kids

Winter Carnival begins next Friday

January 17, 2017

Lincoln’s annual Winter Carnival kicks off on Friday, Jan. 27 with a showing of movie The Last Waltz and wraps up on Sunday, Jan. 27 with “CSI Lincoln: Tales from Police Blotters Past.” See this list or the Lincoln Squirrel calendar for a full list of activities.

Weekend-long activities

Snow Sculpture Contest
Design and build a winter sculpture in your own front yard. Call to register with Parks & Recreation by 5 p.m. on Saturday (781 259-0784). Judging will take place on Sunday morning with awards to the best in show and superlative awards to all, so get creative!

Discover Drumlin Farm in the Winter
Visit our animals in their winter homes, look for wildlife tracks or other signs of animals in the snow, or check out our feeders at our wildlife blind by the deer enclosure. Drop-in naturalist programs take place on Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.. Free admission for residents. Call 781-259-2200 for more information.

Friday, Jan. 27

Generational Sing-Along for Kids and Seniors
3:30 p.m., Bemis Hall
The LEAP After-School Program, the Lincoln Council on Aging, and Magic Garden Children’s Center invite residents of all ages to enjoy a free multigenerational Concert and Sing-Along! The program will include performances from each of the organizations and an audience sing-along at the end.

Lincoln PTO Family Bingo Night
5:30–7:30 p.m., Brooks Gym
Come celebrate 10 years of Family Bingo Night with even more chances to win! Prizes awarded for each winning bingo board, awesome raffle prizes and free give-aways. Pizza dinner sales start at 5:30 p.m., with snacks and drinks available for purchase all night. Open to all. Free entry. Bingo cards are $5 for a 20-game multi-pack; raffle tickets are $1 each, six for $5, and 15 for $10.

FoMA Movie Night: Scorsese’s The Last Waltz
7-9 p.m. Bemis Hall
Step back in time to enjoy a defining rock event, the 1976 farewell concert of seminal rock group The Band. The film captures the aura that includes guest appearances by Bob Dylan, Paul Butterfield, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton and more. The New Yorker calls it “the most beautiful rock film ever made.”

Saturday, Jan. 28

Girl Scout Pancake Breakfast
8-11 a.m., Stone Church
Start your Saturday off with some delicious pancakes with real maple syrup. $5 children under 12, $10 ages 12+, $30 family max. Plain, blueberry, chocolate chip pancakes with maple syrup along with coffee, tea, orange juice, and fruit. Face painting and crafts for kids, and Girl Scout cookies will be on sale.

Snow Shoe Tours
10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
Enjoy nature and art in winter and discover a fun and active way to explore the Sculpture Park. Tours are led by a deCordova Museum Guide and a trained EMS instructor. Visit decordova.org/calendar to purchase tickets. Adults: $15 for members or $25 for non-members plus $12 for snowshoe rental. Youths 8-18: $12 for members, $20 for non-members plus $12 for snowshoe rental.

Magic Garden Preschool Fun
11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Magic Garden Children’s Center
Come visit with friends and neighbors and enjoy carnival games, and arts and crafts activities. Located in the Hartwell building on the Lincoln School campus.

Community Skating and Bonfire
Open skating, 12-1:30 p.m.; pick-up hockey, 1:30-3 p.m.
Cemetery Pond, Lexington Road
Enjoy skating, hot chocolate, and toasted marshmallows by the campfire. Bring your skates. Check www.lincolnrec.com for weather updates.

Lincoln Holistic Wellness Fair
Noon to 3 p.m., Bemis Hall
Lincoln wellness practitioners are hosting a drop-in “clinic” to help you learn about alternative/complementary medicine while experiencing a respite from cold, stress, or illness. Receive mini-treatments/assessments in acupuncture, therapeutic massage, foot reflexology, holistic nutrition, yoga, therapeutic touch, dowsing, Alexander technique and more. Healthy warm teas, muffins and treats will be available. Contact Jai Kaur Annamaria at asanajai@verizon.net with questions.

