The Pesach Postbox

Get in the Pesach mood by sending and receiving mail from Mitzrayim!

Last year, I attended a Zoom session given by a local doctor who is known for his amazing and engaging seder. He gave so many tips and ideas and it was such a great way to get ready for our first Seder at home. I created a fake newspaper modeled after our local Jewish paper with articles about the breaking news from Mitzrayim. I hung one up on the wall overnight so they kids found it when they woke up and there were 4 issues in total.

This year, we are trying something new. The kids created and decorated a “Pesach Post” mailbox. While they were at school, I slipped in a “postcard” to them from Miriam in Mitzrayim, asking them to become pen pals. The kids loved it and wrote a letter back! I have a few more letters planned in the days leading up to Pesach. Things like this really set the stage and get everyone excited for the Seder! I hope ideas like this can inspire you to enhance your own Seder experience.

Looking for more Pesach projects?
A Splitting Paper Sea
Kriyat Yam Suf Diorama
Paper Seder Table
Seder Placecards
Chametz Hunt with Peek-a-boo Doors
Pesach Puppets

A Splitting Paper Sea

Time:
Active: 15-20 minutes

Age: 5-10

Materials:
Small cardboard box
Blue paper of any type, we used construction paper and tissue paper
Markers, crayons or colored pencils
Scissors
Tape

Processs:
Cut a slot on the side of your box. This is where you will send the mail! Next, think about how the mail will be retrieved. Our box was really large so we ended up cutting off the bottom and we just pick up the box itself to find our mail. You can use a shoebox with a lid and remove the lid to pick up your mail.

Cover the box in blue paper to make it look like a real mail box. Let the kids decorate the box however they want. We created a rounded top by cutting two half circles of cardboard and then taping construction paper between them. Remind them to check the mail to see if any letters have arrived!

For the letters, write your own personalized ones or download my letters from Miriam below. If you want to design your own letters, the font I used is called Ink Free and you can download it free here.

PDF of designed letters from MiriamDownload

Word document of the letter text so you can design your own lettersDownload

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

A Splitting Paper Sea

Split the sea in your own home!

Why is this Pesach different than all other Pesachs? I’m sure I don’t even need to begin to tell you. With Coronavirus spreading and most of us holed up at home, for many, almost nothing will look the same. My kids are continuing to learn about Pesach with their teachers via Zoom, and we are making Hagaddot, but I think many of us are looking to expand on their learning at home and really bring the holiday to life. This will be our first time making a Seder and we are trying to make it special. (Paroh hat has been ordered!)

We always decorate a wall in our dining room with seasonal crafts, including school projects and our own additions. We made the Yam Suf this year and plan on putting pictures of our family in the center! We used a variety of colors for the waves, since my supply of blue paper is limited at this point. I translated that wall mural into a fun craft you can do on a smaller scale. I googled “splitting of the sea coloring page” and picked a version that was not too elaborate for our center scene. You can also draw your own, or print out pictures of your own family like we are planning.

I am honored to once again to have this project featured in the Pesach edition of The Jewish Link of New Jersey, in the Kid’s Link section. Pick up a copy if you are local or check it out online.

Looking for more Pesach projects?
Kriyat Yam Suf Diorama
Paper Seder Table
Seder Placecards
Chametz Hunt with Peek-a-boo Doors
Pesach Puppets

Time:
Active: 15-25 minutes

Age: 3-7

Materials:
2 pieces of white paper
Blue paper of any type, we used construction paper and tissue paper
Markers, crayons or colored pencils
Glue
Scissors
Clear tape (packing tape works well)

Processs:
Cover one sheet of white paper with blue waves. You can cut them out and glue them on or draw them, or a mixture of both! When gluing, I recommend starting with the wave that will be overlapped (likely higher up the page) rather than the one at the bottom so you don’t need to lift and tuck them in.

Allow a few minutes to dry and then cut the paper in half and set aside.

Using the second sheet of paper, create a scene of the Jews walking through the sea. Print a coloring page from google or create your own!

