A range of summer programs, from tennis and basketball clinics to crafts and games, sailing classes, and free swim lessons offered through the East Hampton Town Parks and Recreation Department, will get underway next week. 

Parents looking to keep their young ones busy and entertained during the workday have town-run options at the Montauk School and the Springs Youth Building, where programs run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., from Monday through Aug. 24. 

Children in kindergarten through age 12 can join in crafts and games sessions in the morning, afternoon, or both in Springs and Montauk. Morning sessions run from 9 to 12:30; afternoons from 12:30 to 4. The cost is $100 per week for a half day, $150 for two siblings, and $200 for three. Advance registration is required and can be completed at the Parks and Recreation Department behind Town Hall from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. 

Free swimming instruction for children 4 and older will be offered at various town beaches throughout the summer. Havens Beach in Sag Harbor is the site of the first two-week session, starting on Monday. Children can be registered at the beach at 10 a.m. They have been asked to take swim goggles and water shoes. 

Also on the water, the first of the town’s two-week summer sailing lessons will begin on Monday at Fresh Pond in Amagansett for ages 12 and up. Class days will be Monday through next Thursday and July 2, 3, and 5, either from 9 a.m. to noon or from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. The cost is $225, and registration is also at the Parks and Rec Department.

Tennis and basketball clinics will be offered at the Youth Park on Abraham’s Path starting on Monday and continuing through August. For tennis, clinics will be Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 7 p.m. for second and third grade and from 7 to 8 p.m. for sixth grade and up. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, tennis will be from 6 to 7 p.m. for kindergarten and first grade and 7 to 8 p.m. for fourth and fifth grades. 

Basketball clinics will run Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 to 6 p.m. for kindergarten and first grade and from 6 to 8 p.m. for fourth and fifth grades. Basketball clinics will be on Tuesdays from 5 to 6 p.m. for second and third grades and from 6 to 8 p.m. for sixth grade and up. The cost is $45 per session, also payable at the Parks and Recreation Department.

Reptiles, Henna, Paddington

There’s a lot going on at the local libraries this week, and summer is only just beginning. 

In Montauk, the Quogue Wildlife Refuge will take a variety of snakes, turtles, and tortoises to the library on Saturday at 3 p.m. This program is appropriate for all ages but registration is required.

On Tuesday at 4 p.m., the South Fork Natural History Museum will have sea stars, sea urchins, hermit crabs, spider crabs, and sea snails at the Montauk Library in a program for kids 5 and up. 

There’s a bilingual story time at the library next Thursday at 11:45 a.m., and that day at 3:30 p.m., kids ages 9 and up can learn about the latest technology in 3-D printing and 3-D pens.

Children of all ages can decorate “buggy” cupcakes with candy and cookies on Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Amagansett Library, with help from the Baking Coach. On Tuesday at 4 p.m., kids ages 5 and up can create marshmallow and toothpick structures, build straw bridges, and see how many pennies they will hold. “Smurfs: the Lost Village” will be shown in Amagansett on Friday, June 29, at 3 p.m.

Family movies playing this week at the East Hampton Library are “Paddington 2,” tomorrow at 2 p.m.; “Toy Story,” next Thursday at 2 p.m., and “Wall-E,” Friday, June 29, at 2 p.m.

A henna art session for teens will be held Tuesday, 2 p.m., at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton. Kids ages 7 to 12 can participate in the Escape Room Challenge, a dice game with prizes, on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and Wednesday at 2 p.m. A teen version will be held next Thursday from 7 to 9 p.m.

The John Jermain Memorial Library’s graphic novel club for fourth through sixth graders will consider Victoria Jamieson’s “All’s Fair in Middle School” on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. Copies of this and future books to be discussed are available at the circulation desk. On Sunday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., kids ages 5 to 9 can take seashells to decorate while listening to stories.

Outdoors and In at SoFo

Children ages 6 to 12 can sign up for an introduction to drawing class on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum, at which the emphasis will be on using nature as inspiration.

