So Fun at SoFo

There will be activities for the whole family at the South Fork Natural History Museum’s free open house on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but a few will be geared especially to children. From 10 a.m. to noon, kids of all ages can get their faces painted and make leaf “stained glass,” and kids 7 and older can create cornhusk dolls. 

A live animal and insect program from 2 to 3 p.m. is an add-on to the day of free activities and costs $15 for adults and teens and $8 for children, $10 and $5 for those who are members of the museum. Frogs, toads, rabbits, chinchillas, guinea pigs, mice hermit crabs, and reptiles are among the creatures that will be on hand. Advance reservations are a must for this portion of the day.

The museum has asked visitors for canned goods or nonperishable food items, which will be donated to the Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor Food Pantries.

Family Time at the Parrish

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is offering family art activities tomorrow and Saturday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. In addition to gallery tours, there will be art projects inspired by the works in the galleries, a book signing tomorrow, and origami instruction on Saturday, all free with museum admission. 

Alex Beard, an artist and author of the children’s books “The Jungle Grapevine,” “Crocodile’s Tears,” and “Monkey See, Monkey Draw,” will be at the museum tomorrow at 1 p.m. to talk about and sign copies of his books. On Saturday, children and adults can learn to create folded paper origami art from 1 to 3 p.m. in the museum’s theater. 

The museum’s holiday gift market will take place tomorrow from noon to 5 and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Angelina at CMEE

Katharine Holabird, the creator of the Angelina Ballerina series of books about a young mouse with a passion for dance, will be at the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton on Saturday to bring her stories to life with the help of a local dancer. The program begins at 10 a.m. and costs $15, including museum admission. Members get in free. Registration ahead of time is required. 

Stinky and Brave

In Sag Harbor at the John Jermain Memorial Library, Kate and Jim McMullan will read selections from their children’s books for children 5 and under tomorrow. Among the many picture books to the couple’s credit are “I Stink!” and “I’m Brave!” The program begins at 10:30 a.m. 

Jester Jim in East Hampton

Jester Jim will be back at the East Hampton Library on Saturday at 2 p.m. with a comedy, juggling, and beatbox show for kids of all ages. 

Tomorrow, kids 4 and older can learn about the art of frottage, or crayon rubbings, using seashells, wood, coins, and other textured objects to create images they will cut and paste into works of art. The program starts at 2 p.m. 

A Snap Circuits workshop on Wednesday at 4 p.m. will have children 7 and older constructing electrical circuits that will light up, make sounds, or power an accessory. 

Next Thursday, “The Polar Express” will be shown at 4 p.m. on the library’s big screen. Advance registration has been requested for all but the Jester Jim show.

The East Hampton Library is sponsoring free reading tests on Saturday, Dec. 3, for children in kindergarten through third grade who have difficulties reading.

Aimed at giving parents the tools to help their children improve their skills, the program will also include a presentation on library resources and adaptive technology for kids who are reluctant readers, book giveaways and refreshments, and information for teachers who are interested in receiving training to help such students.

It will begin at 10 a.m. with individual 15-minute sessions with a specialist who will identify children’s weaknesses with reading. Refreshments will be provided from 11:30 a.m. to noon, followed by an informational session covering dyslexia and other reading-related difficulties, with a question-and-answer period.

A separate session aimed at teachers and school psychologists, from 12:30 to 1 p.m., will introduce the Orton-Gillingham method and teaching reading using “multi-sensory approaches,” a term that refers to using a variety of strategies in the classroom to help children learn in alternative ways.

The presenter will be Evelyn Gross Whitebay, a teacher in Ulster County and an expert on dyslexia, who has partnered with the group Dyslexia on Long Island. Registration is required and can be accomplished by calling the East Hampton Library at 631-324-0222, extension 2.

The stars are still just a little bit out of reach at the Montauk Observatory’s observation dome at the Ross School in East Hampton. The organization needs some mechanical parts to get the dome working, and has launched a fund-raising campaign to pay for them.