LFA Energy Blaster
3-5 p.m., Brooks Gym
Join your friends (and their parents) and burn some energy! Jump in a bounce house, create some art and try your skill at a variety of fun indoor games. Bring cash to enjoy healthy snacks. Fun and prizes for all! Free for Lincoln Family Association ’17 members; otherwise $10 per child. An LFA membership or renewal at the door includes admission, or renew now at www.lincfam.org.

Acoustic Coffeehouse
7-10 p.m., Bemis Hall
Lincoln’s annual night to showcase local musicians and performers. Coffee and desserts will be served. Seating reservations can be made at www.lincolnrec.com. Reservation for a table of eight is $160; general admission is $10. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seasoned performers and fresh talent are lined up, so come join us for a treasured community event!

Sunday, Jan. 29

Lindsay and Doodle, one of her puppet pals.

Lindsay and Her Puppet Pals
2-3 p.m., Lincoln Public Library
Lindsay Aucella’s highly interactive, comedic performances feature larger-than-life, hand-crafted puppets to charm even the most timid audience members and provide memorable characters for positive short stories and skits. All ages.

Make Your Own Elf/Fairy Garden
10:30 a.m. to noon, Carriage House at deCordova
The title says it all… a great new event for children, so come join us! Sponsored by the Lincoln Nursery School and deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

CSI Lincoln: Tales From Police Blotters Past
3-5 p.m., Bemis Hall
Don’t miss this chance to hear fascinating stories about dramatic events in Lincoln, such as the famous unsolved case of a missing woman and an infamous drug raid, as told by Chiefs Arena, Bowles, Mooney and Kennedy. Presented by the Lincoln Historical Society.

News acorns

January 8, 2017

Calling all public servants

Looking for a rewarding if occasionally vexing way to feel more connected? Willing to undertake new challenges? Unafraid to speak up? Then run for local office! The annual Town Election will take place on Monday, March 27. Nomination papers are available at the Town Clerk’s Office now, and must be returned by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7. The following offices will appear on the March ballot:

Board of Selectmen (two seats, one for one year and one for three years)
Board of Assessors (two seats, one for two years and one for three years)
K-8 School Committee (two seats, both for three years)
Water Commissioner (three years)
Board of Health (three years)
Cemetery Commission (three years)
Planning Board (two seats for three years each)
Commissioner of Trust Funds (three years)
deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park Trustee (four years)
Housing Commission (two seats, one for one year and one for three years)
Parks and Recreation Committee (three years)
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District School Committee (two seats for three years each)
Bemis Trustee (three years)
Town Moderator (three years)

For more information, call the Town Clerk’s Office at 781-259-2607.

Museum trip with library

The Lincoln Public Library is offering a trip to the Peabody Essex Museum to see the “Shoes: Pleasure and Pain” exhibit on Saturday, Feb. 25, leaving the library at 10 a.m. and returning at 3 p.m. The museum admission and guided tour is $20, and the cost for the bus will depend on the number of riders. Lunch is not included. For more information or to sign up, contact Lisa Rothenberg at 781-259-8465 ext. 202 or email lrothenberg@minlib.net.

In conjunction with the trip, the library will host a talk on the history of shoes by fashion historian Karen Antonowicz on Thursday, Feb. 23 from 7-8:30 p.m.

Minuteman offers STEM camp for girls in February

Minuteman High School will host “Girls in STEM” (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) camp from February 21-24. from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It is free for seventh- and eighth-grade girls from communities in the Minuteman school district (Acton, Arlington, Belmont, Bolton, Boxborough, Carlisle, Concord, Dover, Lancaster, Lexington, Lincoln, Needham, Stow, Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston), and bus transportation will be provided. There is a $149 fee (and no bus) for students who live outside the district. The class will be led by female students from Minuteman who are certified in mentoring and are enrolled in STEM majors, facilitated by are Minuteman teachers Becky Quay (engineering) and Sarah Ard (horticulture and landscape technology). For more information or to register, click here or contact Director of Career and Technical Education Michelle Roche at 781-861-6500 ext. 7326 or mroche@minuteman.org. Seats are limited, so register early.