Children ages 8 and older will learn about the nocturnal insects of the South Fork on Saturday at 3 p.m. with Crystal Oakes, a SoFo environmental educator.

On Sunday at 10:30 a.m. there’s a nature-inspired art workshop for the entire family for a fee of $3 per participant.

Summer Camps at Bay Street

Summer theater camps at Bay Street Theater begin next month, but the time to sign up is now. 

Offerings include My Life: The Musical, in which kids create and perform their own musical. For children ages 9 to 12, the camp will be held from July 9 to 13 and Aug. 13 to 17. For children ages 7 to 9, the camp will run from July 16 to 20 and Aug. 6 to 10. Kristin Poulakis will teach all but the Aug. 13 through 17 camp. Lisa Engellis takes over for that one.

There’s also a Greek mythology camp for kids ages 4 to 7 that will be held from July 23 through July 27, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

A Shakespeare camp for kids ages 7 to 9 runs from July 30 to Aug. 3, and will be taught by Bethany Dellapolla, an actress, teacher, director, and choreographer.

The cost is $475 for one week, $850 for two, and $1,200 for three. All run Mondays through Fridays, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. 

Teen master classes will be held all summer long. Beginning July 10, the focus will be on musical theater auditions and students will learn how to prepare and present themselves for auditions. Classes run from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the cost of $135 for one class, $250 for two classes, and $350 for three. Complete details on all summer camps can be found on the Bay Street website.

Camp Invention!

Registration is underway for Camp Invention, a program for kindergarten through sixth grade that will be offered this year at both the John M. Marshall Elementary School and the Springs School. 

This year’s curriculum includes video challenges from National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees. Campers will create self-driving robots, care for an ailing robotic puppy, design their own smart home, and invent solutions to real-world challenges. The Springs School program costs $250 and will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. from July 23 through 27. The John Marshall Camp Invention will run from Aug. 13 through 16. The cost is $300. Registration is online at inventnow-web.ungerboeck.com. 

One week before students in the class of 2018 at the Ross School graduated, the school's founder, Courtney Sale Ross, celebrated her own graduation of sorts on June 3. Mrs. Ross has officially transitioned to the role of trustee emeritus on the school's board of trustees. She founded the school in 1991 along with her late husband, Steven J. Ross.

An air of ambiguity as to what exactly the celebration was all about hung in the senior building on June 3, where the event was held; the word "retirement" was never mentioned. According to a press release sent by the school, the focus of the event was to reflect upon the ways in which Mrs. Ross impacted student lives and global education over the last 27 years.

There were gospel singers, Native American dances and drumming by members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, and a documentary film chronicling the school's history.

More than 400 members of the Ross community attended the celebration, including the founding mentors Ralph Abraham, a professor of mathematics at the University of California Santa Cruz, and Howard Gardner, a developmental psychologist and the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Additional mentors in attendance included the Ross School parents Bruce Stewart, a guest scientist in the department of applied science at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, the Wasserman dean at the University of California Los Angeles's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and Carola Suarez-Orozco, co-director of U.C.L.A.'s Institute for Immigration, Globalization, and Education. Jay Schneiderman, the Southampton Town supervisor and a former Ross teacher, and Frank Quevedo, the executive director of South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center, were also on hand.

"I am proud of all we have accomplished in our first 27 years. The upcoming integration of the Lower School into the East Hampton campus fulfills our goal of creating a sustainable prenursery to postgraduate school in one location, which allows students of all ages to interact with and learn from one another," Mrs. Ross said to those in attendance. "When my late husband and I founded Ross School, we had the vision to prepare students to become global citizens. That work continues, and I look forward to the school's future guided by a new generation of leaders." 

Students, faculty and staff, board members, state officials, parents, and residents gathered on Friday on the back lawn of the Bridgehampton School, the very spot that, roughly 18 months from now, will be covered by 35,440 square feet of brand-new school buildings.

