Dr. Ogunmola GameLabs

Fireside Tales

Folktales & Morals Nursery to adults 20 stories · 5 min each Free · No sign-up

Sit by the fire with Baba Ijapa the storytelling tortoise and hear 20 folktales from across Africa, from Anansi the spider and Tortoise’s feast in the sky to Sundiata, the Lion of Mali. Every tale ends with its lesson and a short quiz. Little ones hear short picture stories read aloud; older players explore where each tale comes from and how African oral literature works.

Play Fireside Tales
Fireside Tales cover: Baba Ijapa the tortoise reading by a campfire under the moon, with a spider, a tortoise, a lion and a tree

Quick facts

Subject
Literature, folktales and moral lessons
Levels
Little Listeners (ages 3–5), Story Explorers (Primary), Folklore Scholars (JSS, SSS and adults)
Stories
20 folktales from 11 countries
Play time
About 5 minutes per story
Help
Read-aloud on every page, pictures, big buttons, keyboard play (arrow keys turn pages), works offline once visited
Cost
Free forever · No sign-up · No ads

How to play

Choose who is playing, then pick a game. Stars and the stories you have finished are saved on your device only.

  • 📖 Story Time: Pick a tale (or tap “Surprise me”), turn the pages, and tap “Read to me” to hear it. Then see the lesson and take the quiz: 2 picture questions for little ones, 4 questions for older players.
  • 🐾 Who’s in the Story? (Little Listeners): match each story to its main character.
  • ⚖️ Lesson Match (Primary and up): match all 20 tales to their lessons, homes and heroes. Play alone or pass the phone.
  • 🔎 Folklore Lab (JSS, SSS and adults): fables, myths, legends, epics, pourquoi and dilemma tales, tricksters, griots and call-and-response.

The 20 stories

  • Nigeria: Tortoise and the Feast in the Sky (Igbo), Why the Sky Is Far Away (Bini), Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky (Efik and Ibibio), Oluronbi and the Iroko Tree (Yoruba), Ijapa and the Sticky Statue (Yoruba), Tortoise’s Tug of War
  • Ghana: Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom, How Anansi Won the Sky God’s Stories, Anansi and Turtle’s Dinner (Ashanti)
  • West Africa: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears · Liberia: The Cow-Tail Switch · Mali: Sundiata, the Lion of Mali
  • Egypt: The Shipwrecked Sailor, about 4,000 years old · Uganda: Kintu and Nambi (Baganda)
  • Kenya and Tanzania: The Monkey and the Shark (Swahili) · East Africa: The Greedy Hyena · Ethiopia: The Lion’s Whisker
  • South Africa: The Honeyguide’s Lesson (Zulu), The Kind Sister and the Five-Headed Snake (Xhosa) · Congo: Why Crocodile Does Not Eat Hen (Bakongo)

What players learn

Listening and reading comprehension, the lesson in each tale (sharing, honesty, patience, keeping promises, gratitude, kindness, perseverance, thinking before you act), where the stories come from across Africa, and how oral literature works: story types, tricksters, refrains, repetition, call-and-response and the role of the griot.

For teachers and parents

Fireside Tales supports English Studies, Literature-in-English (oral literature and the African folktale for WAEC and NECO), Civic Education and Cultural and Creative Arts. Read a tale aloud to the class, pause on a page and ask what will happen next, then play the quiz together. Lesson Match and Folklore Lab work as pass-the-phone class games.

These are our own retellings of traditional stories, simplified for young readers. Folktales are told in many versions, so families may know a different one: comparing versions is a good discussion. Fireside Tales supports UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education).