According to Susan Harder, one of the organization’s founding board members, the cost is far from astronomical: A little over $4,200 is needed for a motor, a power supply, a shutter system, and a handful of other parts, which were discovered to have rusted while the dome was in storage awaiting a permanent home over the last few years.

The Montauk Observatory’s long-term goal is to raise $25,000, according to a crowd-funding website set up for the campaign, which will help it set up educational programs, internships, and research opportunities for students. The organization has received the offer of $6,000 in matching donations from a private supporter, meaning that for every $1 someone gives, that contribution will be matched with another $1, up to $6,000.

“We’re hopeful that that will happen sometime soon,” Ms. Harder said Friday. “We’d like to have it up and running to complement our lecture series. We just have to finish up these little parts.”

The observation dome was installed at the Ross School’s tennis center over the summer. Once it is outfitted with new parts, it will permanently house a 20-inch, research-caliber telescope that weighs 900 pounds. In addition to supporting the organization’s lectures and other programming, the general public will be able to request remote online access to the telescope for research and recreation.

Donations to the Montauk Observatory, a registered nonprofit organization, are tax-deductible. Contributions can be made online at gofundme.com/MontaukObservatory or at montaukobservatory.com/donate.asp, or by sending a check to Montauk Observatory, care of Terry Bienstock, its president, at 2312 Bay Avenue, Miami Beach, Fla. 33140.

The Montauk School District on Tuesday hired an architectural firm as it moved toward rebuilding the school’s four modular classrooms.

“We’re going to try to get them done as quickly as we can,” Jack Perna, Montauk’s superintendent, said during Tuesday’s school board meeting.

The district signed an agreement with BBS Architects of Patchogue, the same firm that is wrapping up a series of capital projects for the Sag Harbor School District and which was also recently hired by the Springs School District.

Montauk’s modular classrooms were built onto the back of the building near the gym in 1973. District officials sometimes refer to them as “relocatable” classrooms, though they were never meant to be temporary, Mr. Perna said.

Diane Hauser, the school board president, and Judith Pfister, a reading and English language arts teacher who is in her 32nd year with the Montauk School, said they hoped the architects would take into consideration the suggestions of the teachers who work in those classrooms.

Following the meeting, Ms. Pfister, who works in one of the classrooms, said those suggestions included more soundproofing, better heating and insulation, a general modernization of the facilities, and a desire to keep the classrooms dedicated to middle school students.

“The middle school loves that section,” she said. “If the project does happen, we’re hoping that it’s for a middle school design.”

No set budget has been determined, but Montauk has $1.25 million set aside so far for the project, including $250,000 in this year’s budget and $1 million left over from previous years’ budgets.

“If more is needed, we would need to do a referendum or put it in as a line item in the 2017-18 budget,” Mr. Perna said in an email yesterday.

The New York State comptroller in July had criticized Montauk for keeping that $1 million as part of its unassigned fund balance, the term for the money it has left over at the end of a school year. Schools’ unassigned fund balances are to be capped at 4 percent of the current budgets. The comptroller asserted that Montauk had between 4.3 percent and 6.8 percent left over, and recommended it be returned to taxpayers or used to offset future budgets, but Mr. Perna explained in July that much of the money had already been earmarked for replacing the modular classrooms.

According to the agreement signed Tuesday with BBS Architects, the firm’s fee is to be 7 percent of the project’s cost.

School districts from Bridgehampton to Montauk received good grades over the last two months from independent auditors who reviewed the districts’ financial statements and accounting practices at the close of the 2015-16 school year.

Sag Harbor, Springs, Montauk, Amagansett, and East Hampton each received an “unmodified opinion,” which is the best result possible.

In Amagansett, the district passed its audit despite being found to have 5.43 percent of its budget held over from last year, while state law limits that amount to 4 percent.

