Surrounded by balloons, giant crayons, and other reminders of childhood, dining hall patrons got the chance to relive kindergarten days last night.

The Office of Housing and Food Service Operation special dinner, themed "All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," featured Spaghetti O's, 'tater tots, animal crackers, and find-what's-wrong-with-this-picture placemats.

Lisa Marie Dunn (freshman-liberal arts) said the cafeteria workers put forth extra effort for the meal.

"I think it's positive and I think everybody appreciates it," she said. "It's something different."

Peter Tumminello (freshman-fine arts) said he liked the meal because he would never eat Spaghetti O's otherwise.

"I had them so much when I was little I got sick of them," Tumminello said, adding that he thought the dish should have had meatballs in it.

The meal, sponsored by Housing and Food Services, was planned almost a year in advance said Lisa Wandel, assistant director of Food Services and was served at all dining halls. She said the a menu planning committee found the idea in Newswave, a magazine produced by the National Association of College and University Food Services.

"We saw it and thought, 'that's it,' " Wandel said.

The title of the meal refers to a best-selling book of the same name by Robert Fulghum.

Three special theme dinners are held per semester, Wandell said, adding that Food Services has been holding theme dinners for about five years. Theme dinners held during the past year include the Super Bowl Preview meal and the Ghostbusters meal at Halloween.

Dining halls were decorated with symbols of childhood. Redifer Commons had window paintings of simple pictures of cats, dogs, houses, and a giant amoeba eating a car. Pollock Commons held a coloring contest with a case of soda as first prize.

Jeanne Lachman (senior-mathematics), an employee in Redifer Commons, said she thought people were having the most fun drawing on their placements with crayons provided by Food Services.

"The food may not be as good," said Lachman, sporting dungarees and ponytails, "but it's a lot of stuff people haven't seen in a while."

Tumminello said his favorite part was the animal crackers.

"I haven't had them since I was a kid," he said.

Jeff Fischer (freshman-business) said the meal was more creative than other special dinners.

"It's pretty cool," he said, "People seem to be enjoying it."

The next scheduled theme dinner is in April, when Food Services will present "Take a Little Pennsylvania Home With You" night.