Preschool Pesach Haggadah

I’m happy to be participating in the Passover for Kids series over at the Multicultural Kids Blog (MKB). Today I’m reposting a popular craft, a simplified children’s haggadah that preschoolers can make themselves and use at the family Passover seder.
Be sure to check out the other posts in the MKB series, including Passover crafts, recipes, and more, all geared at making Pesach fun for everyone in the family. 
 
If you’re new to A Mother in Israel, be sure to check out all of my Passover posts, including humor, crisis cleaning lists, ideas for kids and Passover recipes at CookingManager.com. I’m also hosting a giveaway of the Vegan Start Passover Cookbook, ending Wednesday, March 25, 2015.
This post was first published in 2008.

Mazal, my friend and co-playgroup mother, loves crafts. Here is a Passover haggadah she made with our 4-year-old daughters.

Mazal got the idea when she found found some “matzah paper” in a store. I found a store where you can order it online, but of course you can improvise or use another type of cover.  She cut and folded the thin cardboard, decorated with a matzah pattern, to make the front and back cover of the “haggadah.” On the front she wrote, “Happy and Kosher Pesach.”

Cover of preschool Haggadah with Matzah paperShe then helped the little girls make and paste different symbols according to the sections of the haggadah. Our 5 and 6-year-old sons were at her house that day. They helped by writing the Hebrew “text” in crayon.

The first page contains a foil cup, to illustrate the kiddush (sanctification) on the wine:

foil cut-out of wine goblet for "kadesh" To illustrate hand-washing, the girls made hand-prints with finger paint. The karpas is green-painted paper, dipped in a shiny half-circle meant to represent salt-water:
Hand-print and vegetable and bowl cut outs for preschool haggadahFor maggid, the story of the Exodus that is the centerpiece of the seder, they pasted in a paper, representing a book, and wrote “Haggadah shel Pesach.”
Maggid--a book entitled HaggadahFor rachtzah, the second hand-washing of the seder, we have another hand-print. A second piece of matzah paper stands in for the mitzvah of matzah.

two pages of preschool haggadah, with hand-print and square of matzah paper.Maror (bitter herbs) is more painted paper. Mazal combined the matzah and maror paper for the korech “sandwich” of matzah and maror. My son did not want me to post this picture, because his friend misspelled korech by writing it with a koof instead of a kaf. I promised him that I would let you all know the correct spelling (kaf, vav, resh, kaf sofit).preschool hagadah maror and korech
Time for dinner! Here’s the shulchan orech, with the table set for eating the festive meal. Notice the fork and spoon, all drawn with crayon. We also have the tzafun (hidden matzah).

BWe also have the tzafun (hidden matzah). Lift up the paper to view the afikoman, the matzah hidden earlier and now eaten for dessert.Paper lifted up to reveal hidden matzah
Now we have another cup to symbolize the wine after Birkat Hamazon (blessing after the meal) and letters cut out from the girls’ painted paper that spell out Hallel (songs of praise). My daughter says her cup was red, so we had to compare her hand to the prints to make sure we brought home the right haggadah. We had.
Preschool haggadah page with hallel and cup
The last section of the haggadah, nirtzah, includes the blessing, “Next Year in Jerusalem.” Mazal had the girls paint over a stencil of Jerusalem, which she happened to have lying around. Doesn’t everyone?
stencil decoration of Jerusalem for preschool haggadah "nirtzah"
Mazal made the pages separately (on the clean side of leftover printed pages, of course) and then stapled them back to back, in order, inside the cover. This Haggadah opens from right to left. You can also set up the haggadah so that the pages can be flipped over at the top, like a calendar. That way, if you have more than one child, they can take turns turning over the pages during the seder. It could stand on the table or hang on a hanger.

Thank you for visiting! Have a wonderful holiday and enjoy your children.

Multicultural Kids Blog Series

More posts on Passover and children:

Keeping Kids Interested in the Seder

Getting Your Kids to Help with Pesach Cleaning

Preparing for a Pesach Baby

Inexpensive Family Trips in Israel

Passover Recipes and Cooking Tips

Comments

  1. I would!!!
    Sounds like a great post!!

  2. And there is the diff between 3 yo boys and 4 yo girls…
    Or maybe “my” boys and “any” girls???
    M is one creative lady!

  3. There are some of us out there who would find a post about making Pesach if you haven’t (or have barely) started to be very very useful.

  4. This haggadah is so sweet. It reminds me of the haggadah that my son made in nursery school that I left on top of the car or otherwise totally forgot to bring to my in-laws for the sederim when he was in nursery school. (and still feel guilty about it)
    He’s now 11 and last year made a very creative haggadah that I will have to find in my attic soon.

  5. I had a great time working with my class on a version of your haggadah!!
    Question– I have to give a brief talkto the parents at our class Shabbat. I was thinking about a theme of what we learn from children. Any suggestions about what kids can teach us about Shabbat?
    Or do you think I should talk about something else? Any advice is soooo appreciated!!
    Thanks.

  6. mominisrael says

    Hi Stacy,
    I’m so glad you enjoyed this project. We do learn a lot from our children, although I haven’t thought about it in the context of Shabbat. Do you have something specific in mind? To me it sounds like you have to make several jumps from kids, to parents, to Shabbat, in a short time. When are you giving it? Maybe something from the parsha or an upcoming holiday (or is it this week)? Maybe you could talk about how excited the kids are when you do projects like this and give ideas for the parents to incorporate small rituals at home that the kids can get involved in. But you probably do that anyway.

  7. Ayelet HaShachar Birulin says

    Thanks!! I spent all morning looking for something like this! Chag Kasher v’Sameach!

Trackbacks

  1. Haggadot & Pesach books for toddlers « In our small garden says:

    […] was a super-simple version for young kids. Maybe a project for next year? I love this idea for a simplified Haggadah posted over on Mother in […]