The year in review (part 2)

December 30, 2016

Site of the former Aka Bistro, soon to be Lincoln Kitchen.

December

November

October

September

August

July

2016: the year in review (part 1)

December 29, 2016

Kids enjoyed ice cream and other diversions at Lincoln’s “40 Years of Community” fair in April 2016.

June

May

April

March

February

January

News acorns

December 13, 2016

Members sought for South Lincoln planning group

The Planning Board is looking for residents to participate in the South Lincoln Planning Implementation Committee (SLPIC), one of two new groups intended to promote business development in town.

The SLPIC hopes to create a more vibrant, attractive place at the hub of Lincoln where businesses, the MBTA station and several types of residences are concentrated. The group will be a subcommittee of the Planning Board and will focus on planning projects and establish project-specific working teams that include additional members representing various stakeholders based on the type of project.

Anyone interested in participating in this committee or a project-specific team should contact Jennifer Burney, Director of Planning and Land Use, at burneyj@lincolntown.org or 781-259-2684.

First Parish Christmas pageant on Sunday

The First Parish in Lincoln (FPL) annual Children’s Christmas Pageant will take place on Sunday, Dec. 18 at 11:30 a.m. in Bemis Hall (there is no snow date). Goodies will be served after the pageant through donations by the families of FPL. Anyone with questions may contact Kathy Cronin, Acting Director of Religious Education, at kathycronin@firstparishinlincoln.org.

Minute Man NHP superintendent to retire

Nancy Nelson

After 39 years of service, Nancy Nelson, superintendent of Minute Man National Historical Park, will retire on January 3, 2017. Nelson’s career has includes roles as an environmental protection specialist and later a park planner, landscape architect and special assistant to three regional directors. She played an active part in planning for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island restoration/rehabilitation projects and for two new national parks (Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, and Lowell National Historic Park.

A primary focus of Nelson’s tenure at MMNHP since 1993 has been the development of the 800-acre Battle Road Unit of the park: design and completion of the award winning Battle Road Trail, rehabilitation of historic structures and historic agrarian landscapes, and construction of new and improved facilities to serve 1 million annual visitors. Recently, under the leadership of the Friends of Minute Man National Park, the park pursued the exploration, rehabilitation and interpretation of the site of “Parker’s Revenge,” a little-known battle on April 19, 1775.

Lincoln robotics teams shine at multiple events

December 13, 2016

Jack Hutchinson, Dante Muzila and Calvin Terpstra operate their robot during the FTC event.

The last two weekends have been very busy for Lincoln robotics, as the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team and all six of the Lincoln Recreation Department’s FIRST Lego League (FLL) teams competed in their first events this season.

FTC is an annual challenge in which teams of students in grades 7-12 build robots that fit into an 18-inch cube to accomplish certain tasks. The game is played in a 12-by-12-foot playing field. FLL is similar to FTC, posing an annual challenge with new obstacles to be completed by a robot, though in this case the machines are made of Legos and the students are in grades 4-8. The FLL teams also create a project in which they brainstorm a solution to a real-life challenge.

At a qualifier in Canton on December 4, the FTC GearTicks received the Think Award, which is given to the team whose engineering notebook best reflects the team’s engineering design process journey. Jack Hutchinson, one of the team’s drivers, thought it was a great opportunity to test out this year’s robot. “This excellent start to our season really got our team excited for the coming year,” he said. Teammate Anna Sander agreed. “We had a great chance to meet other teams and see all the cool designs they’re using,” she said.

