THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604160136
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Through darkened corridors, past lurking water fountains and closed offices, several dozen preschoolers hunted nocturnal animals with their flashlights and screams of glee.
``I found one, I found one,'' 5-year-old Gregory Brown hollered as he flashed his beam of light onto a photograph of field mice pasted alongside a Coke machine in an alcove of the Old Dominion University Child Study Center.
``What is it?'' asked his hunting partner, Amber Quintana.
``It's mice,'' the kindergartner yelled back at her as he sprinted on to the next discovery.
Beams of light and tiny heads bounced excitedly up and down the hall, where pictures of night-dwelling animals had been taped earlier in the evening by a secretive graduate student.
``Look, over here,'' Skylar Thornton squealed. ``There's a rabbit on the water fountain.''
Four preschoolers scrambled over to the picture, cramming one against another to flash their blinding lights at the picture.
``What's that?'' asked their teacher, Carol DeRolf, who was making her way from the Coke machine.
But before she could reach them, the children had darted down the darkened hall, hunting for more animals. School had never been so much fun as this night of the annual Sleepover.
Each year, some 30 4- and 5-year-olds who attend the ODU Preschool spend an April night, camping out in their classrooms with their two teachers and at least six graduate students. After a regular school day, the children go home for dinner, then return to the empty ODU Child Study Center later in the evening, toting sleeping bags, toothbrushes, blankets and their favorite stuffed animal.
After playing outside for a while, the children go back inside their classrooms for a few hours of flashlight tag, a nocturnal animal hunt, egg races, singing, stories and a snack of trail mix. Then it's a movie, a little soothing Tschaikowsky, and, hopefully, off to sleep on the floor, camped next to a buddy.
It's an evening many of the children look forward to all year long.
``They're get so psyched up,'' DeRolf said, laughing. ``One father brought his child a half-hour early tonight because he said she just couldn't stand to wait any longer.''
``They're so excited,'' added Carole Brady, the other preschool teacher. ``This is their time to be with friends, and they get to sleep with their teacher at their school. They think I live here anyway.''
DeRolf came up with the idea of the Sleepover nine years ago. It has been so successful, the teachers have held one ever since.
``We sat around trying to figure out a way to teach camping that would be fun,'' DeRolf said. ``So we came up with the idea of sleeping in the classroom. We didn't know what would happen.''
So far, nothing the teachers and graduate students can't handle without doling out a hug or a back rub or closing the blinds.
One year, a few young souls got frightened when a thunderstorm rocked the building. Another year, a sleepwalking child ran into a water fountain, looking for a bathroom.
``But in all those years, we have never had to call a parent,'' DeRolf said. ``I think that's amazing.''
``If they say, `I want my mommy,' I just say, `Come by me,' '' Brady said. ``I become their surrogate mother.''
DeRolf and Brady always camp out in the doorways, keeping guard on their charges even as they sleep.
The graduate students sleep in a classroom across the hall.
At this year's Sleepover, graduate student Cindy O'Dwyer admitted she received some ribbing from other students about spending the night with 30 preschoolers.
``We knew we'd be doing this when we signed up to take the practicum,'' said O'Dwyer, an early elementary education student. ``But we didn't know which of us would do the Sleepover. Now that I see how excited they are, I'm just wondering if they'll ever go to sleep.''
Inevitably, they all do, the teachers say.
``Even the diehards are gone by 11,'' Brady said.
But with the lure of powdered doughnuts for breakfast dancing in their heads, most of the children wake up almost as soon as the sun rises. Parents arrive by 8 to take them home.
One 4-year-old said to his mother: ``Nobody was there. We could yell as loud as we wanted, because there was no principals there.''
After a night with the kids, DeRolf, Brady and the other teachers go home to sleep it off.
``I'm not crazy about sleeping on the floor,'' Brady said. ``But we have so much fun; it's worth it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JOAN STANUS
The ODU Preschool students get ready for their annual sleepover.
by CNB