“This is a ceremony for all those who made this happen,” Robert Hauser, the district superintendent, said at a groundbreaking event. Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle were present, as was Lois Favre, the recently retired superintendent, whom many credit for championing the project and shepherding it though community resistance and controversy. The crowd gathered under a giant tent as the school’s marimba band played and the fourth and fifth-grade chorus sang.

Although at times some residents were opposed to the school expansion because of the additional cost to taxpayers, no voices of dissent could be heard on Friday. 

Mr. Hauser announced each new facility the school will be able to take advantage of in 2020, and cheering, clapping, and joyous hollering followed. “We will have a new fitness center, so no more treadmills and weights on the stage,” he said. “Bridgehampton will finally have a new, regulation-sized gym. There’ll be a new music and chorus room, a bigger, better cafeteria, a new, huge library, locker rooms for our athletes, a new family and consumer science classroom with a kitchen, and no more portables.” 

The last item — several 40 and 50-year-old temporary buildings that sit adjacent to the parking lot and are used for music, prekindergarten, science, special education, and home economics classes — drew a particularly raucous round of applause.

It was in December 2016 when Bridgehampton voters approved the $24.7 million bond required for the construction project, which will more than double the building’s size when completed. Apart from a new roof, windows, and elevators, the building has seen no improvements since it was built in 1930. Meanwhile, enrollment has risen steadily, Mr. Hauser said, from 150 students seven years ago to the current 205.

He said the school will be the first public school on Long Island to have a geothermal heating and air-conditioning system, though Newsday reported in 2015 that the Valley Stream Elementary School was the first in the United States to test a new type of geothermal heating and cooling system. Bridgehampton is certainly the first on the South Fork to install this inexpensive, nonpolluting type of heating and cooling facilities. Springs and East Hampton are expected to follow in the near future.

Construction in Bridgehampton is scheduled to begin within three weeks, Mr. Hauser said. Of the anticipated result, “I like to say it will be bigger, better, and beautiful. The three Bs,” he said, alluding to the Killer Bees, the school’s mascot. Once completed, it will be one of the few schools in Suffolk County to house all 12 grades in one building.

Ms. Favre took to the podium and reminded everyone of her mission when she began the push for an expansion. “This school is surrounded by mansions,” she said. “These students deserve a mansion. Or, at least, a great school building.”

Ronald White, an alumnus and the president of the school board, told students and teachers, however, “that the apple tree is only as good as the fruit it bears. . . . We need to continue to raise the bar,” he said. “It’s go time for Bridgehampton!”

Members of the board, state officials, Ms. Favre, and two students then donned hard hats as they each scooped up a token shovelful of dirt.

CMEE’s Music Fair

The Children’s Museum of the East End will host its sixth annual music fair on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. It’s a family-friendly sonic experience for music fans with live performances by local musicians, opportunities to learn about and play instruments, as well as interactive activities. The event is free.

Sharks at SoFo

On Saturday at 2 p.m., children ages 10 and up can join Greg Metzger, the chief field coordinator for the South Fork Natural History Museum’s Shark Research and Education Program, for an informative program about the science of shark research.

Etch, Scrub, Make at the Libraries

A metal etching class for children ages 4 and up will be held Tuesday from 4 to 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. 

Also at the library, high school students can earn community service hours by helping with spring cleaning in the young adult room on Tuesday from 4 to 5 p.m.

On Friday, June 15, at 2 p.m., the movie “Paddington 2” will be screened.

At the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, Wally, a dog that loves to listen to kids read, will be back on Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon.

A middle school maker’s club begins on Saturday at John Jermain and will continue every week at 2 p.m. through July. The club will encourage sixth through eighth graders to work with peers on hands-on creative art and technology projects.

Kids ages 6 to 10 can practice folding techniques and make original origami creations to take home on Sunday from 2 to 2:45 p.m.

On Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Montauk Library, third graders and up can make their own unicorn body scrub from scratch and take it home in a jar. There will also be a unicorn coloring contest with themed prizes.