“The auditor had commented that for small districts like ours, 1 percent is a small dollar amount and is not an unreasonable amount to maintain in the event of unanticipated financial obligations or emergencies,” Eleanor Tritt, the district superintendent, said in an email. “Other than that comment, there were no other findings. The auditors also complemented the work of our staff,” she said.

Montauk, which was chastised by the New York State comptroller earlier this year, also for exceeding the 4-percent limit on leftover money, also received an unmodified opinion from its auditor.

In Bridgehampton, the district was commended for its sound financial practices. “Over all, you’ve finished the year in a good position,” Jill Sanders, an accountant with the firm Cullen and Danowski, told school officials during a recent school board meeting.

Similarly, East Hampton received clean marks from Joseph Kehm of EFPR Group, who told the school board in October, “There are no internal control matters that we need to bring to your attention, no compliance matters that we need to bring to your attention. . . . You have an exceptional group here.”

Sag Harbor also earned an unmodified opinion from its auditors. The Saga­ponack and Wainscott School Districts are not subject to audits due to their small sizes.

Trivia and More

Saturday night is trivia night for grades seven through 12 at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. Teams of three will compete in four rounds of trivia that get harder and harder as they go along. The fun runs from 6 to 8 p.m. and will include pizza for everyone and prizes for the winning team. On Friday, Nov. 25, Kate and Jim McMullan, children’s book authors and illustrators formerly of Sag Harbor, will be back in the village to read from a selection of their books. Among them are “I Stink!” and “I’m Brave!” The reading is for children up to age 5 and will begin at 10:30 a.m. Advance registration has been requested for both library programs. 

Young Adult Room to Open

It will be a busy week at the East Hampton Library, with workshops, a movie, a program for would-be babysitters, and the opening on Saturday of the library’s new young-adult room. Tomorrow, children 4 and up can take part in a Thanksgiving trees collage program at 3:30 p.m. On Saturday, sixth through eighth graders interested in becoming babysitters can learn about the responsibilities of a sitter during a three-hour course starting at 1 p.m. A celebration to mark the opening of the young-adult room in the library’s lower level will run from noon to 2 p.m. and will include a pizza-tasting contest and music. A mural created by students will be unveiled, and the winner of a young-adult photo contest will be announced. High school book enthusiasts who wish to take part in the countywide Battle of the Books trivia contest in March can practice together on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Participants will read three selected novels between now and March to prepare. “Pieces of April,” a film about an offbeat Thanksgiving starring Katie Holmes, will be shown to teens on Tuesday at 5 p.m. The film is rated PG-13. On Friday, Nov. 25, kids 4 and older will make crayon rubbings of all sorts of things and then use those rubbings to create new pictures during an art program at 2 p.m. Advance registration has been requested for most library programs. 

“Curlee Girlee” at BookHampton

Atara Twersky, the author of “Curlee Girlee,” about a girl who is frustrated by her curly hair, will read from and sign copies of the book on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at BookHampton in East Hampton. There is no charge to attend the story time, but advance registration with the shop has been suggested. 

Birds of Prey

The folks from the Quogue Wildlife Refuge will visit the Amagansett Library on Saturday with a collection of birds of prey. The program, which is best for children 8 to 12, will start at 2 p.m. 

Gobble, Gobble!

Camp SoulGrow has invited youngsters 7 and up to take part in a Thanksgiving turkey distribution with the Clamshell Foundation on Saturday. Those who join in can meet at the camp’s Montauk studio on Carl Fisher Plaza, next to Bridgehampton National Bank, at 9:30 a.m. They will travel by bus to the Amagansett I.G.A. at 10 a.m. and will finish the day with a meal at the Montauk Firehouse at 1 p.m. Advance sign-up is required by emailing [email protected]. 