In separate qualifiers, the FLL Orange GearTicks took second place in their robot competition and received the Champion’s Award given to the top team at the competition, and the Green GearTicks had a great project presentation and ended the day with their robot in 11th place. The Purple GearTicks received the Inspiration Core Values Award, and the Yellow GearTicks received a judges’ award as Rising Stars. Meanwhile, the Blue GearTicks received the Robot Design Award for their interesting turret design and the Red GearTicks won the “Programming Award” for their understanding of PID controllers.

The Lincoln robotics program derives much of its strength from the support it receives from the community. Although the GearTicks FLL teams are run through the Recreation Department, they rely entirely on parent and high school volunteers to coach each team.

The FIRST Tech Challenge robotics team. Front row: Evan Lee, Howie Tsang and Irene Terpstra. Back row: Caleb Sander, Dante Muzila, Laura Appleby, Jack Hutchinson, Calvin Terpstra, Catherine Appleby and Anna Sander.

“The judges were impressed by the range of in-town experts we consulted for our research project,” team member Emily Appleby said. For their “Active Deer Warning Signs” project, the students worked with Chris Bibbo at the DPW and Tom Gumbart at the Conservation Commission to investigate the problem of deer and cars on Lincoln’s roads.

FLL students agreed that the team has been a great experience. Emily Feng joined the Lincoln robotics program because she wanted to “improve my teamwork skills and learn about programming and building robots,” and she and her teammates certainly succeeded. The team also learned a lot about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math and how to compete under pressure.

“It’s interesting to see how other teams solve the same missions that we do in very different ways,” said Amelia Pillar.

“Out team really learned a lot and improved our teamwork,” said Alex Stewart.

“Sometimes it’s stressful to set up the robot in a gymnasium full of screaming people,” but the teams were equal to the pressure, said Stavros First.

The FTC team advanced from the Canton qualifier and will compete in the Massachusetts FTC State Competition on March 4 at Natick High School. The Orange GearTicks also advanced to the Massachusetts FLL State Tournament, in which they will compete on December 17 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Red and Blue GearTicks FLL teams will also compete in further qualifiers.

News acorns

November 29, 2016

Magic Garden open house

Magic Garden Children’s Center will host an open house for prospective 2017-18 families on Saturday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to noon. Magic Garden, which is located in the Hartwell building on the Ballfield Road school campus, offers year-round care for children ages 15 months to 5 years Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with flexible schedules. While this event is geared towards answering parents’ questions, children are welcome to attend and play in our classrooms. Children’s activities and a snack will be provided. Call 781-259-8161 for more information. Walk-ins are welcome.

‘The Syrian Bride’ screening by GRALTA Foundation

The GRALTA Foundation continues its exploration of the Israel-Palestine conflict with an award-wining Israeli film, The Syrian Bride, in Bemis Hall on Wednesday Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 11 at 2 p.m. Set in Majdal Shams, the largest Druze village in the Golan Heights on the Israeli-Syrian border, the bride Mona is engaged to get married to Tallel, a TV comedian from Damascus. They have never met, and when Mona moves to Syria, she will lose her undefined nationality and will never be allowed to return home. This “woven” story deals with Mona’s feminist sister, the complex and strained relations within Mona’s family, and government bureaucracy. The film was nominated for seven Israel Film Academy awards and won the Montréal World Film Festival Grand Prix along with three other awards. There is no charge, and light refreshments will be served.

Touch of Christmas Fair

The First Parish in Lincoln will hold its Touch of Christmas Fair on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Parish House Auditorium at 14 Bedford Rd. This annual event features a visit from Santa Claus at 11 a.m., and children can pose for pictures with him. Before and after the visit, attendees can enjoy craft tables, a baked-goods area with lots of holiday treats, and a treasures table with second-hand antiques, housewares and more. Fragrant wreaths and centerpieces are also for sale and made by volunteers the week prior to the fair. Psalm Soup will be available for lunch. There will be a Christmas cookie decorating station, a fishing tree, an ornament-making area and a special children’s Christmas shopping room. For more information, contact Nancy Fleming at nlfleming@comcast.net or Karin Levy at karinlevy54@gmail.com.

