TwinTuesday – Celebration Guide Part 1 – Passover

This TwinTuesday, we are featuring crafts and activities for both Passover and Easter! With these holidays overlapping this year, there are lots of fun projects you and your twins can partake in.

Passover

Getting your multiples involved with you in Passover traditions and celebrations is the best way for them to learn about the holiday, while having fun too. Since matzo is a traditional food of Passover, why not try making some with your kids? They can make real or cardboard versions. A great article on Helium.com shares some easy ways to make matzo:

Matzo

Matzo is the central symbol of Pesach and is therefore a great place to start. Use a square piece of cardboard to represent the matzo. Allow the children to paint this in a light golden brown colour. Next, allow the children to punch rows of small holes in the cardboard to make it more closely resemble matzo. An alternative approach is to use clay. Roll it out and use tooth picks to make the holes.

The children can also participate in making real matzo. Use one cup of water to three of flour. These must be mixed well, rolled flat and placed on a baking tray. Use tooth picks to prick little holes all over the matzo. The matzos can be placed into a hot oven for about 8 minutes and the matzo is ready. Remember that this matzo is not kosher for Passover, but can be made and eaten before Passover to get the children involved.

For a more detailed list of Passover recipes – from appetizers, to dinner and desserts, check out the list at Kaboose.com.

Since a symbol of Passover is the Seder Plate, let kids get involved by making their own sedar plate. They can decorate the Seder symbols on the plate, and use it at the Seder itself! Helium.com suggests:

A large plain glass or ceramic plate may be used. If it is to be used on Passover, then the plate must be unused. Allow the children to paint little pictures of the Seder symbols on the plate. These are the maror (bitter herbs), the beitza (egg), the zeroa (shank bone), charoset (apple, nuts and wine) and karpas (vegetable).  

Following this tradition, Kaboose has a great craft for making Seder place mats, if you’d rather your twinnies don’t decorate directly on a plate:

• White poster board or craft foam, big enough for a place mat
• Construction paper: green, white, brown, red
• White paper
• Pencil
• Markers: yellow, orange, red and blue
• Black thin tipped marker
• Clear self-adhesive paper (recommended: Con-Tact paper)
• Scissors
• White craft glue

How to make it:

1. You will need something round to trace to create the Seder plate. Trace it with a pencil in the center of the place mat.
2. Use a smaller cylindrical item (can, cup, etc) to trace circles for each place on the Seder plate. One in the center, and five going around the center circle.
3. Cut the Seder items from the construction paper. Use brown to cut out a chicken leg (shank bone), white and green for the horseradish (bitter herb), green for the romaine lettuce (bitter vegetable), green for the parsley (green vegetable), red and white for apple and nut salad (charoset) and use plain white paper for the egg (roasted egg).
4. Trace the penciled circles with black marker.
5. Glue the construction paper food items to the plate, horseradish in the center, chicken leg in the upper right, then clockwise from there the charoset, lettuce, parsley and egg.
6. Draw an outline around the plate. Decorate the inside of this outline with yellow and orange markers.
7. Decorate the other circles by dotting around their outlines with orange marker.
8. Use a red marker to write the word “Passover” on the left side of the placemat and the blue marker to write “Pesach” (the Jewish term for the Passover festival) on the right side.

Kaboose features more activities such as decorating Elijah’s Goblet (using plastic cups and craft supplies of your choice!) and creating an Afikomen Bag, pictured above (a no-sew project allowing kids to decorate a bag suitable for holding matzah). Matzah is the highlight of Passover, so why not have fun decorating the bags designed to carry it around?

 

Afikomen Bag – Craft and Activity:
How to hide the afikomen: At the beginning of the Seder, the leader takes a piece of Matzah and puts it into the special afikomen bag. When no one is looking, he hides the bag somewhere in the house and after the meal is finished encourages all of the children present to look for it. Once it has been found, the children demand a prize for its safe return, such as money or a small gift. This game reinforces the importance of the afikomen, as the Seder cannot continue until it is eaten for “dessert.” 

What you’ll need:

• A fabric gift bag
• White craft glue
• Glitter pens
• Small fabric flowers for decoration
• A large, coloured napkin
• A piece of newspaper

How to make it:

1. Fold up a piece of newspaper and slip it inside the fabric bag to make sure that the front and back of the bag don’t accidentally get glued together when adding your decorations.
2. Using small dabs of white craft glue, attach the silk flowers to your afikomen bag in a random pattern. Allow the glue to set and dry for at least 30 minutes.
3. Once the flowers are securely fastened, decorate the rest of your bag using coloured glitter pens. We’ve added circles and dots, but you can do whatever you like, using as many beautiful colours as you want.
4. When everything is dry, remove the protective newsprint from the inside of the bag. In its place, put a folded napkin in a bright and vibrant colour. The Seder leader will use this napkin to wrap the Matzah before he puts it into the afikomen bag.

Tips:

• Look for fabric gift bags at dollar stores or perhaps a bridal or party store.
• If you can’t find a fabric gift bag, you can use a brown paper lunch bag. Decorate it with paint, glitter, magic markers and stickers. It’s also easy to sew a simple fabric bag.

Click here to go to part 2 – Easter crafts!

Tags: afikomen bagmatzo, elijah, goblet, matzah, passover, pesach, place mat, plate, seder, twin tuesday, twins

Category: Arts & Entertainment, TwinLife Parent