As part of the Maggid Station at our school’s interactive Seder Steps program, I wanted kids to consider the Passover story and put to scenes in narrative sequence. I didn’t want flat pictures or flannel boards—I wanted 3-D—so I used toys, hoping they would attract willing participants. They did!
The Sea of Reeds is by a 1st grader (using my 30 min. thumbprint people diorama lesson), and the rest are by 2nd graders. I ended up making Slavery, because we ran out of time. Note the LEGO Israelites are building a store city, not a pyramid…
Of course, scenes can be created at home with whatever toys are already around. Kids need to hear / read the story so they can re-present with objects. Tableaux can be nifty seder table decor to keep kids busy, or can be stashed nearby so kids can have something thematic to do while the adults talk, talk, talk between the brisket and the Afikomen.
Click on each pic to enlarge:
Baby Moses
SLAVERY (building Pharaoh’s store cities)
“God’s power demonstrated by the 10 plagues”
The 10th Plague (death PASSES OVER Israelite house)
FREEDOM
TOYS CONVERTED FOR TABLEAUX:
•Baby Moses and Tzipporah are Playmobil (from the retired Nativity set, shhhhhhh!).
•Slavery is random LEGO.
•Moses and Pharaoh action figures are from ChaiKids.com, and the plague magnet pyramid is old, so I have no idea from whence it came.
•The Israelite house with bloody doorposts and lintel is the Playmobil Egyptian house smeared with red marker.
•Sea of Reeds is my thumbprint diorama plan with flat marble water.
Trash tip: The cardboard trays are from those multi-packs of little water bottles. I steal them from the trash at school events like Field Day and Parent Night and hoard them. Kids love to paint them with acrylic and then we have trays for projects all year. We also re-use every single box lid from reams of printer paper. Love those.
This post doubles as a contribution to a worthy project: the Passover for Kids series (#mkbpassover) from Multicultural Kid Blogs. Do see what else they’ve linked to by clicking the pic below.
Bible Belt Balabusta 
