3 Great Passover Crafts for Kids

Here are three fun and easy Passover crafts for kids to do. These are a great way to entertain a church or daycare group, or to open up a conversation with your own children about this holiday and its roots.

~ Make a Seder Pillow ~

The kings reclined on these pillows during the Seder meal. Help your child make his or her own Seder pillow, or make one as a gift for your Seder leader.

What you’ll need:
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A Large T-shirt (plain; no design on it!)
Two Rubber Bands
Scissors
Polyfill (one 15 oz bag)
Ribbon (about 4 feet)
Craft Glue (or Hot Glue Gun)
Items to decorate you pillow with (sequins, beads, rickrack, felt, fabric markers, etc.)

Directions:
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First, pull the sleeves of the t-shirt inside the body of the shirt, and pinch the neck opening of the shirt closed using one of the rubber bands. You could also cut off the sleeves, and sew the openings shut, but I like the tucking method because even the younger kids can do it themselves, without using any sharp needles.

Next, stuff the body of the shirt with the polyfill. You can adjust the amount to be the firmness that you desire; the more you add, the firmer it will be when you’re finished.

Pinch the bottom of the shirt closed, and secure it with the second rubber band.

Turn your Seder pillow sideways, so that the rubber-banded ends points to the left and right sides. Cut your piece of ribbon in half, so that you have two two-foot pieces. Tie a piece of ribbon around each end, so that it covers the rubber band.

Use your choice of decorative items to dress up the front of your Seder pillow. Younger kids can use craft glue, while older children, or those with adult supervision, may prefer to use a hot glue gun.

Allow glue to dry/cool, and then you Seder Pillow is ready to use!

~ Make a Baby Moses Figurine ~

The story of Moses began when his Moses’s mother saved him by putting him in a floating basket and putting him into the Nile River. You can make your baby Moses in a basket with these easy instructions!

What you’ll need:
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One half of a walnut shell
One medium-size white pom-pom
Felt (small piece) in Light Blue, Blue, Dark Green, and Brown
Scissors
Toothpick
Craft Glue

Directions:
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Begin by holding the walnut half open-side down on a piece of scrap paper, and tracing around it with a pencil. Set that tracing aside, you’ll need it later on.

Fold a small square (3 or 4 inches) of the light blue felt like a baby’s swaddling blanket, and glue the edge of the bundle shut so that it won’t unwrapped itself while you work with it. Glue the white pom-pom at the open end, to be the baby’s head. Now you have a baby Moses!

Glue Baby Moses, face up, into the open hollow of the walnut shell.

Using the tracing you made earlier, create an oval slightly (1-2 cm diameter) larger than the tracing from the blue felt. The blue felt is the ‘water’ that the basket will float on. Glue the bottom of the walnut shell to the center of the blue felt.

Using your original paper tracing, Cut oval from the brown felt. Cut that oval in half lengthwise. (You only need half the oval for this project. Use the other half for a second Baby Moses Figurine, or save it for some other project.) Glue the brown felt around the top edge of the walnut shell, at the end the bay’s head is pointing towards. This makes the sun-shade for the basket.

Cut several long thin pieces from the brown and dark green felt, and glue their ends to the water around the basket. They will stick up like the reeds and grasses along the edge of the Nile River.

Happy Passover!

~ Make a Passover Seder Place Mat ~

Teach your kids about the traditional Passover feast, by helping them make their very own Seder Place Mat! This Passover craft project is a great way to start a conversation with children about the traditional Passover feast.

What you’ll need:
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Construction paper: White (full sheet)
Construction paper: Pieces of green, white, red, and brown.
Clear ConTact self-adhesive paper
Markers: black, and assorted colors.
Pencil
Scissors
Craft glue
A dinner-size plate to trace around
A juice glass to trace around

Directions:
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Put the dinner plate in the center of the white construction paper, and trace around it with the pencil. Set the plate aside and ink over the pencil tracing with a marker. (This way works better than using the marker directly around the plate, since you don’t want to accidentally get marker on the plate.

Using the juice glass, and the pencil, draw six small circles around the inside edge of the large circle you just inked. Set the juice glass aside and ink over all six small circles with a marker. The big circle is your Seder plate, and the six smaller ones are for the items in the Seder meal.

Using the scissors and colored construction paper, cut out the Seder meal items; a shank bone (brown paper), white and green paper for the bitter herbs (horseradish ), green paper for the bitter romaine lettuce, green paper for the parsley, red and white paper for charoset (apple and nut salad), and white paper for the roasted egg. Use the markers to add accent details.

Glue each item into a small circle, going clockwise around the plate; horseradish, shank bone, charoset, lettuce, parsley, and egg.

Use the markers to decorate the outer edges of the place mat, if you’d like to. Then, cover both sides of the place mat with clear ConTact paper to protect it. Consider making one for each person at your Seder meal.

Have a Great Seder!