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Making Pesach fun for the whole family!

Making Pesach fun for the whole family!

 

FIRST THINGS FIRST:
DON'T MISS THE PRE-PESACH MOVIE NIGHT!

It's happening on Sunday, April 2, at YIH. All the details and signup are here.

 

PESACH FUN KIT

A collaborative effort of youth directors of several synagogues, the Pesach Fun Kit is filled with games you can play at home. Download it here; I recommend looking through it ad deciding which pages to print (it is 52 pages long, and you probably won't want everything!)

 

PESACH BINGO

If you've ever participated in YIH LATKE night, you'll recognize this game right away! It's a Pesach adaptation you can play at home. Click here to download it.

 

SEDERACTIVE

A print-at-home set of cards to help make your Seder more interactive. $10 download available here.

 

SEDER TIPS

These seder tips are courtesy of The Shnitzel Guys

Here is a custom list of ideas that we have compiled over the years for you and your families. These are things that we have done ourselves in our own homes with our own kids and have been successful. 

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THE MAKKOS (PLAGUES)   

Finding something to do for each Plague is always a HUGE part of our Seder. Below are some of the different items we have used in the past.

DAM - BLOOD 

Blood Bags
This is a new one that can be a little more out of the box. Not going for the old red food coloring.  We have used these Blood bags and filled them with Red Jello or the right combination of Grape Juice and water!  A huge part of our excitement. The kids love these because they come with straws and can be used on the spot.  

Dual Sided Cup
This thing is awesome. You can put both water and “blood” (aka grape juice) in here to demonstrate how it was during this plague. 

Stackable Drink Dispenser
Another great item that can be actually used on the table. Put water in one and a red drink in the other

Drink Dispenser - Blood/Water
With this one, you can fill the inner tube with a red liquid and the otter tube with Water.  It will appear that the whole container is RED (like blood) but when you go to dispense, only water comes out… just like the Jews in Mitzrayim!!!

Fountains and Floating Faucet 
This thing is awesome. We plugged this in before yom tov and left it on a side table in the dining room. We filled it with water and red food coloring. It looks like blood is flowing from the faucet demonstrating the Macah of Dam and a really cool talking piece for all those that visit. With this one you can stand it up in any bucket

More Fountains
Also here is another idea with a fountain that can be part of the decorations and fill it with RED Water.

TZFARDEA - FROGS

Frog ice/chocolate tray 
These trays are great for adding a little water and green food coloring to. You can pop them in your cups and have them float or just place the frog ice cubes in the middle of the table.

Flying Frogs 
We have used the stretchy flying frogs for years to make sure that frogs are flying across the room just like they did in Mitzrayim. Frogs here… frogs there… frogs were everywhere!!  

Stretchy Frogs 
And even more frogs!!

Frog Straws
Having a straw in every cup at the beginning of the Seder may not be what you envisioned as your table is beautifully set up but it definitely reminds you of the Makos. 

KINIM - LICE

Small Plastic Bugs
These tiny plastic bugs are a great option for the tiny lice that were in Mitzrayim… We actually stuck them to the wall to spell out the word Kinim… it was epic. 

AROV - WILD ANIMALS 

Plastic Wild Animals
Getting life size wild animals can be rough. Grab these little guys to get a small feel of Mitzrayim  

Toy Tiger

Wild Animal Masks

RUBBER MASKS  - THESE ARE AWESOME  - Warning, some of the younger kids can get scared of these, so just be careful!!  We had these at the seder and the kids loved them. A couple of them we had to hide away for the little kids because they got a little scared. But the other kids loved them!

DEVER - DYING ANIMALS

Inflatable Cow
We have used an inflatable cow and then brought him out and then deflated it. You can also just keep him deflated

SHCHIN - BOILS

Reinforcements - This is always a hard one, we have used reinforcement labels and put them on our faces or hands

BARAD - HAIL 

Indoor Snowballs
These are great for a real feel of the hail.. take these out and have them rain down on you. (you can even add something red to the ball like tissue paper to make it seem like there is fire in the hail.

Ping pong balls
Throw them all over and let it rain.  Our dream (although we have yet to do this, is to set up a canopy full of the ping pong balls and pull a string and have them rain down on us. If you end up doing it… let us know how it went.  

