Story Summary
When a migrating stork gets tangled in a net, covering a fish pond on Maya’s kibbutz, Maya wonders what to do. Can she and her father find a way to nurse it back to health? Together with her father and other kibbutz members, Maya carefully nurtures and watches over Yaffa, enabling her to overcome her disability and achieve a new, fulfilling role in life.
Stork's Landing is a sensitively told nature tale focusing on the Jewish value of caring for animals, while at the same time subtly incorporating issues of acceptance of those with differences and parental adoption. Set in Israel, one of the world's busiest flyways for migrating birds, the story brings the beauty of nature in Israel to life and highlights an unusual part of Israeli life — the kibbutz.
For 3, 4 & 5 Year Olds
Picture-Talk
Picture-Read Stork's Landing with your child. Before reading the story, show the book through its illustrations. Ask your child what s/he thinks the pictures are saying – what doe s/he see in each picture and what does s/he think is happening. Once s/he has been introduced to the pictures, read read the story out loud. Did your picture reading match the story?
Connect the Jewish Value: Kindness to Animals / Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim
Judaism teaches that compassion to animals is on a par with compassion to human beings. Ask your child what Maya does to show kindness to an animal. Then ask your child to give examples of how s/he can show kindness to animals.
Learn Hebrew Together
Stork's Landing introduces you to several Hebrew words and names. Learn these words together with your child.
Coloring Pages
Dancing Stork:
Flying Stork:
For 6, 7 & 8 Year Olds
Read & Discuss
Read Stork's Landing together with your child. If your child wants to read out loud with you, you read the narrator's passages and have your child read everything said by Maya and Abba.
Maya sets a wonderful example of personal responsibility, working cooperatively in a group to help solve a problem. Discuss how Stork's Landing opens up a window to a specific society and the role Maya plays in it. Specifically, how even in a collective society like a kibbutz, personal initiative is important.
Kibbutz Picture Tour Past & Present
Stork's Landing takes place on an Israeli Kibbutz. There are many kibbutzim in Israel. From the time that Israel became an independent state, the Kibbutz movement served as one of its cornerstones. The Kibbutz was conceived as an ideal society based on collective labor, shared resources, and communal living. A connection to the land and work was important to the members of the kibbutz, as was gender equality. Over the past two decades the nature of the kibbutz has changed.
Have a look at kibbutz life from the time it began to today by clicking on this link: https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+kibbutz&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=R3vfU6vRMcml0QW2yoCwCw&ved=0CBsQsAQ&biw=1057&bih=496
Learn Hebrew Together
Stork's Landing introduces you to several Hebrew words and names. Learn these words together with your child.
Crafts
Activity 1: How to Make a Paper Stork
Follow the instructions and print out the template: http://krokotak.com/2013/02/paper-stork-template/
Activity 2: Paper Plate Craft
Create a scene from the story – Tzadok guarding his baby chicks in their nest. Use a paper plate, construction paper, string and other materials, create a paper picture collage like this: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/208150814001182683/
