The 10 Plagues & Passover Crafts

The Bible teaches that God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt.

The Hebrew Bible tells the story of the 10 plagues of Egypt and the Israelites' consequent escape in Exodus 7-12. The plagues represent the defeat of many of Egypt's primary gods, such as the river Nile, which turned to blood, and the sun god Ra in the plague of darkness. The story is full of imagery that can inspire a variety of children's crafts.

Multiplying Frogs

In the second plague, an overwhelmingly large swarm of frogs emerged from the Nile river. Children can create nesting frogs out of egg carton sections and "multiply" them by unstacking the frogs. For each frog, cut a single cup off an egg carton, turn it upside down, paint the exterior green, draw eyes with a black marker and glue on four frog legs cut out of green construction paper, leaving the mouth of the cup unobstructed.

Plague Plate

Draw lines to divide a paper plate into 10 sections. Decorate each section with a representation of one of the 10 plagues: the Nile turning to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, disease on livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the death of the firstborn. The decorations may be drawings, such as sad faces with lumps to represent boils, or they may be objects glued to the plate, such as toy cows for the livestock disease or sprinkled sand for the gnats.

Plague Dioramas

Older children may enjoy choosing one of the plagues to represent in diorama form. Turn a shoe box on its side and paint the back wall as a backdrop. Use small cardboard boxes to represent Egyptian homes or toilet paper tubes as the front pillars of Pharaoh's palace. Let children use their imagination as they think of ways to represent the plagues. Some possibilities include creating many tiny origami frogs, creating a regular scene with every object and surface painted black (for the plague of darkness) or cotton balls painted gray and hanging from threads to represent clouds of gnats.

Passover Doorway

For the final plague, God warned the Israelites to brush the blood of a lamb onto the doorposts of their houses so the angel of death would pass over their houses. Replicate this in a craft by gluing three craft sticks together as three sides of a rectangle to form a "doorway." Let children use a small cube cutout of a sponge to apply red paint to the top and sides of the doorway.

References

• KeyWay.ca: The Ten Plagues