Registration for the Amagansett Library’s summer reading program is now open. The program, designed for all ages, begins on Saturday and will continue until Aug. 18.

Pony Rides in Amagansett

Stony Hill Stables on Town Lane in Amagansett will once again offer pony rides on Sunday from 10 a.m. to noon. A $20 donation is suggested to support the Stony Hill Stables Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to promote equine sports through riding education and competitive opportunities for children and young adults on the East End. The pony rides are open to children of all ages.

Dragonfly Day at CMEE

Children can celebrate the importance of dragonflies, and learn about recent legislation to protect them, on Saturday at the Children’s Museum of the East End. The day begins at 10 a.m. with a craft-making workshop, followed by a guided walk at the South Fork Natural History Museum from noon to 2 p.m. The event is free and open to kids of all ages.

Make a Doll in Amagansett

Using recycled items, including a wire hanger and fabric, children ages 6 to 12 can learn the art of doll-making on Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Amagansett Library.

Drawing and Night Life at SoFo

Beginning Saturday at 11 a.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum, and continuing for the following two Saturdays, children ages 6 to 12 can learn about nature drawing.

On Saturday at 3 p.m., children ages 8 and older can learn about the other night life of the Hamptons: scarab beetles, tiger moths, sphinx moths, ichneumon wasps, and leaf hoppers, and thousands of other insects that are active at night.

On Sunday at 10:30 a.m., kids ages 6 and up can explore the ecosystem that lives under a fallen log in the woods. 

Something for All Ages in East Hampton

Beginning Monday from 5 to 7 p.m., a virtual reality program at the East Hampton Library will be held for high schoolers. It will continue every other Monday.

Toddlers from 18 to 36 months can participate in Jump Bunch, a fun, uncompetitive soccer class from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday. At 4 p.m. that day, children ages 4 and up can learn about the history and art of Zen gardening, and even create a tranquil garden to take home. Then from 4 to 5, high school students can design a D.I.Y. project for the Young Adult room; it will count toward community service hours.

On Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m., kids ages 4 and up can listen to a Father’s Day story and make a craft for their dads.

Regents Reprieve Week in Bridgehampton

The Hampton Library in Bridgehampton will help kids take a break from Regents exams with the following events, all scheduled between 2 and 4 p.m. On Tuesday there will be board games and pizza, Wednesday will be a Battle of the Books meeting at 3 p.m., and next Thursday, it’s Wii games and snacks. On Friday, June 15, kids can experiment with 3-D pens and enjoy some sweets, while on Monday, June 18, they can practice green-screen techniques. Finally, on Tuesday, June 19, everyone’s invited to an ice cream party and karaoke. 

Movie Time in Montauk

Families with kids of all ages can enjoy Saturday afternoon at the movies at the Montauk Library with a screening of “A Wrinkle in Time,” rated PG, at 2 p.m. Popcorn and refreshments will be served.

Feeding the Farm 

The Green School of Sagaponack will hold a spring farm-feeding event on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon open to families with children of all ages. Admission is $45 per child, which includes a feeding basket for the animals and a pony ride. There is a $15 charge per adult. Registration is required and can be done by calling 631-237-1148 with a credit card to reserve a spot. Directions to the location will be given upon registration. The rain date is Sunday.

I-Tri, a nonprofit organization that offers a transformation-through-triathlon program for girls in middle schools from Moriches to Montauk, is looking for volunteers on Saturday from 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Springs School. 

The organization will be helping to outfit some 140 girls with the correct size helmets and bikes as they begin bike training in preparation for the Hamptons Youth Triathlon in July, when each girl will attempt a 300-yard bay swim, a seven-mile bike leg, and a mile-and-a-half run.

Interested volunteers have been asked to get in touch with I-Tri through itrigirls.org.

The Hetrick-Martin Institute, the oldest and largest nonprofit agency to provide social services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its annual School’s Out gala next Saturday, June 16, at the East Hampton home of Lisa and James Cohen. 

