Community News & Events

community news What’s Happening Staten Island? LOCAL NEWS, MAJOR EVENTS, COMMUNITY UPDATES AND HOT TOPICS

BY JESSICA JONES-GORMAN Jessica Jones-Gorman is a freelance writer who lives in Great Kills. She has three children who range in age from six to 14.

FALL TRADITIONS CONTINUE AT

DECKER FARM

Halloween at Historic Richmond Town will follow a different agenda this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic but festivities will still occur. Beginning October 3, Pumpkin Picking will take place every Saturday and Sunday of the month between 11am and 5pm at Decker Farm during which families can learn about 19th century farm life and indulge in delicious fall food favorites.

Admission this year will be by timed entry only, with a reduced number of tickets sold every hour for $6 each. Tickets should be reserved online in advance but remaining slots can be purchased on-site, day-of for an additional $2. Masks are required at all times and social distancing will

be enforced throughout the site. Organizers have restructured the event so there are less high-touch activities and new systems of crowd control and queuing will be instituted in the Pumpkin Patch and on the hayride. “As a mother of two small children I love pre-sale timed tickets,” noted Jessica B. Phillips, executive director and CEO of Historic Richmond Town. “This means no waiting in admissions lines or the fear of arriving to a sold out event. Plus, this means I get to the apple cider donuts faster.”

In addition to pumpkin picking, guests can expect a children’s hay maze, pumpkin chucking contest, fall photo ops, educational activities and self-guided farm walks. The Decker Farm Snack Wagon will be full of fall-flavored donuts, pumpkin pie, cider and pumpkin spice coffee – all courtesy of Mark’s Bake Shoppe and Lidl, who are helping to sponsor the event. Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup and kettle corn will also be offered. After-dark programming will wrap up the season’s events on Halloween itself: Tickets will be sold separately for Ghost Tales with Chris O’Brien and other spooky activities. For information or to buy tickets visit www.historicrichmondtown.org

STATEN ISLAND CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

OFFERS BACK TO SCHOOL RESOURCES

When the Staten Island Children’s Museum closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, their education and exhibits teams were forced to quickly adjust. Developing videos and print-at-home activity sheets that would bring some form of the high-touch museum to the families who frequent it, the staff also took to social media, posting ideas and activities on the institution’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, enabling parents to keep kids busy while most childcare facilities were closed.

“We wanted to bring the Children’s Museum to the families we serve since they could no longer come to us,” explained Dina Rosenthal, executive director. Expanding upon that concept, the Museum launched At Home with SICM, a program offering free online resources for parents, teachers and caregivers to use at home during this time of social distancing. The resources offered include informational videos about their animal collection, suggested family adventure walks around Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens, how-to videos demonstrating science and art projects with materials commonly found at home, read-alouds of books for story time, printable activity sheets and child-cook friendly recipes. All activities are designed for children ages two and up and can be found at www.sichildrensmuseum.org/at-home-with-sicm. The Children’s Museum is also piloting an afterschool program for four- to six-year-olds entitled Outdoor Explorers. It is a small group experience held in the outdoor exhibits and meadow which takes advantage of the opportunity for nature walks throughout the campus grounds. Thanks to sponsorship by National Grid and Con Edison, the Children’s Museum is once again offering a monthly STEAM on the Go Kit. The kits include all the materials needed to conduct the experiments and create the art projects of the month. Families interested in the kits may reserve one per household on the Children’s Museum’s website.

STORY TIMES, HOMEWORK HELP AVAILABLE AT NYPL

Need some good book recommendations? Access to e-books? Read aloud suggestions? The New York Public Library might not be fully operational, but there a wide array of online resources being offered for both kids and teens while libraries are temporarily closed. Weekday story times happen daily, Monday through Friday, at 10am, brought directly to participants by expert children’s librarians who read beloved books, sing songs, and share early literacy tips. A joint effort between the NYPL and Time Out New York Kids, the daily virtual story times can be viewed at www.timeout.com/newyorkkids. Parents can also get free, online homework help from one-on-one tutors daily from 2pm to 11pm through the NYPL’s partnership with Brainfuse. Available in English and Spanish for early elementary through high school students in core subject areas, the academic support is part of the library’s range of online learning aids and teaching resources for educators. The NYPL also offers access to over 800 learning aids and databases for free with a valid library card. Participants can log into Scholastic and TumbleBooks databases where students can independently explore e-books, videos and games to support their learning in different subject areas. Book Flix, one of the library’s most popular resources, features classic fiction video storybooks while Scholastic GO! is a resource for nonfiction topics which integrates with Google Classroom and provides materials for all level learners. TumbleBooks features a collection of talking story books, games, chapter books and videos for grades PreK through sixth. Assigned a biographical book report?Biography In Context provides biographical information on more than 650,000 people from throughout history. Grab and Go services recently expanded too: Both the Huguenot Park and St. George locations reopened in September, bringing the number of Staten Island branches open for pick-up and drop-off to six. Residents can also visit the libraries in New Dorp, Richmondtown, Todt Hill-Westerleigh and Stapleton. The reopened branches will offer contactless service as recommended by health and safety experts. Visitors can access a small area of the open branches to pick up and return checkouts placed online or on the phone. Face masks are required and patrons must remain socially distanced from staff. Grab-and-go branches are open from 11am to 6pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday; 12pm to 7pm on Wednesday; and 11am to 5pm Friday and Saturday.