beauty and the Beast STEM Activity Packet below!

Activity

The second grade standards explicitly call for comparing two fairy tales, so why not use Beauty and the Beast! However, earlier grades can do this as well. Or for younger kids you can compare one of the picture books to the movie. For older kids, you could compare the movie to the original text.

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Common Core ELA standards:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.9: With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.9: Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.
• CCSS.ELA- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.9: Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.3.9: Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series)

Alphabetizing: Organize Belle’s Library

Materials

• Five books (or more depending on the age)

Activity

Have students put the books in alphabetic order by title, author first name, and/or author last name. For older children give them more books and give them books where several titles that start with the same first letter.

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Common Core ELA standards:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1.d: Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

Math

Counting: How many petals are on a rose?

Materials

• Roses
• Chart

Activity

Get a dozen of roses of the same variety and have kids count the number of petals in the roses. In a home school setting, divide the roses between the number of children in the family. In a school setting put the students into pairs or groups and have them count together.  Have them record their answers in the chart.  They should see that the same variety of roses has approximately about the same number of petals.

I learned a couple of things when doing this activity. The first one is that the younger kids had a hard time counting the petals because they didn’t tear the petals off cleanly, so some of the petals were double counted. So, I would recommend pulling the petals off yourself. I also expected the roses to have the same number of petals, but they were more varied than I thought.

Background Information: How Many Petals Does a Rose Have? A Detailed Guide – Rose_Explosion

Note: Look for roses on sale at the grocery store. I bought 3 bouquets at Kroger for $3.60 a piece. I even bought an extra bunch for myself!

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Common Core Math Standards:

• CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.1: Count to 100 by ones and by tens.
• CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.3: Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).
• CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4: Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.a: When counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.b: Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.

Arithmetic Mean: Average Number of Petals

Materials

• Rose petals or linking cubes
• Recording sheet

Activity

Although finding the arithmetic mean doesn’t appear in the Common Core Math standards until sixth grade, younger students can still understand average. However, it needs to be in the context of understanding mean as a fair share using smaller numbers. You can explore how to teach mean as a fair share in Ohio’s Math Model Curriculum with Instructional Supports pages 213-216.  

We didn’t do this activity since we did Beauty and the Beast Day with a preschooler and a first grader, but some second or third graders may be able to do it. Instead, I just found the average (arithmetic mean) for them.

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Common Core Math Standards:

• CCSS.Math.Content.3.OA.A.3: Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.^1’
• CCSS.Math.Content.4.OA.A.3: Solve multistep word problems posed with whole numbers and having whole-number answers using the four operations, including problems in which remainders must be interpreted. Represent these problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies including rounding.
• CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.A.3: Recognize that a measure of center for a numerical data set summarizes all of its values with a single number, while a measure of variation describes how its values vary with a single number.
  • CCSS.Math.Content.6.SP.B.5.c
    Giving quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations from the overall pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered.

Quantitative Reasoning: How Often Did a Petal Fall?

Materials

• Rose Petals or linking cubes

Activity

This may be above preschoolers and kindergartners, but it’s worth talking about. Ask students how long it took a petal to fall? First ask students what information they need to know to solve the problem. After brainstorming give students the following information.

• The enchantress said the rose would bloom for his 21^st birthday.
• The curse began when he was 11 years old, as revealed by the castle’s clockmaker, Lumière, who says, “Ten years, we’ve been rusting”

Ask students how many years did it bloom for? Then use your information from counting rose petals to figure out the answer. For younger students who don’t know how to divide you may need to model if for them. Use the petals from one flower as a concrete object like linking cubes and divide it into 10 groups. You will need to approximate answers instead of finding an exact answer.

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Common Core Math Standards:

• CCSS.Math.Content.3.OA.A.3: Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.^1’
• CCSS.Math.Content.4.OA.A.3: Solve multistep word problems posed with whole numbers and having whole-number answers using the four operations, including problems in which remainders must be interpreted. Represent these problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies including rounding.
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP4 Model with mathematics.

Reflections: Mirror Math

Materials

• Standing mirror
• Dry erase markers
• Beauty and the Beast STEM Activity Packet

Activity

Have students draw a picture on a piece of paper. Then have them look at it through the mirror and trace their image onto the mirror. Discuss how the mirror looks the same and different than the original. For younger students just compare the reflection to the original drawing. Discuss how a reflection image is the same and different than the original. Have students identify the reflections in the activity packet.

My preschooler could identify the reflections in the package, but had a hard time drawing them. The first grader could do both parts on the activity pages.

For middle school students, you could use the activity to launch mapping reflections.

Get the Beauty and the Beast STEM Activity Packet below!

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Common Core Math Standards:

• CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.1: Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations.
• CCSS.Math.Practice.MP7 Look for and make use of structure.

Science

Life Science: Life Cycle of a Rose

Materials

• Beauty and the Beast STEM Activity Packet
• Books about the life cycle of a flower or rose

Get the Beauty and the Beast STEM Activity Packet below!

Activity

Read a nonfiction book about the life cycle of flowers. I got several from the library. Then have students map out the life cycle of the rose by gluing the parts onto a paper plate. The Beauty and the Beast Day STEM Activity Packet includes pictures of a seed, seedling, young plant, bud, bloom, rosehip (fruit).