ARBEH - LOCUSTS

Grasshopper Child Hat 
Is great if your child wants to get dressed up

Grasshopper in glass (real)
This is a real grasshopper encased in glass. It can lead to a great discussion of what it would have been like to have these all over the place

Toy Grasshopper

​CHOCHECH - DARKNESS

Eye Patches
Take 2 of the patches cover each eye with one of them and make sure you can't see a thing

MAKAS BECHOROS

Sleeping Dog
Even the dogs of the Jews didn't wake up during Makas Becharos.  Grab this sleeping Dog and let it sleep on the side during your Seder

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OTHER PARTS OF THE HAGADDAH 

6 Babies at a time
In Mitzrayim we had 6 babies at a time - The medresh says we had 6 at a time. Try caring for all those children. This set comes with 6 babies  

For the story of the Rabbanim sitting in Bnei Brak
These are great to hand to to dress up for the story of the Rabbonim sitting in Bnei Brak

4 Sons - Rasha
Glow in the dark teeth for the rasha who gets his teeth knocked out

Sheep for the korban pesach
During the Seder have your Korban Pesach ready and out there. 

How many Makos were there?
Use these little hands to count out the makkos as the Haggadah counts them...Remember according to the math in the Hagadah we may have had 250!!! Makos in MItzrayim count the fingers!! (Youl would need 5 packs to count the 250)  Hilarious! 


​PEASCH DECORATIONS 

CROSSING THE YAM SUF (RED SEA)

One of the highlights of the Seder is crossing the Yam Suf with the kids. We have been using a shower curtain with water on it for years. You can use the curtain with fish on it. Or you can get a  curtain with just water and get some fish decals for the kids to decorate the curtain (great pre Pesach activity). You can even cut the curtain in half and then split the sea as you walk in. Below is a rod (make sure it fits your doorway), a curtain and some great fish decals. Lately we have been using new decals every year for the wall as well

OTHER DECORATIONS & ACCESSORIES

12 Makos Napkins 

​Blood on the Doorways
In Mitzrayim, we put red blood on our doorway. We actually put this outside out front door and we were the talk of the town, but you can put this tape on a doorway by your Seder. (We have had no problems with this tape pulling off any paint)

Barad hanging from the Ceiling
Hang Styrofoam balls with scotch tape and string. Here is a great Decoration for the ceiling above the seder table… hang them at different heights..looks awesome. You'll also need...
...Red Felt
Put this felt inside hanging out a bit to represent the fire 

Table Runner  
depicts the splitting of the Red Sea

 

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COSTUMES / DRESS UP

Costumes are awesome. 

The kids love dressing up and this is a great way to get grandparents involved too. Let them act out some different scenes in the haggadah. 

Pharaoh Costume - adult size
One of the highlights every year!!! Best is to get an adult to sneak out at some point and put on the full pharaoh costume and walk in,in the middle of the seder. Everyone loves it. Especially if it's zaidy!!

Pharaoh Hat - kid size

Moshe Rabeinu Costume

Snake
Because no confrontation between Moshe and Pharaoh would be complete without a snake or two!

Korban Pesach 
The kids love this one. They love to take turns putting it on and crawling around like the little sheep. 

 

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES 

Some fun family games that we like to play at home...

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PRACTICAL TIPS AND EXPERIENCE

​Not sure why you would listen to a couple of clowns about parenting but hey…One thing that we found to really really make it special is to get the kids involved in DOING the shtick. Meaning, don't just prepare any/all of this stuff and show everyone. Before yom tov, “hand off” one or two (or more) things to each kid/family member and let that become their shtick to “bring to the table”. You can't imagine the impact this can have. The same is true for decorating the room. Get them involved. They love feeling like they contributed to the night.

Next, don't feel that you need to do everything at each seder. We don't do every item on this list at every Seder and some we don’t even do every year. . This is a large list of things we have done over the years. Keep in mind the seder can be challenging, kids come home with lots of stuff from School, you may have many children that need to say over what they learned in school, you may have the grandmother that needs to say over her story. This is all normal! Every family has its dynamic, politics, challenges, characters, etc… you may or may not know what works best in your environment and how to adapt them. The main thing is to keep it light, fun and interactive. If you come prepared with lots of ammunition you will be armed and ready for action.

Teenagers….

We have found even Teenagers love to get involved. You can often even give them the job of helping the younger children get their job ready. Giving them the responsibility to help younger children will empower them and make it their seder. 

One year had one teenager write up an interview as if he was there in Egypt, during one of the plagues and interviewing an Egyption and a Jew…

Another year had one of the teenergers come up with something to demonstrate makos Bechoros, (which is always a hard one). He took a mens suit bag and created a dummy in it using a wig head stand, ace bandages, pillows, etc… Then on top he wrote THE EGYPTION BURIAL SOCIETY and found a hieroglyphics font and wrote some other stuff on there. It was phenomenal creativity, got a great laugh and the rest is history!! (He also left it on the doorstep of a family member around the block and knocked on their door and ran away)

 

Sat, November 23 2024 22 Cheshvan 5785