Ice Cream, Pasta, Disco

The kids have voted and the winner is homemade ice cream, at least at the Children’s Museum of the East End. Given the choice between two workshops, the majority of children wanted to learn to make ice cream, and on Saturday at 10 a.m. that is what they will do. The cost is $19 including museum admission, or $5 for museum members, and advance registration is required. The museum, on the Turnpike in Bridgehampton, will hold a drop-off pasta party on Tuesday evening from 5:30 to 8 for kids 3 and up. Using sheets of pasta dough donated by Nick and Toni’s restaurant in East Hampton, young chefs will cut and shape their own pasta, make a salad, and enjoy a movie. The cost is $50 per child and $25 for each sibling, $40 and $20 for members. After Thanksgiving, on Friday, Nov. 25, a family disco dance party will help the whole crew shake off the post-Thanksgiving inertia from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Pizza will be served. The cost is $14; members get in free. Looking ahead to next weekend, Katharine Holabird, creator of the Angelina Ballerina series, will be at the museum to read from her books on Nov. 26 at 10 a.m. 

Thanksgiving Treats

At the Montauk Library, families with children 3 and older can learn to make some special Thanksgiving treats together on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. The library will show “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and oversee a craft session for ages 3 and up on Monday at 4 p.m. 

Talking Turkey

Crystal Possehl and her puppet, Lodo the River Otter, will read from Berta and Elmer Hader’s “The Big Snow” on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. When the story, which is best for ages 3 to 5, is done, kids will make birdseed ornaments to take home. There is a $6 materials fee. Later that day, older kids 8 and up will learn about repurposing castoff items to create something new and interesting in an upcycling workshop at 2 p.m. On Sunday at 10:30 a.m., Melanie Meade will lead a program for ages 5 to 7 about wild turkeys, which we see quite a few of here on the South Fork. The museum has asked for registration in advance for all programs.

Family Days

Looking ahead to Friday, Nov. 25, and Nov. 26, the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is planning two days of family activities, gallery tours, and art workshops, free with museum admission between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Springs School architects sent school officials a list of building repair projects, maintenance, and necessary upgrades last Thursday, one that is even more detailed and far more expensive than the list initially presented to the district’s facilities committee in the summer of 2015.

The price tag of the work rose from just over $3 million to $7.438 million. The expanded laundry list includes a number of big-ticket items: renovating the nurse’s room bathroom to make it handicapped-accessible, $125,000; replacing the roof over the older portions of the building, $680,000; replacing all older, single-pane windows, $558,000; installing a new fire alarm system, $200,000, and upgrading the existing electrical system, which is approaching its capacity, $250,000. The list also includes a host of smaller projects, such as the installation of a chair lift to make the music room handicapped-accessible, $50,000, and new wall padding in the gym, $21,000.

New enrollment projections were also unveiled. According to a September report by the Western Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, the school can expect approximately 50 more students over the next five years, which is slower than the previous growth rate of 200 students over the last 10 years. School officials noted the BOCES figures had been wrong in the past, though, and indeed, a 2013 projection showed 2016-17 to be the peak year, at 700 students. As of last Thursday, Springs had 740 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, at least 20 more than this time last year and 40 more than the year before that. The updated BOCES projections suggest the school will be short three regular classrooms by 2022.

No decisions were made last week at the meeting of the school board and administrators, who make up the capital planning committee. Whether the repairs and maintenance will be addressed through the capital reserve fund or through a larger expansion project accomplished via bond referendum has not been determined.

Barbara Dayton, the school board president, said Tuesday that the process was “still very much up in the air.”

“I think there are certain repairs that are at the top of the list, like dealing with the roof,” she said. “It may have gotten worse since the first BBS [Architects] report was done. . . . Some of those repairs will be covered if we build out, and others need to be taken care of right away. Can we afford to repoint some bricks if we’re expanding? Everything is going to be weighed very carefully.”

The committee also discussed the possible expansion and renovation of the school building. A key issue is the fate of the gymnasium, which has been deemed too small for current needs. Officials debated whether to add a second gym to the school or build a separate, larger one and carve the existing gym up into classrooms and smaller learning spaces. 