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Ohio Science Content  Standards:

• K.LS.1: Living things have specific characteristics and traits.
• 3.LS.3: Plants and animals have life cycles that are part of their adaptations for survival in their natural environments.

Capillary Action: Color Changing Flowers

Materials

• White roses
• Jars
• Food coloring in water

Activity

I would recommend starting the day with this activity as it takes awhile for this to work. Have the students put food coloring in the water in their jars. Then put the roses in. Have them predict what they think will happen.

Check on them in a few hours and you can start to see some changes. However, you might not see changes until the next day. After the color changes explain why it works the way that it does. You may want to watch the video: What is Capillary Action of Water? How Does Capillary Action Work

Standards

This activity aligns to the following Ohio Science Content  Standards:

• K.LS.2: Living things have physical traits and behaviors, which influence their survival. Living things are made up of a variety of structures. Some traits can be observable structures. Some of these structures and behaviors influence their survival.
• 1.LS.1: Living things have basic needs, which are met by obtaining materials from the physical environment. Living things require energy, water, and a particular range of temperatures in their environments. Plants get energy from sunlight. Animals get energy from plants and other animals. Living things acquire resources from the living and nonliving components of the environment.
• 3.LS.2: Individuals of the same kind of organism differ in their inherited traits. These differences give some individuals an advantage in surviving and/or reproducing. Plants and animals have physical features that are associated with the environments where they live. Plants and animals have certain physical or behavioral characteristics that influence their chances of surviving in particular environments. Note: The focus is on the individual, not the population. Adaptation is not the focus at this grade level.
  • Investigate the movement of colored water in celery to demonstrate the function of the stem and interpret how the food coloring travels to the leafy celery top. Have some celery stalks “stalks down” and others “leaves down” to investigate whether the food coloring moves in both directions. It is not important to know the term “xylem”, but rather to understand that water is absorbed through the roots and transported through the stems to provide water to the rest of the plant.

Kinesthetic Activity

Snowball Fight

Materials

• Scrap paper

Activity

There’s so much learning in the Beauty and the Beast STEM Day, that the kids need a chance to take a break and be active and get their energy out. Since they have a snow ball fight in the movie, why not have the kids have a fake snowball fight. (Unless of course it’s winter, then send them outside for a real snowball fight.)

Crumple up old sheets of paper for snow balls. Then let them have a snow ball fight.

Craft

Stain Glass Window Roses

Materials

• Wax paper or contact paper
• Tissue paper
• Outline of a rose
• Liquid starch (I made mine out of cornstarch.)
• Beauty and the Beast STEM Activity Packet

Activity

I wanted the students to make stain glass roses to imitate the introduction of the Beauty and the Beast movie. I used wax paper and liquid starch, but I probably should have used contact paper as that would have been a little easier for my preschooler. The first thing I did was trace the rose using permanent marker unto the wax paper. Then I had the kids glue the tissue paper onto the wax paper using liquid starch. After they were done, I let them sit overnight to dry. You can also put the wax paper in a black cardstock frame to hang, but I didn’t do that.

Lunch Ideas

• Croque monsieur (grilled ham and cheese sandwiches)
• Mini quiches
• French pastries (mostly fun croissants)
• Fruit

Part of me wanted to use the dishes in the lyrics of Be Our Guest from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, but those dishes didn’t seem kid friendly, so I tried to do kid-friendly French food like Croque Monsieur and quiches, but I didn’t go very authentic since I wanted the kids to eat them. I also picked up some French pastries from Paris Baguette.

STEM

Maurice’s Invention

Materials

• Paper
• Crayons
• Scissors
• Tape
• Glue
• Cardboard

Activity

Tell students that Maurice’s invention broke down and have them design a new invention to help him and chip get out of the cellar. My son was excited about this activity, but unfortunately we ran out of time to finish it.

Standards

These standards are taking from Ohio’s Engineering Standards:

• K.PS.1: Objects and materials can be sorted and described by their properties.
• K-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.  K-PS2-2. Analyze data to determine if a design solution works as intended to change the speed or direction of an object with a push or a pull.* (see expalnations)

Next Generation Science Standards

• Appendix F Science and Engineering Practices in the NGSS – FINAL 060513.pdf
• K-2-ETS1 Engineering Design | Next Generation Science Standards
• K-PS2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions | Next Generation Science Standards
• matrixfork-12progressionofscienceandengineeringpracticesinngss.8.14.14.pdf

Drama

It’s always fun to have the kids reenact Beauty and the Beast as kids love imaginary play!

Conclusion

If you are looking for a fun STEM lesson for kids, I hope you try out Beauty and the Beast Day! It’s a great way to integrate so many math and science concepts along with literacy. Plus your fairy tale and princess loving kids will certainly be engaged! Using fun themes is the perfect way to encourage math and science learning with your students in a highly engaging activity for kids.

More Fun Lessons!

If you like this STEM activity, check out some of my other K-2 math and STEM activities:

• Snow White Day: Fairy Tale STEM Activities
• A STEM Activity on Roller Coasters and the Pigeon;
• Jack and the Beanstalk Day STEM Activities;
• Winnie the Pooh Day: Incorporating Literacy with STEM;
• All I Want for Christmas is a Good STEM Lesson | The 12 Sleighs of Christmas;
• Use Knuffle Bunny and Corduroy to Incorporate Literacy into your STEM Lesson; and
• Peter Rabbit Day: Storybook STEM Activities

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