🍷 Escape room: Operation Afikoman

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A Passover escape room for kids 7–12: find the afikoman with riddles about the Four Questions, the ten plagues and the four cups.

Families and kids 7–12
Easy–medium
15–20 minutes
5 story stations

The story

Grandpa hid the afikoman so well that even he forgot where! He only remembers it’s in a numbered drawer, inside a locked crate. Solve the riddles, find the afikoman and claim your gift.

Run it at home or in class

What to prepare

A matzah wrapped in a napkin (the afikoman)
A locked box or drawer
Printed station sheets
A Haggadah to look things up

Tips for the facilitator

Run the room after Kiddush, when the children start getting restless.
Make numbered drawers out of shoeboxes and hide the afikoman in drawer 6.
Let the children find the list of plagues in the Haggadah itself.

Difficulty level

The story clues stay the same on every level; harder levels add more locks in between. You can ask for a hint at every stage.

0 of 6 stages solved · Easy · 15–25 minutes

Stage 1: Ma Nishtana

1/6

The song “Ma Nishtana” has four questions. This year there are 4 children at the table, and each one asks all the questions.

How many questions were asked altogether?

Run it in real life too

Print a facilitator kit for the easy level: a sheet with the opening story, the setup and every answer, plus a big card for each of the 6 stages.

🍷 Operation Afikoman: facilitator kit

Families and kids 7–12 · 15–25 minutes · Level: Easy · 6 stages

Opening story: Grandpa hid the afikoman so well that even he forgot where! He only remembers it’s in a numbered drawer, inside a locked crate. Solve the riddles, find the afikoman and claim your gift.

Setup

A matzah wrapped in a napkin (the afikoman)
A locked box or drawer
Printed station sheets
A Haggadah to look things up
Print the 6 stage cards and put them in order, or hide each card around the room so every answer leads to the next one.
Read the opening story to the group and start a timer.
When the group gets stuck, give one hint from the table, one at a time.
Run the room after Kiddush, when the children start getting restless.
Make numbered drawers out of shoeboxes and hide the afikoman in drawer 6.
Let the children find the list of plagues in the Haggadah itself.

Answers and hints (facilitator only)

Stage	Answer / code	Hints
1. Ma Nishtana	16	4 children times 4 questions.
2. The plague drawer	6	Locusts are the eighth plague. · Frogs are the second.
3. The four cups	3	First work out how many cups are needed: 6 times 4. · Then divide by 8.
4. The missing plate	3	After breaking, there are 4 pieces. · One of them was taken.
5. Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock	4	Every symbol is a number. What is one symbol worth? · Add: 2 plus 2.
6. Grandpa’s crate	63	The drawer number, then the number of bottles.

Read at the end: The afikoman has been found! Now the official negotiations with Grandpa begin: what will you get in return?

🍷 Operation Afikoman · Stage 1 of 6

Ma Nishtana

The song “Ma Nishtana” has four questions. This year there are 4 children at the table, and each one asks all the questions.

How many questions were asked altogether?

✍️ Our answer:

🍷 Operation Afikoman · Stage 2 of 6

The plague drawer

The ten plagues, in order: blood, frogs, lice, wild beasts, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the plague of the firstborn. Grandpa wrote: “The drawer number is the place of LOCUSTS in the list, minus the place of FROGS.”

What is the drawer number?

✍️ Our answer:

🍷 Operation Afikoman · Stage 3 of 6

The four cups

At the Seder everyone drinks four cups. 6 people are at the table, and they all drink grape juice. Each bottle fills exactly 8 cups.

How many bottles are needed?

✍️ Our answer:

🍷 Operation Afikoman · Stage 4 of 6

The missing plate

There were 3 matzot on the Seder plate. The middle matzah is broken in two, and the bigger piece is taken and hidden: that’s the afikoman.

How many pieces of matzah were left on the plate after the afikoman was hidden?

✍️ Our answer:

🍷 Operation Afikoman · Stage 5 of 6

Warm-up route · The symbols on the lock

On the way to the last clue of “Operation Afikoman” you find another corridor of locks. Every 🍷 is worth 2. Add two symbols.

🍷 + 🍷 = ?

Which number opens the lock?

✍️ Our answer:

🍷 Operation Afikoman · Stage 6 of 6

Grandpa’s crate

The crate code is the answer from station 2 followed by the answer from station 3. For example, if the answers were 1 and 9, the code would be 19.

What is the code?

✍️ Our answer:

Facilitator guide: 🍷 Operation Afikoman

What the room practices

Multiplication, list positions, division in context and careful reading.

The 5 stations (without the answers)

Ma Nishtana: How many questions were asked altogether?
The plague drawer: What is the drawer number?
The four cups: How many bottles are needed?
The missing plate: How many pieces of matzah were left on the plate after the afikoman was hidden?
Grandpa’s crate: What is the code?

Age and group size

Best with teams of 3–5 children. In a class or a big party, print a kit per team and run the room in parallel.

Giving hints in this room

Online the hints open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit in the facilitator table next to each answer. Give the first hint after a couple of minutes of silence, not at the first wrong guess.

Questions and answers

What age is “Operation Afikoman” for, and how long does it take?

It was written for families and kids 7–12, at easy–medium difficulty, and usually takes 15–20 minutes. It has 5 story stations, and online you can choose between three difficulty levels that add more locks.

What do I need to run “Operation Afikoman”?

A printer and these props: A matzah wrapped in a napkin (the afikoman); A locked box or drawer; Printed station sheets; A Haggadah to look things up. The printable kit includes a facilitator sheet with every answer and a card for each stage.

What if the players get stuck?

Every stage has graded hints. Online they open one at a time; in the printed kit they sit next to each answer on the facilitator sheet. The first hint never gives the answer away.

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