Kids Culture 12.01.16

Time for Gingerbread Houses

The room will smell of sugar and spice and everything nice during the Children’s Museum of the East End’s gingerbread house decorating workshops on Saturday in Bridgehampton. The cost per house is $32 and includes museum admission. Members pay $20 per house. Workshops will be offered at 10 and 11 a.m. Advance reservations are a must as these popular programs often sell out. 

In Sag Harbor, Forever Bungalows on Route 114 is offering a free gingerbread house decorating event on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Families have been asked to stop by on their way to or from holiday festivities in Sag Harbor Village. Supplies and sweets will be provided. 

Cupcakes, Crafts, Circuits

At the East Hampton Library this week, creative kids can decorate cupcakes, make their own soaps, build electrical circuits, and put together holiday wreaths. On Tuesday at 4 p.m., the library will have cupcakes and all the decorations on hand for kids 4 and older. That same age group can make holiday-themed scented soaps to give as gifts on Wednesday at 4 p.m. 

Next Thursday, the library will offer another of its Snap Circuits programs to teach kids 7 and older the basics of electrical circuitry. The program runs from 4 to 5 p.m. All the materials for glittery wreaths will be on hand in a program on Friday, Dec. 9, at 3:30 p.m. for ages 4 and up. Advance registration has been requested for all library programs. 

Winter Birding Walk

Winter birds, homemade clay, climate change, and robotics are on the agenda for kids this week at the busy South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton. The weekend kicks off Saturday morning at 10:30 with a birding walk for families with children 5 and older. Crystal Possehl will lead, and binoculars will be available to borrow with advance notice.

Kids 8 to 12 will do a “climate-change vulnerability assessment” at the museum on Saturday, looking at how some of the South Fork’s native animals might respond to climate change in our own backyards. The program starts at 10:30 a.m. and will be led by Eleni Nikolopoulos.

Ruby Jackson, an artist and educator, will teach families to make their own nontoxic clay on Saturday at 2 p.m. There is a $3 materials fee for this one. In another family workshop, on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. participants will make a mini bug-bot butterfly as they learn about robotics and insects. There is a $10 materials fee. Melanie Meade will lead. Advance registration is required for all of the museum’s special programs. 

Fun in Montauk

At the Montauk Library, kids in kindergarten and above can make their own snow globes on Saturday while also learning the science behind them. The program runs from 2 to 3 p.m. 

Also in Montauk, Camp SoulGrow will host an ornament workshop on Wednesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. with Eileen Devlin leading the creative charge. It is free for kids 7 and older, and registration is at [email protected]. 

The Cookie Tower

At the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor on Wednesday, families have been invited to decorate a cookie tower from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Each family will get 13 holiday star cookies and tips on various decorating techniques. Space is limited to 15 families. 

On Saturday students in seventh through 12th grades can learn how to use the library’s Pinback button maker during a workshop from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. After that, they will be cleared to use the button maker on their own time. 

Children in kindergarten through sixth grade will use old paper to create new in a paper-making workshop on Sunday from 2 to 3 p.m. Registration ahead of time has been requested for all programs. 

Coding for Kids

An “hour of code” workshop for grades two through six at the Amagansett Library on Wednesday and Dec. 14 will have kids learning the basics of computer programming using a Minecraft or Star Wars platform. The workshops start at 3:50 p.m., and advance sign-up is a must. 

“Curlee Girlee” Story Time

Atara Twersky, a children’s book author, attorney, and mother of three young children, will read from “Curlee Girlee” on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at BookHampton in East Hampton. It tells the story of a girl who wishes she could tame her locks and be just like everyone else, but eventually comes to appreciate her curly hair. The story time is free, but advance registration has been requested and can be done on the shop’s website, bookhampton.com. 

Hampton Ballet’s ‘The Nutcracker’

Looking ahead to next weekend, the Hampton Ballet Theatre School’s production of Tchaikovsky’s classic “The Nutcracker” will open on Friday, Dec. 9, at Guild Hall in East Hampton and run through Dec. 11. The opening night show time is 7. The production will also run on Dec. 10 at 1 and 7 p.m. and Dec. 11 at 2 p.m. Orchestra tickets cost $25 in advance, $20 for children, through hamptonballettheatreschool.com. Tickets for balcony seats cost $10. Tickets at the door are $30 for adults, $20 for children. 

The production is choreographed by Sara Jo Strickland, the school’s director, and has costumes designed by Yuka Silvera and lighting by Sebastian Paczynski. Adam and Gail Baranello of A&G Dance will perform the roles of the Arabian prince and princess.