Felt Matzah Cover in 30 min. (classroom or home)

Beaded, felt matzah cover

My Earnest Sunday School Teacher Hat is on again:
Here’s another less-then-30 min. Passover project for seder use.
Our art classes are 25 -30 min., which includes the giving of context and the cleaning of mess, so we gotta move FAST.

Matzah Cover: this is what can cover the plate of matzah requisite on every table.
The beads are colorful and help weigh the corners to keep the cover in place.  (Use frog beads, etc. if you have them.  Or jingles as a tribute to Miriam’s timbrel?)

• 9 x 12 piece of felt (standard size)
• yarn
• Scotch tape (optional, if the yarn is fluffy) (See note)
• scissors
• pony beads
• hole punch
• Hebrew letter stickers OR Puffy Paints

1. Punch a hole in each of the four corners of the felt.  (This can be difficult for little hands.)

2. If you have the Mem, Tzadee, Hey stickers, kids can choose and apply now.  Make sure you have a sample of correct spelling visible.  If you’ll use Puffy Paint, wait till the last thing…

3. Cut yarn into 4 pieces about 10 inches long

4. Each piece of yarn: tie a bead at one end. String however many.  We used 6, and tied another knot on the sixth.  Now, slide half the beads on each side, so you are holding the yarn in the middle with beads on both sides.
Take that loop and insert it into the felt hole about an inch or so.  Pick up the beads on the other side and push those through the loop.
Sounds hard, but it’s easy.  Tell the kid to pull gently to snug it up.  Repeat for other 3 corners.

(Doesn’t this knot have a name?  “French” something?  You know, it’s the simple ribbon bookmark knot.  What’s it called?)

My kid’s example.  He only wanted one bead on each end.

5. PAINTS: If you are not lucky enough to have a diecut machine and adhesive felt (lucky me), kids can use puffy paints to make the Mem, Tzadee, Hey, but give the kids a model of the correct spelling.
I’d let them Sharpie the letter first, and then they could squeeze the paint to cover the Sharpie.

NOTE: Some yarns are too fuzzy or thick to go through pony beads easily.  Kids can get frustrated.  Wrap the end of each yarn in a smidge of transparent tape (or masking tape) to make the tip narrow and rigid.  The kids can cut that part off later.  (You are making an “aglet.”  Look it up.  Or watch the Aglet song from Phineas and Ferb.  The whole episode is genius.)

P.S.  Even though the craft is short and sweet, there is still time to give context: why we need matzah at the seder, when does it “happen” at a seder, how we use it, how we cover it while we bless it, and so on.  And show some matzah, too.  We used egg matzah as a snack, so we wouldn’t “spoil” our taste for the really real seder matzah coming up.

P.P.S.  Other 30 min. seder projects here:
Matzah Holder with 3 Pockets
Seder Plate (wipe-clean, created from a printable and a plastic plate)
Hula Hoop Seder Plate (crayon drawings, not the scrap art version)
Afikomen Bag