“I think our vision is to get a couple of scenarios to say, ‘All right, this is the basic necessity. This is the one where we can do the things we need to do,’ ” Ms. Dayton said. “It’s been brought up before with the gym, where we’re not offering enough. I thought their idea of splitting the existing gym into multiple spaces was interesting. It never occurred to me. It was an eye-opener. I think this whole process is very exciting. I think we’ll get somewhere — it will just take us some time.”

The district is still eyeing a springtime referendum, but has not set a specific figure for the community to vote on.

The capital planning committee and the architects will hold another public meeting next Thursday at 11 a.m. at the school to review the school’s needs in closer detail. A second meeting, to begin the process of laying out potential components in an expansion, will be held after Thanksgiving.

Make Your Own Lip Balm

Chapped-lip season is not far off, and with that in mind, the Amagansett Library will host a lip balm-making workshop for kids 8 to 12 on Saturday at 11 a.m. Participants will use natural ingredients to create a lip balm they can take home. 

Go Ahead, Gross Them Out

Want to really gross somebody out? The youth librarians at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton have invited 7 to 12-year-olds to do just that on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Kids can look for “the most cringe-inducing information they can find” for the library’s Gross Me Out challenge. Also at the library this week, there will be a story hour on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. for ages 4 and up, and teens can drop in through Tuesday to make keyhole wall art. Starting on Wednesday, materials will be provided to make upcycled bookmarks. 

Soy Candles and More

At the East Hampton Library, Tuesday will bring a Thanksgiving story time and craft at 4 p.m. for ages 4 to 6. Kids 5 and up will make scented soy candles on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Family movies this week at the library will be “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” today at 4 p.m., and “Finding Dory,” next Thursday at the same time. 

Calling Young Wizards

Young wizards ages 8 to 12 can make their own Harry Potter wands during a workshop on Sunday at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor to celebrate the release of the new Harry Potter movie. Materials will be provided for the workshop, which will start at 2 p.m. On Saturday, children 4 and up who are learning to read can practice their skills with Wally the therapy dog between 11 a.m. and noon. Advance registration has been requested for both programs. 

Apple Pie Workshop

A family apple pie workshop on Saturday at 2 at the Montauk Library could provide some tips for the upcoming Thanksgiving meal. There will be enough ingredients for 15 families, each of whom will take home a pie to bake. Advance sign-up is a must. 

Fall Leaves and Pumpkins

Autumn leaves and pumpkins, an apple orchard tour, and basket making. The South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton is gearing up for what sounds like a perfect fall weekend. On Saturday at 10:30 a.m., Eleni Nikolopoulos will lead families as they talk about and search for pretty leaves and then decorate pumpkins with leaf patterns. There is a $7 materials fee for the workshop. At the same time that day, families can join in a tour of the Milk Pail orchards near Mecox Bay and learn how apple cider is made. The cost is $5 per person. On Saturday at noon, Pat Robben, a basket weaver, and Trish Brophy, a basket weaver from the Mohawk Tribe, will work with children 7 and older to make small reed baskets at 2 p.m. There is a $5 materials fee. Advance registration is requested for all of the museum’s special programs. 

Celebrating Diversity Through Art

Guild Hall will bring together visual and performing artists, poets, and dancers for an afternoon of creative activities for families on Sunday. Called the artXchange, the event will celebrate the cultural diversity of the South Fork community.

The afternoon will begin at 1 with poetry readings by Tyler Armstrong, Lukas Ortiz, Heidi Rain Oleszczuk, and Tom Oleszczuk. At 2, the Shinnecock Youth Council, the East Hampton High School Dance Team, and the Dan Bailey Tribe with the Sag Harbor Methodist Church Dancers will perform. Georgette Grier-Key of the Eastville Historical Society will give a presentation, and families can explore the museum’s exhibitions. There will be free bites to eat by Island Empanada in the parking lot at 2:30, and inside from 2:30 to 4, Kate Mueth, Aurelio Torres, and Amy Pilkington will lead collaborative workshops. All events are free.

