Today is Aesop’s birthday. Aesop wrote hundreds of fables, short stories sharing moral truths and life lessons. As children, almost all of us learn about Aesop or hear his fables at some point. Aesop’s fables are simple stories that help children understand how the world works and helps impart a little bit of wisdom on them in a way that they can understand it. Almost all of the characters are animals and all of the fables are very short. Obviously Aesop knew his target audience! Kids love the animals he uses in his tales and the short length keeps them interested and engaged. They are able to understand the message because it doesn’t get lost in a long story.
Facts About Aesop:
- Nationality: Ethiopian or Greek
- Lifespan: Approximately 620 – 560 BC
- Career: Slave, Author of the book of fables
- Famous Works: “The Fox and the Crow”, “The Fisher”, “The Hare and the Tortoise” and “The Sick Lion“
To celebrate Aesop and his birthday, here is one of his most famous fables accompanied by a printable PDF your child can print and color.
The Fox and the Crow
A Crow having stolen a bit of meat, perched in a tree and held it in her beak. A Fox, seeing this, longed to possess the meat himself, and by a wily stratagem succeeded. “How handsome is the Crow,” he exclaimed, in the beauty of her shape and in the fairness of her complexion! Oh, if her voice were only equal to her beauty, she would deservedly be considered the Queen of Birds!” This he said deceitfully; but the Crow, anxious to refute the reflection cast upon her voice, set up a loud caw and dropped the flesh. The Fox quickly picked it up, and thus addressed the Crow: “My good Crow, your voice is right enough, but your wit is wanting.”
Click the picture to download the PDF.
For more of Aesop’s Fables, go to http://www.aesopfables.com/. The first sections listed there are all of his fables, each containing about 100 fables. That should keep you busy for a while! Kids Pages also has a shorter list of fables with illustrations. And you can go to