Using a strip of clear tape, attach the two halves of your waves page on top of the scene.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Kriyat Yam Suf Diorama

Split the sea…in a aluminum pan!

The scene: Husband has left on a business trip, the baby decides not to nap and the kids are tearing out their hair with boredom. The best suggestion I could scrape together was a really big project. We considered and rejected paper mache, thinking it might be chametz! We came up with this instead and it took a whole hour and came out so cute!

We started with the ubiquitous Pesach kitchen item – a 9×13 aluminum pan and covered in all the blue stuff we could find. Then we used Crayola Model Magic air-dry clay to make the figures. My older daughter was able to do this by herself, my younger one needed some initial guidance but caught on fairly quickly. I love that sheep (not the best picture)!

Moshe leading the way in the striped shirt

“Grandma and Grandpa” with grey hair, based on the colors of clay we had left!

A few days later when the figures dried, we hot glued them to the bottom of the pan. Some of them didn’t stand up so well, so I added a toothpick for support behind them.

A word about Model Magic – we have found that any pieces you have stuck together tend to fall apart pretty quickly once you start playing with the finished  dried piece. I stuck a toothpick through each figure while it was still sticky, hoping it would add balance and stability, but I’m not sure how much it helped. We glued the figures to the pan and they were fine but the kids pulled them out to play with them and they all started losing legs, eyeballs and arms. Hot glue and more toothpicks only got us so far, but the kids thought the “surgery” was funny.

So if you want to put this on your table as a centerpiece, try to keep the kids from pulling the figures out! Any tips to keep them together better are welcome!

Looking for more Pesach projects?
Paper Seder Table
Seder Placecards
Chametz Hunt with Peek-a-boo Doors
Pesach Puppets

Time:
Active: 1 hour+
Drying: 2-3 days

Age: 3-9

Materials:
Aluminum pan
Blue construction paper
Blue tissue paper
Air dry clay
Hot glue
Toothpicks

Process:
Cut up blue construction paper into small shapes and glue all over the inside of the aluminum pan, including up the sides. Crumple balls of tissue paper and add them to the walls for texture, and to focus on how the sea stood up as walls.

Form figures with air dry clay. Use toothpicks to secure them together as needed. We put a base under the sheep so he would stand up better when glued down. Use your best judgement as to how this will work best.

Allow clay to dry for 2-3 days. Use hot glue to attach to the bottom of the pan.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Paper Seder Table

Recreate the Seder…in paper!

Now that Purim has passed, we needed to redecorate our wall. We took down our Shushan Mural and were debating what to put up for Pesach. After tossing around a few ideas, we decided to make a Seder table.

In the front hallway of the kid’s school, they have a seasonally decorated wall similar to ours but on a larger scale. Last year they put up the most amazing Seder table, but on the wall. Think tablecloth, nice plastic dishes, etc but vertically hanging on the wall. I loved it so much we recreated in in an easier paper form for our one wall.  You can definitely do this on a piece of paper if you don’t have a spare wall hanging around! Prop it up in the center of your table for an adorable meta centerpiece.

We will not be home for the Sedarim but if we were, I would have printed out pictures of everyone who was going to be in attendance and put them on our paper table!

Looking for more Pesach projects?
Seder Placecards
Chametz Hunt with Peek-a-boo Doors
Pesach Puppets

Time:
Active: 15-30 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using paint or glue

Age: 3-9

Materials:
Construction paper
Scissors
Markers
Plastic tablecloth or patterned paper

Process:
Tape together paper to form your base, if doing as a wall mural. Cover the paper with a piece of plastic tablecloth and tape on the reverse side to secure.

Cut out wine cups, Haggadot, a Seder plate, matza (ours looks sort of like bananas since our new package of construction paper sadly does not include brown!) and anything else you might want (dish of salt water, plates and silverware, etc.) We put the place settings on the opposite side of the table upside down for authenticity but you can put them all right side up if your kids prefer.

Add photos of your Seder guests!

Note: If you are hanging this on the wall, let it dry completely before hanging. We didn’t and the wet glue on our wine bottle label ran and smudged the whole label. We pulled it off and are going to redo it and have more patience this time!

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!