Glow Fables › Aesop's Fables
Aesop's fables are tiny stories, most of them about animals, that end with a lesson you can say in one line: slow but steady wins the race, a kindness is never wasted. They were told in ancient Greece about 2,500 years ago and have been retold ever since.
Each fable here is read aloud by a warm narrator and told in a handful of glowing paper-cut scenes, about two minutes long — just right for bedtime, a car ride or the start of a lesson. Ask your child the question at the end of each page and talk about the moral together.
13 stories · each one read aloud with subtitles · free
A Lion catches a little Mouse but laughs and lets her go when she promises to repay him. Days later he is trapped in a hunter's net — and the Mouse gnaws him free.
Moral: A kindness is never wasted. Little friends may prove great friends.
▶ Watch & listen
A boastful Hare laughs at the slow Tortoise, so the Tortoise challenges him to a race. The Hare runs far ahead and takes a nap — and wakes up too late.
Moral: The race is not always to the swift. Slow but steady wins the race.
▶ Watch & listen
The Mice hold a council and a young Mouse has a clever plan: hang a bell about the Cat’s neck. Everyone cheers, until an old Mouse asks, “Who will bell the Cat?”
Moral: It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.
▶ Watch & listen
All summer the Grasshopper plays his fiddle while the busy Ants store up grain. When the snow comes he has nothing to eat, and the Ants tell him: now dance!
Moral: There's a time for work and a time for play.
▶ Watch & listen
A bored Shepherd Boy twice tricks the villagers by shouting “Wolf! Wolf!” and laughs when they come running. One evening a real Wolf comes, and nobody believes him.
Moral: Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.
▶ Watch & listen
In hot, dry weather a thirsty Crow finds a pitcher with a little water at the bottom, too deep for his beak. He drops in small pebbles one by one until the water rises high enough to drink.
Moral: In a pinch a good use of our wits may help us out. Necessity is the mother of invention.
▶ Watch & listen
A Dog carrying a bone from the butcher crosses a footbridge and sees his reflection in the brook. Wanting the other dog's bigger bone too, he snaps at it and loses his own bone in the water.
Moral: It is very foolish to be greedy.
▶ Watch & listen
A Crow sits in a tree with a bit of cheese, and a sly Fox below wants it for his breakfast. He praises her shining feathers and begs for one song, and when she opens her beak to caw, the cheese falls straight into his mouth.
Moral: The flatterer lives at the expense of those who will listen to him.
▶ Watch & listen
On a hot summer's day a thirsty Fox finds a bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine on a high branch. He jumps again and again but cannot reach them, so he walks away with his nose in the air, saying they must be sour.
Moral: It is easy to despise what you cannot get.
▶ Watch & listen
Every morning a Man finds a golden egg in his Goose's nest, and he and his Wife grow rich. But they grow greedy too, cut the Goose open to get all the gold at once, and find nothing inside.
Moral: Those who have plenty want more, and so lose all they have. Much wants more and loses all.
▶ Watch & listen
A farmer's daughter walks home with a pail of milk on her head, dreaming of cream, butter, eggs, chickens and a new gown. She tosses her head with pride, the pail falls, and all her dreams vanish in a moment.
Moral: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.
▶ Watch & listen
The North Wind and the Sun argue about which of them is stronger, and agree that whoever can get a Traveler's cloak off wins. The Wind blows and blows, but the Traveler only wraps his cloak tighter; then the Sun shines warmly, and soon the Traveler takes the cloak off himself.
Moral: Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.
▶ Watch & listen
A Town Mouse visits her cousin in the country and invites her to a grand city feast. But a mewing Cat, the servants and the House Dog send the Country Mouse hurrying home to her simple, peaceful life.
Moral: Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.
▶ Watch & listen
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