How was your home energy assessment?

Have you had a home energy assessment this year? If so, Lincoln’s Green Energy Committee wants to hear from you. We’re working to make these assessments a great experience that results in real savings for you and for our community. Mark Deck is part of the Green Energy Committee team and would like to interview you. Please contact committee member Mark Deck at 781-718-6815 or mark.john.deck@gmail.com. To sign up for a free home energy assessment, call 617-752-1259 or go to LincolnEnergyChallenge.org.

Free classical concert on December 10

Lincoln musicians Jessica Tunick Berens and Trevor Berens present a free concert of modern classical music for voice and piano and for solo piano inspired by Buddhist, Christian and Taoist traditions on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 8-9:30 p.m. in Bemis Hall. The program will include John Cage’s One, Yuji Takahashi’s For Thomas Schultz, Arvo Part’s Fur Alina, Frederic Rzewski’s The Turtle and the Crane, Paul Humphreys’ The Legend of Lao Tse and Mel Powell’s Levertov Breviary.

Toys for Tots drive

Lincoln Police are partnering again with the Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys for Tots campaign, collecting new, unwrapped non-violent toys for boys and girls. Bins are located in the Public Safety Building lobby, Donelan’s, the Parks & Recreation office, Town Hall, the Lincoln Public Library, the Council on Aging, and The Commons in Lincoln. The campaign runs until Friday, Dec. 16.

Kids plant bulbs to help next spring’s honeybees

November 6, 2016

Lincoln School fifth-grader Nour Azzouzi gets into the gardening.

Hundreds of daffodils and crocuses will bloom next spring in the People for Pollinators meadow thanks to the efforts of 25 Lincoln School students.

The Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT) and the METCO Coordinating Committee organized the October 19 planting of 1,000 daffodil and crocus plants at the People for Pollinators meadow close to the Smith school building. Twenty-five Lincoln School students from Lincoln and Boston participated and were joined by students from the Birches School and community members.

“The METCO Coordinating Committee is always looking for fun ways to engage our Boston-based and Lincoln-based students in exciting and enriching community-building events, and the pollinating garden event was the perfect opportunity for us,” said Pilar Doughty, METCO Coordinating Committee chair. “Our students were able to meet and collaborate with individuals from various schools and organizations across our community. As an added bonus, they learned more about pollinators and gardening techniques, and helped to make an impressive contribution to our pollinator ecosystem.”

Pilar Doughty (second from left), the Lincoln METCO Coordinating Committee chair, gets down in the dirt with students at the pollinator meadow.

People for Pollinators members prepared the meadow site for planting and helped with the bulb installation. The LLCT and Conservation Commission loaned equipment to help the effort, including shovels, trowels and rakes.

Daffodils and crocuses bloom in early spring and provide an essential early source of nectar for emerging queen bumblebees. Unlike honeybees, which can survive in a colony of many thousands over the winter, only a queen bumblebee survives and hibernates, and then re-emerges the following year to establish new colonies and the next generation of bumblebees, which help pollinate many local foods such as cranberries and apples.

The meadow got its start at a community-wide planting event last spring after several organizations and schools collaborated to form People for Pollinators, which aims to protect and create native habitat that supports the vitality of pollinators in the face of bee colony collapse.

Students apply engineering skills to solving school problems

October 23, 2016

Lincoln School students in grades 5-8 spent two full days planning and building prototypes in a hands-on engineering effort to solve specific problems at the school they’d previously identified.

STEM Day (science, technology, engineering and math) on October 13-14 involved involved 270 students as well as dozens of faculty and parent volunteers. During the month of September, students brainstormed about problems in the school that could be solved using the engineering design process. A group narrowed the list to the following four:

How do we cover the walkway between the school and the gym so we can get to class without getting wet? Similarly, how do we create portable shade for lunchtime?
How do we keep the soccer ball from going into the street when it is kicked toward the net close to the road?
How do we find places in the building and ways to store things that are too big to fit into lockers?
How do we create portable seating so more kids can eat lunch outside and have a place to sit?