Cooking, 19th-Century Style

Kids 6 to 12 who like to cook might enjoy a program on 19th-century cooking and kitchens on Saturday at the Southampton Historical Museum’s Rogers Mansion. Participants will learn what was different in the kitchen two centuries ago and take a turn making butter and lemonade the old-fashioned way. The program starts at 11 a.m. and costs $5. A second cooking workshop on Nov. 12 will have kids making their own applesauce. Reservations have been requested for the sessions, which will be led by Gerri MacWhinnie.

All About Bird Nests

Bird nests, a mushroom farm, and a story time and walk focusing on trees are on the schedule this weekend at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton.

On Saturday at 10:30 a.m., families will learn about the wide variety of nests that birds build here and then scour the museum property to find old ones and see what they are made of. Back at the museum, they will make their own nests out of similar materials.

At 11 that morning, David Falkowski and his wife, Ashley, will lead a tour of their Open Minded Organics farm, where they grow mushrooms, vegetables, and herbs. There is a $5 fee.

Who lives in a tree? Melanie Meade, a nature educator, will answer that question for kids 3 to 5 on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. After listening to a poem, kids will head outside to study different trees and see what makes them such good homes for some creatures. Advance registration has been requested for all programs.

Electronics for Kids

Kids 7 and older can learn the basics of electronics in a Snap Circuits workshop at the East Hampton Library on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Working in groups of two, participants will build circuits that will “light up, sound off, and power an accessory,” according to the library. There will be additional Snap Circuits sessions on Nov. 30 and Dec. 8; kids can take part in just one or all three.

The library will show family movies tomorrow and next Thursday at 4 p.m. This week’s movie will be “Ice Age 5: Collision Course.” Next week, it’s “Alice Through the Looking Glass.”

Readers may have seen mention here that the library is on the lookout for photographs by high school students to hang in a new young-adult room opening later this month. The news this week is that a $100 prize will be awarded for the best photo, with the winner to be announced at the opening celebration for the room. Photographs must be submitted by Nov. 14 via email to [email protected].

Algebra Help

High school students who need some extra help with algebra can find it at the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor on Mondays starting next week. Chase Mallia, a tutor and teacher at Pierson Middle-High School, will assist students in either English or Spanish each week from 4:45 to 6 p.m. Students have been asked to take two No. 2 pencils with erasers, a notebook, and a calculator.

On Saturday at 2:30 p.m., kids in 7th through 12th grades can get to know the library’s new button maker, which allows you to turn drawings, collages, or computer designs into pinback buttons. The button maker will be available outside of the workshop’s hours, but attendance at a workshop is a prerequisite for using it.

Pancakes and Pajamas

At the Montauk Library, Saturday morning will bring a pancakes and pajamas story time for ages 2 to 5 at 10:30. Kids have been invited to wear their pajamas while they listen to a story and enjoy a tasty breakfast.

Later that day, at 3 p.m., kids 10 and up will turn old T-shirts into custom creations. Kids should take a T-shirt. Scissors, glue, and instruction will be provided.

East Hampton High School will host a forum addressing drug and alcohol abuse and addiction on Wednesday night, beginning at 5:45 in the school auditorium and open to students, parents, and the community at large.

It will be the second such event at the high school. The first, held in March, drew more than 150 people.

Wednesday’s discussion will again feature remarks by Steve Chassman, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. Nick Kardaras, executive director of the Dunes of East Hampton, a rehabilitation facility, will also speak, as will a representative from the office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner.

Those who attend will be able to network with professionals from organizations that can assist people who are coping with addiction, including Narcotics Anonymous, the Family Service League, the East Hampton Town Department of Human Services, and others. The high school is at 2 Long Lane.