Elementary School students had the chance to spend the night at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Jessy Shelton, 10, brought along her big brother and CV Weekly correspondent Charly Shelton. They each share their experience.

By Charly Shelton

On Friday night, Feb. 26, I did something I have wanted to do since I was a little kid: I spent the night at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. I have been going there for almost two decades now, and I have always wanted to have the museum to myself all night.

It was a lot of fun, even more than I thought it would be. The kids did activities from 7 p.m. to about 10:30, and you would think it would wear them out, but it didn’t. The activities were set up in four stations, and by the fourth station, parents of the Coyote group (the group we were in) were asleep against the walls while the kids made walnut dice.

Around 11 p.m., we went to sleep. The kids giggled and played, and the parents put their earplugs in to go to sleep. I stayed up to walk around the museum all alone. I finally had the museum to myself. I spent 20 minutes in the CA History room just sitting in silence, reading. I spent an hour next to the dinosaurs in the main hall. It was great.

Then I tried to go to sleep. But at 1:45 a.m., it wasn’t the kids that made me get the earplugs, it was the snoring parents. Who would have thought the parents would be the noisiest? But it was a lot of fun and Jessy and I had a great time. Jessy is in fifth grade and the youngest sister, so next year is our last chance to sleep at the museum, but she and I will be back.

By Jessy SHELTON

Mountain Avenue Elementary students got to spend a night at the museum from Friday (Feb. 26) to Saturday morning.

I am a fifth grader at Mountain Avenue and my favorite movie is “Night At the Museum” so for Christmas my brother bought two tickets for my school’s sleepover at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. My brother used to volunteer at the La Brea Tar Pits and spent a lot of time at the other museums, too. He always took me with him and we like spending time together.

We got to the museum at 6 at night. A lot of the kids were already waiting at the door, really excited. We all had our flashlights and were ready to explore. When we went in, the night guards showed us where to sleep. We put our things down and walked around. Later, we played educational games like looking for old pieces of a pottery, or playing an old Indian game where we threw a fake spear into a moving hula-hoop. At about 11 at night it was lights out. It was a little hard to sleep because every one took out their flashlights and shined it on the ceiling.

My brother and I slept in front of the brown bears and when we woke up we saw a big bear in front of us and it was awesome. After that, they gave every one a little breakfast and opened up the gift shop so we could get something cool.

In the movie, “Night At The Museum” all the exhibits came to life at night I was a little disappointed that didn’t happen. Still the experience there was great and I’m looking forward to next year.

  Mountain Avenue Elementary, Natural History Museum, Night at the Museum