Students consulted with Lincoln Building Inspector Dan Walsh and Parks and Recreations Director Dan Pereira to learn about building codes and how the field in front of the school is used by multiple town groups. They then brainstormed, measured, drew, evaluated, got feedback and built.

Smaller groups of students created prototypes in the classrooms. They then presented them to their peers for feedback and revised their original designs. Toward the end of the day, all four grades gathered in the auditorium, and one project from each problem was presented to the school.

Because the students had chosen their problems, they were excited and engaged from the outset. Along with basic engineering, they had to consider things like budgeting, aesthetics (for example, specifying a stained-glass type of plexiglass roof for the gym walkway so colors could shine through) and sustainability, such as incorporating solar panels as a way to get extra benefits from a project. At the very end of the day, Principal Sharon Hobbs invited students who really loved their designs to come see her to talk about how some of their work might come to fruition.

The prototypes are temporarily on display in the school library so the students can benefit from seeing other people’s thinking.

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News acorns

October 20, 2016

Halloween kids’ events at the library

Come listen to some fun and “not too scary” tales, jokes, and songs with storyteller/actress Sally Kindleberger on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 4 p.m. at the Lincoln Public Library. Recommended for ages 5 and up. On Saturday, Oct. 29, come to a Halloween dance party at 11 a.m. for ages 6 and under. Families will groove to children’s songs and Halloween favorites, and then finish with a unique Pumpkin Freeze Dance. Participants are encouraged to dress in costume, but be sure you can still move! Both events are drop-in and are sponsored by the Friends of the Lincoln Public Library, Inc.

Programs for tenor fans, students interested in law careers

Lincoln-Sudbury students are invited to a Local Heroes presentation and discussion on the education and experience of being a lawyer offered by Lincoln residents Maria Hylton and Peter Georgiou in the Tarbell Room of the Lincoln Public Library on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m. The presentation will highlight the journey of education through college and law school, the diverse range of practice and role of attorneys in the world. Hylton is a professor at Boston University Law School and was educated at Harvard College and Yale Law School. Georgiou is a private practitioner with his own firm and was educated at UMass Lowell and New England School of Law. Local Heroes is a partnership of the Lincoln Public Library, Lincoln School and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School whereby resident luminaries offer inspiration to students about what they might want to explore in their college years and beyond.

On Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m., come learn about what makes a great tenor with Erika Reitshamer of the New England Opera Club. Get to know the challenges and the significance of what makes the tenor voice so unique. Discover the different kinds of tenor voices with contemporary and historic audiovisual excerpts of great tenors singing amazing arias.

Birches School open house

The Birches School in the stone church at 14 Bedford Rd. will hold an open house for prospective students in grades K-8 on Sunday, Nov. 6 from 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Birches School Open House November 6 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Birches is an independent K-8 school offering vigorous, interdisciplinary academics within a mindful, nurturing environment. Located on the edge of conservation land, Birches affords close, daily contact with nature and teachers conduct many of their thematic inquiry-based units outdoors.

Food Project offers Thanksgiving CSA shares

Enjoy local, sustainably grown produce for the holidays with a Thanksgiving CSA share from The Food Project. This is a huge share that will contain between 30-50 pounds of produce, much of which can be stored and will keep throughout the winter. The bounty of seasonal produce typically includes carrots, winter squash (butternut, acorn and carnival), onions, garlic, leeks, potatoes, daikon radish, popcorn, kale, sweet potatoes and winter greens. Available vegetables may be subject to change. Cost: $125. Pickup will be on Saturday, Nov. 19 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Codman Community Barn. Add a turkey from Codman Community Farms and pick it up with your Thanksgiving CSA share! Delicious Codman turkeys are pasture raised and fed certified organic grain to ensure that you and your family receive the best bird. Birds of 10–25 pounds available. Click here for more information and to reserve your turkey.