Tickets, which range from $375 and up, offer access to cocktails only at 5 p.m., or, in addition, to a seated dinner at 7:30, in the company of Joseph Altuzarra, Tracy Anderson, Martha Stewart, and others.

According to the Hetrick-Martin Institute’s website, “The summer months are often difficult for our young people, as schools are closed and resources scarce. The money raised from School’s Out will help to ensure that our doors stay open, our hot meals continue to be served, and all our wraparound life-saving vital services remain available.”

The institute, with offices in Manhattan and Newark, offers youth between the ages of 13 and 24 and their families the opportunity to explore the arts, culture, tutoring, job skills, and health issues, all with an LGBTQ focus. Supportive services also help with housing, H.I.V. counseling, and family therapy.

It was founded in 1979 by Dr. Emery Hetrick, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Damien Martin, a professor at New York University, who were life partners. After hearing the story of a homeless 15-year-old boy who had been beaten and thrown out of his emergency shelter because he was gay, they created what was then called the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth. In 1988, the organization was renamed the Hetrick-Martin Institute.

Tickets for Saturday’s School’s Out gala can be purchased on the institute’s website at www.hmi.org.

Pony Rides in Amagansett

Stony Hill Stables on Town Lane in Amagansett will offer pony rides on Saturday and June 17, from 10 a.m. to noon. A $20 donation is suggested to support the Stony Hill Stables Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to promote equine sports through riding education and competitive opportunities for children and young adults on the East End. The pony rides are open to children of all ages.

Amazing Butterflies

A hands-on workshop about the life of butterflies will be held on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. for families with children over 10 at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. There will be a material fee of $3 per participant. Advance registration is required.

CMEE at Madoo

The Children’s Museum of the East End’s Pizza and Pajama night will be tomorrow from 6 to 7:30. For this one, kids will head to the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack for story time and a slice, followed by a scavenger hunt around the two-acre garden. 

The event is best for families with children 2 to 10. The cost is $10, but museum members get in free. Those who plan to attend are asked to reserve a spot and take a beach blanket or chair. The event will be canceled in the event of rain.

Young Writers in Sag Harbor

Participants in the John Jermain Memorial Library’s Jeannette Sarkisian Wagner teen writing workshop will read from their work on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the library in Sag Harbor. The workshop is part of the Young Artists and Writers Project, or YAWP, run through Stony Brook Southampton’s M.F.A. program in creative writing. Kids explore fiction, essay, poetry, and other genres of writing. In addition to hearing the work of teen writers at Sunday’s reading and reception, the work can also be found at YAWP’s online magazine at yawpzine.com.

At the Other Libraries

Registration is now open for summer reading clubs at the East Hampton Library. 

Tomorrow at the library, kids 7 and up can construct electronic circuits in a Snap Circuits workshop from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

High schoolers can join in a Fortnite video game tournament on Saturday from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. The person with the highest rank within their Battle Royale will win a gift card.

Monday from 5 to 7 is Netflix night, when high school students can hang out and binge watch a favorite movie or television show. Middle schoolers can stop by on Tuesday from 4 to 5 p.m. to color a fuzzy velvet poster, listen to music, and enjoy a snack. On Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m., children ages 4 and up can enjoy a story time and craft. The library’s family movies this week are “Alice in Wonderland,” today at 4 p.m., and “A Bug’s Life,” next Thursday at the same time. 

June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month and kids 3 and older will have the chance to help by painting portraits of adoptable animals on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Montauk Library. 

At the Amagansett Library, a ladybug-themed story time for 3 and 4-year-olds will take place on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Dancehampton Onstage

The dancers of Dancehampton, a studio on Lumber Lane in East Hampton, will dazzle the audience with their 2018 recital “Wish It, Want It, Work It,” tomorrow at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 on the East Hampton High School stage. 

