Picks of the Week: December 10-16

Happy Hanukkah! In this week’s installment of Picks of the Week, we continue our search for the best holiday events for families. Check out what we’ve found.

All Week

Grand Army Plaza Menorah Lighting
Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza (5th Avenue at 59th Street)
5:30 pm
The “world’s largest menorah” will be lit every night this week in honor of Hanukkah. The 32-ft tall menorah weighs in at a staggering 2 tons, and the nightly lighting ceremony is free to the public.

Friday, December 14-Sunday, December 16

Peter & the Wolf
The Guggenheim
Various times
The beloved Sergei Prokofiev tale, “Peter & the Wolf,” will be brought to life at the Guggenheim Museum during this 30-minute holiday performance. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi will narrate as George Manahan conducts the Juilliard Ensemble. Artist Will Cotton’s sets and artwork, including a gingerbread house interior, will be available for viewing after each performance. Tickets are $30.

Saturday, December 15-Sunday, December 16

Gingerbread Workshops
Various places
Various times
An abundance of workshops dedicated to gingerbread decorating have popped up across the city! There’s something uniquely special about decorating the king of all holiday cookies with your kids, so we’ve compiled a round-up of places offering gingerbread decorating workshops this month. This weekend, Little Collector, The Craft Studio, and Church Street School for Music and Art are hosting their gingerbread decorating classes and Brooklyn’s Dough Re Me Kids is having a Holiday Warmth Workshop, where kids can make their own hot chocolate and marshmallows. To read our complete round-up, click here.

The Language Workshop For Children

After offering both group and private lessons for many years and analyzing the results over&nbsp;time, The&nbsp;Language Workshop for&nbsp;Children, founded&nbsp;in1973, has decided&nbsp;to emphasize private remote lessons at shorter intervals.&nbsp;Our skilled educators&nbsp;will&nbsp;focus their attention exclusively on the&nbsp;unique needs, learning style, and interests of your child.&nbsp;This allows a&nbsp;bond&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;between teacher and student, which&nbsp;has been&nbsp;shown to&nbsp;drastically improve retention.&nbsp; OUR METHOD&nbsp; Developed by the pioneers of language education for children, our programs bring decades of&nbsp;experience to your living room with individualized, active language classes. Each lesson is based on proven methods and materials perfected to capture your&nbsp;child&rsquo;s attention during the ages when he/she absorbs information the fastest. &nbsp;&nbsp; While other online language classes rely on videos for passive learning, we deliver interactive, and engaging lessons with native-fluent teachers. In addition, all our teachers are certified in the Thibaut&nbsp;Technique which has been featured&nbsp;in the New York&nbsp;Times, the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal, and many other well-respected&nbsp;publications.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our short one-on-one lessons give kids the chance to focus, hear pronunciation clearly, and practice speaking in their target language.  THE PROCESS&nbsp; First, students have a short meeting with our Director&nbsp;Francois&nbsp;Thibaut, in&nbsp;English, with&nbsp;their parent(s)&nbsp;present.&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut&nbsp;will determine&nbsp;the best course of study, including&nbsp;class length and&nbsp;frequency, the&nbsp;right&nbsp;teacher, lesson&nbsp;format and materials (or action games for younger students.) Then the learning&nbsp;begins!&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut will continually check in on your child&rsquo;s learning to assure they are getting the most&nbsp;of&nbsp;their&nbsp;classes.&nbsp; OTHER OFFERINGS&nbsp; We can also help your child prepare for: the French subject tests for SAT, AP &amp; CLEP, the European DELF/DALF, the Canadian TEF and other standardized testing, college entry exams, studying or traveling abroad,&nbsp;cultural changes when moving abroad,&nbsp;and much more!&nbsp; &nbsp;

Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian's Legacy

The Morgan Library &amp; Museum will present a major exhibition devoted to the life and career of its inaugural director, Belle da Costa Greene (1879&ndash;1950). Widely recognized as an authority on illuminated manuscripts and deeply respected as a cultural heritage executive, Greene was one of the most prominent librarians in American history. The exhibition will trace Greene&rsquo;s storied life, from her roots in a predominantly Black community in Washington, D.C., to her distinguished career at the helm of one of the world&rsquo;s great research libraries. Through extraordinary objects―from medieval manuscripts and rare printed books to archival records and portraits―the exhibition will demonstrate the confidence and savvy Greene brought to her roles as librarian, scholar, curator, and cultural executive, and honor her enduring legacy.

Brooklyn Music School

<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For over a century, we at The Brooklyn Music School have strived to make the joy of music, dance and performance accessible to everyone no matter their age, background, or financial status. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition to offering affordable in-person and online private and group music lessons, dance classes, after-school programs, and community outreach, we also provide space for&nbsp; <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brooklyn and NYC artists to perform in our 250-seat Spanish-style theatre. Come by for a night of live music, or join us for a class! <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp; <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Visit BrooklynMusicSchool.org to learn more, register for classes, or view our calendar for upcoming events.&nbsp;