All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
10 05, 2016

Four-Year-Old “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”

By | May 10th, 2016|Early Years Foundation Reception, General Teaching|Comments Off on Four-Year-Old “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”

Australian Boy the “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”

News has reached the teaching team at Everything Dinosaur about a remarkable little boy from Sydney (Australia), whose parents have put forward to the Guinness World Records organisation in recognition of his great dinosaur knowledge.  Proud parents Qing Zhang and Hill Wang have put forward their son four-year-old Makan in a bid to have him recognised as the “youngest dinosaur educator”.  Speaking to the Australian media outlet 9news.com.au, which broke the story, mum Qing Zhang stated:

“He’s got an amazing memory.  He can tell what each dinosaur’s traits are, what period they lived in, whether they’re omnivores or herbivores.”

Youngest Dinosaur Educator

Dinosaurs Help Children Learn

The original Schleich Therizinosaurus replica.

Now out of production the original Schleich Therizinosaurus replica.  Dinosaurs help children learn.

Picture credit: Schleich

The Schleich range of prehistoric animals are ideal for robust play.

To view the Schleich range: Schleich Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Impressive Knowledge About Prehistoric Animals

Makan certainly loves dinosaurs and from the media release it is clear he has a great deal of knowledge.  It is even more remarkable as he has yet to learn to read.  However, we know that most Foundation Stage teachers will be aware of children who also seem to possess an encyclopaedic knowledge of prehistoric animals.   At Everything Dinosaur we have had the great pleasure of meeting children, some of which are not much older than three years of age, who have demonstrated a remarkable amount of pre-knowledge about dinosaurs.  Children seem to have a fascination for these long extinct creatures and relish the challenge of learning their long and complicated names.

Lots of Young Children Demonstrate Dinosaur Knowledge

Dinosaur drawing.

Blake sent a dinosaur drawing to Everything Dinosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A Clever Little Boy

Makan’s parents state that their son has memorised more than thirty different species.  He has built up his knowledge by watching dinosaur programmes.  With the assistance of illustrated prompt cards, Makan can now recall the names of dinosaurs and facts about prehistoric animals on command.  We think, that many teachers will have taught children who also demonstrated remarkable knowledge about dinosaurs and perhaps these children along with their teachers should be given recognition too.

Everything Dinosaur team members encourage children and help them.  We are committed to helping young people learn about dinosaurs.

Visit the award-winning Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

Do You Know a Dinosaur Expert?

We praise Makan’s mum and dad for encouraging their son.  Learning about dinosaurs will help to equip this talented little boy with the sort of life-long skills that will help him to adapt, adjust and thrive in formal education.  Teachers, do you have a very knowledgeable dinosaur expert in your class?  If you do, we would love to hear from you and perhaps, with the permission of the grown-ups in charge,  your pupil could be put forward as the world’s “youngest dinosaur educator”.

To contact Everything Dinosaur: Contact Everything Dinosaur.

10 05, 2016

Is this Four-Year-Old the “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”?

By | May 10th, 2016|Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Main Page, Teaching|1 Comment

Australian Four-Year-Old Dinosaur Expert in the Guinness Book of Records?

During Everything Dinosaur’s daily trawl of news channels looking for prehistoric animal related media releases and dinosaur news stories we came across this piece from the Australian media outlet 9news.com.au.  Sydney based Hill Wang and Qing Zhang have put forward their four-year-old son to the Guinness World Records organisation in a bid to have him recognised as the “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”.

The “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”

Many Children Have a Fascination with Dinosaurs?

Dinosaur toys encourage play.

Children playing with dinosaur and prehistoric animal models.

Picture credit: Schleich

To view the range of Schleich prehistoric animals and figures: Schleich Prehistoric Animal Figures.

Young Makan Wang has managed to memorise a lot of facts about prehistoric animals, especially dinosaurs.  His parents claim that he has learned about more than thirty different species, hence their bid to have four-year-old Makan officially recognised by the Guinness World Records organisation as the “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”.

Makan’s mother Ms Zhang explained to a reporter at 9news.com.au that her son had memorised the information about these long extinct creatures by watching television programmes and as a result, with the aid of illustrated prompt cards, he can now recall a number of names and dinosaur facts on command.

Impressive But Not Exceptional

Given Everything Dinosaur’s extensive outreach work in schools and museums, our team members get to meet thousands of young people every year and although Makan has an impressive amount of knowledge, in the opinion of team members at the Cheshire (UK) based company, his ability to recall dinosaur facts and figures is not out of the ordinary.

Mike Walley, one of the teaching team members commented:

“It is always great to hear that dinosaurs are capturing the imaginations of young children and helping them to develop their vocabulary and their understanding of the world, but we meet dozens and dozens of children every year who demonstrate an astonishing level of knowledge and whilst Makan’s recall of facts and figures is impressive, based on what information we have from the news story, he is not exceptional.”

A Very Big Fan of the Dinosauria

dinosaur fan.

Grown up but still a big fan of dinosaurs.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

Proud Parents

Makan’s parents should be very proud of their clever little boy.  His fascination for dinosaurs is clearly evident but is he the “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”?  This title is an epithet that the parents themselves came up with, but we have met many equally enthusiastic dinosaur buffs who could give Makan a run for his money.

His mum, Qing Zhang explained:

“He’s got an amazing memory.  He can tell what each dinosaur’s traits are, what period they lived in, whether they’re omnivores or herbivores.”

Makan’s dinosaur expertise at such a young age is admirable, especially when you consider that the little boy can’t read, however, in our experience working with Nursery and Reception-aged children, most classes tend to have a classroom dinosaur expert with an equally impressive ability to recall dinosaur facts and figures.

With an application submitted to the Guinness World Records, we wish Mr Wang, Ms Zhang and young Makan all the very best with this endeavour and we wholeheartedly agree with their sentiments when mum comments:

“We wanted recognition that he is young and is doing an amazing job.  Whether he wins it or not, for us, it doesn’t really matter that much.  We want him to continue to learn and this is encouragement for him.  We’re so proud of him and we’re happy to see where he goes from here.”

Do You Know of a Young Dinosaur Expert?

Mums and dads, grandparents and guardians, do you know of a budding palaeontologist that could take on the title of being the “Youngest Dinosaur Educator”?  Our team members are constantly amazed by the level of pre-knowledge that very young children demonstrate when it comes to introducing a dinosaur topic at school, our dinosaur experts have even been corrected on a few occasions when we ourselves have tripped up over our dinosaur facts and figures – we would be delighted to hear from other proud grown-ups who might have their very own resident dinosaur expert in the family.

Now there’s a challenge!

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