Passover Matzo Cover

What You’ll Need:

• scissors
• large paper bag
• ruler
• hole punch
• shoelace or yarn
• markers, crayons, or felt cutouts
• glue

How to Make It:

1. Cut down the seam of a large paper bag. Cut away the bottom of the bag, and open it out to make a long piece of paper. From that piece, cut a strip 1 foot wide by 3 feet long. Recycle or discard the rest.

2. Fold the strip into four accordion pleats, each 9 inches wide, as shown.

3. Crease the folds well, or ask an adult to carefully iron them on a very low heat setting. Turn the bottom (the side with the two folds) toward you.

4. Use a hole punch to make holes every inch along the two unfolded sides to the paper.

5. For each side of the matzo cover, left and right, use a 3-foot-long shoelace or piece of yarn. (We’ve used two different colors in the diagram to show the two halves of the shoelace.) Start by passing half of the shoelace through the bottom hole. Then pass each end through the next highest hole, from opposite sides. Repeat with the next highest hole, and so on. At the top hole, pass just the underneath piece through the hole. Tie the two ends together in a bow. Repeat with a second shoelace on the other side of the cover.

6. Decorate the cover with markers or crayons, use use felt cutouts glued in place. To use the matzo cover, place a matzo in each of the three pockets (as shown by the arrows in the unfinished diagram to the right.)