Children's Passover Games

Hide the Afikoman

• The afikoman is a piece of matzo that the person conducting the Passover Seder sets aside early on, ostensibly for dessert. The real reason for setting aside the afikoman, however, is to setup a children's Passover game that will keep younger kids paying attention throughout the Seder.

  Early in the Passover Seder, the head of the household breaks a piece of matzo in half and wraps one half in a napkin. He then gets up to wash his hands. While he is gone, the children quickly "steal" the afikoman and hide it somewhere in the house. At the end of the service, the person conducting the Passover Seder notices the afikoman is missing and states that the service can not be concluded without it. The children refuse to give it back, and he has to "buy" the afikoman from of them to finish the service, giving them money or small presents in exchange for the matzo.

  In another version of this custom, the head of the household holds onto the afikoman when he gets up to wash his hands. He then hides it somewhere in the house. At the end of the Passover Seder, the children have to find it. If they can find it, they may be given presents or simply congratulated.

Passover Quiz Game

• The Passover story is long and can be difficult for young children to remember. Why not have a mini quiz show at the Seder table to turn learning about Pesach (Passover) into a children's game?

  If you have children of different ages, you can keep the game competitive by coming up with different questions for each age. For example, you can ask younger children how many plagues there were (10), and ask older children to name them all.

Replace the Pickle

• Torahtots.com has created a great children's game to teach about the Passover holiday called "Replace the Pickle," linked to in this article's Resources. In this game, the child is given a worksheet that lists important facts about the holiday with one twist: One word in the sentence has been replaced by the word "pickle," and children have to put in the right word.

  For example, the statement, "We ask the four pickles at the Seder," should be "We ask the four questions at the Seder." Read the pickle questions out loud at the Passover Seder and have your children take turns answering them. When you get through the questions from the website, make up some of your own!