The recital will feature a range of dance styles from ballet to jazz to hip-hop, lyrical, and Irish step, performed by students as young as 3 up to 18. Tickets cost $20. 

Approximately 19 billion pounds of plastic waste ends up in the world’s oceans every year. Several ocean conservancy groups have cautioned that if we keep polluting at the current rate there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.

By that time, Sarah Betuel, an eighth grader at the East Hampton Middle School, will be about 45 years old, which is why she decided to do something right now about this disturbing outlook.

Sarah is spearheading an initiative called Strawless Summer, introduced by the Surfrider Foundation, a grassroots nonprofit environmental organization that works to protect and preserve the world’s oceans and beaches through a powerful activist network. She is the student president of the middle school’s Surfrider Club, overseen by the Long Island chapter of the organization. The club is offered as an after-school activity.

“Our goal is to target all East Hampton restaurants,” Sarah said last week in John Ryan’s classroom on Newtown Lane. Mr. Ryan not only teaches sixth-grade math but, together with Lisa Lawler, a fellow sixth-grade teacher, is also the adviser of the Surfrider Club and a longtime rescue swimmer with East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue.

Members of the after-school club, explained Sarah, will send letters to all restaurants and bars in East Hampton asking them to sign a pledge either to go completely strawless or provide reusable alternatives such as stainless steel or glass, or, upon request, paper or bamboo straws. Letters will be followed up by an in-person visit, she said. 

Helping her at the helm of this environmental campaign will be Maya Guzman, a sixth grader who was also in Mr. Ryan’s classroom last week.  

“If restaurants agree not to use plastic straws over the summer,” said Maya, “then we’ll ask them to advertise their pledge on their websites.” The school’s student government will join in the effort.

To remind middle school students and staffers to do their part in reducing plastic waste, a Surfrider Club mascot sat in the school’s front hall last week: Eli the Turtle, made entirely out of ocean debris, his shell formed from colorful straws crisscrossed over more straws, twine, and pieces of plastic. At a recent beach cleanup in Greenport, the Eastern Long Island Chapter of Surfrider removed 922 straws from the shoreline.

This is not the first time Sarah has championed an environmental push. Two years ago, she wrote a letter to the middle school’s parent advisory committee asking that the Styrofoam plates in the cafeteria be replaced by biodegradable ones. Her request was successful.

She had already written to the parent committee requesting an end to plastic straws in the cafeteria when the Surfrider Strawless Summer initiative was introduced. It was perfect timing for Sarah to  expand her campaign from the cafeteria to the neighborhood, Mr. Ryan said. 

Plastic straws were the target last year of fourth graders in Montauk, when, with the help of their teachers, Chantal Adamcewicz and Kathy Havlik, the stu dents urged a few local restaurants to ban them, and largely succeeded.  Bliss Kitchen was the first to jump onboard. Last week, it was reported that Gosman’s Dock restaurants have also switched to paper straws.

While plastic bags and soda-can rings regularly top the list of hazardous ocean pollutants, few realize that plastic straws are one of the most insidious polluters, because they entangle marine animals and are consumed by fish. A video of scientists removing a straw embedded in the nose of a sea turtle went viral in 2015.

Small and lightweight, straws often fail to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter. As a result, they drop through sorting screens and contaminate recycling loads, or they simply get disposed of as garbage — the evidence of which is clearly visible on many beaches. According to the Ocean Conservancy, based in Washington, D.C., plastic straws and stirrers were number five on a 2013 Ocean Trash Index. National Geographic reported that Americans use an average of 500 million plastic straws a day.

There is a global environmental movement developing, hoping to raise public awareness of this massive problem. Sarah and Maya, along with other young South Fork environmentalists, are certainly doing their part to address plastic pollution. Maya said her motivation to join the after-school Surfrider Club stemmed from her love for animals and desire to help ocean creatures at risk. As for Sarah, who has been president of the club for three years, environmental issues are her passion. “I just want to help and improve the environment,” she said.