Kids Culture 02.14.19

Fun for February Break

What’s a working parent to do when school is out but work isn’t? A handful of half-day and full-day options offered next week should help make the school holiday a fun one. 

The East Hampton Town Recreation Department has free recreation and crafts for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade from Tuesday through Friday, Feb. 22, from 9 a.m. to noon. The sessions take place at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton and the Montauk School. They are open to all kids, regardless of where they live. Sign-up is at the schools each morning. 

At the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter next week, a school break camp will run every weekday (including Monday, Presidents Day) from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost is $36 per day, with an extended-day option in the morning or afternoon for an additional $10. Advance registration is required as the program will run only with sufficient enrollment. 

Art Every Day

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is offering two-hour winter vacation art workshops Monday through Friday next week, with a different focus each day. Workshops for 5 and 6-year-olds will run from 10 a.m. to noon, and those for kids 7 and older will meet from 1 to 3 p.m. 

On Monday participants will work on assemblage wood sculpture, Tuesday’s project will be winter landscapes with tempera paint, Wednesday it’ll be Model Magic animals, next Thursday abstract painting, and on Friday, Feb. 22, watercolor family portraits. The cost is $40 per session, $30 for museum members, and advance registration is a must. 

Tomorrow night, the National Circus Project will set up its proverbial big top at the museum for an interactive performance at 6 p.m. Audience members may get to try their hand at juggling, balancing, object manipulation, and even unicycling as the professional circus artists show off their talents. The event is free, but advance registration is required. 

Nature Programs at SoFo

At the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton, there will be hourlong nature programs for kids every day next week, and on Saturday the SoFo Young Birders Club, for ages 8 to 18, will gather at 10 a.m. Free and open to anyone interested in learning more about the South Fork’s birds, it will include time outside putting new knowledge to the test with binoculars and field guides. The museum will have a few on hand to lend.

That evening at 7:30, provided the ground is wet enough, Andy Sabin, a herpetologist and the president of the museum’s board, will lead families with children 6 and older on a search in the woods for the endangered eastern tiger salamander. Flashlights and boots are a must.  

The February vacation programs for children of all ages will be offered Monday through Friday, Feb. 22, at 10:30 a.m., and each day there’s a different focus — winter weather on Monday, spiders on Tuesday, evergreens on Wednesday, birds next Thursday, and tracks and scat to end the week. 

Golden Eagle Art Camp

At the Golden Eagle artists supply store in East Hampton, young artists should have an especially productive vacation week. A mini art camp for ages 6 and older from Monday through Feb. 23 will run each day from 10 a.m. to noon. Participants will have a chance to try out different materials and tools as they work in a variety of mediums. The cost is $50 per day or $275 for six days. Registration is at goldeneagleart.com/kids-classes.

Chess, Paint, and Wood

The Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton has teamed up with Hamptons Chess to offer a three-day chess camp for first through third graders next week. Ulysses Taple will instruct beginners Wednesday through Friday, Feb. 22, from 1 to 3 p.m. The cost is $30 per day or $80 for three days. 

Next Thursday, Joyce Raimondo will be at CMEE to lead the drip-painting class she teaches at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center. The class, for ages 3 to 7 and a caregiver, will have kids making their own art in the style of Jackson Pollock. The cost is $3, not including museum admission, or $1 for museum members. 

In a woodshop workshop with Little Miss Workbench on Friday, Feb. 22, at 10 a.m., kids 4 to 7 will use prefabricated wood parts to build ships they will sand and decorate. Little Miss Workbench was founded by Michele Chiaramonte, an educator and parent, to “instill the importance of focus, problem-solving, resilience, determination, and responsibility through the art of woodworking.” The cost is $25 per child, $20 for members. The fee includes materials, but does not include admission to the museum. 

At the East Hampton Library

Getting in the Valentine’s Day spirit, the East Hampton Library has two workshops inspired by Robert Indiana’s iconic “Love” sculpture — one for kids 6 and older today at 4 p.m. and one for kids 3 to 5 on Wednesday from 2 to 3 p.m. 

Also today, from 5 to 7 p.m., high school students will sample different types of chocolate to see if they can tell them apart, a perfect Valentine’s Day taste test.

The library will be open late on Saturday, from 5 to 7 p.m., just for high school students, who can play cards and video games or watch movies while enjoying pizza. 

On Sunday, teens have been invited to take part in the National African-American Read-In from 2 to 4 p.m. Participants can choose their own passages to share. Those who need suggestions can find texts in the young-adult room. Also on Sunday, at 4 p.m., high school students can earn community service credit by designing a do-it-yourself project for the young-adult room. A philosophical discussion group for teens, the Socrates Cafe, will gather in the Y.A. room on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. 

For younger children ages 3 to 7, a magical unicorn story time and celebration will happen on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Kids will go home with their own rainbow-colored slime. Those in sixth through eighth grade will experiment with salt and watercolor paints to make a winter scene on Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Next Thursday, it will be a Disney double feature when the library shows “Frozen” at 2 p.m. and “Moana” at 4. And on Friday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m., kids 3 to 5 will read Hervé Tullet’s “Mix It Up!” and then do a color theory project with finger paints. 

Movies for All Ages

On the movie front, tomorrow at 4 p.m., the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton will show “Dancing in the Light: The Janet Collins Story,” a G-rated animated movie, to kids 4 and older. It tells the real-life story of a black American dancer invited to perform with the prestigious Ballets Russes in the 1930s, but only if she paints her skin white.

Then at 6:30, the library will show “42: The Jackie Robinson Story,” about the baseball player who broke the color barrier when he first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Popcorn will be served at both screenings.  

At the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, Disney’s “Frozen” will be shown on Saturday at 2 p.m. Next week, the library will show two “retro” movies for kids in 6th through 12th grades: “The NeverEnding Story” next Thursday at 1:30 p.m. and “E.T.” on Friday, Feb. 22, at the same time. Popcorn will be available.