Tripping off the Tongue – Dinosaur Names

A number of teachers and learning support providers are using dinosaur names to help young children to appreciate and understand the sounds of words. As dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals seem to be very popular with young children, so these long extinct creatures can prove very helpful when it comes to supporting phonics based teaching.  A three-year-old happily tells us all about their favourite dinosaur, a Stegosaurus, yet the same child struggles to come to terms with the correct pronunciation of the own surname.

Diplodocus Not a Problem to a Budding Fossil Hunter

Why do children love talking about dinosaurs?  This is one of the intriguing questions asked of the Everything Dinosaur teaching team as they prepare to put together more lesson plans and schemes of work aimed at Foundation Stage children.  The ability to say correctly the name Diplodocus (and to correct anyone who does not pronounce the word properly), has been observed by many teachers as well as parents and guardians.  It seems that Diplodocus may not be a problem but saying “daffodil” or “digital” can be quite a challenge to a young palaeontologist.  Even the word “palaeontologist” does not seem to phase them.

Stegosaurus – Helping Children with Their Sentence Construction

A typical teaching resource provided by Everything Dinosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur’s experts were not aware of any study being currently undertaken into this specific element of children’s phonics and their grasp of speech.  Research has shown that young children up to the age of seven have an astonishing ability to pick up speech, language skills and enhance their vocabulary.  The sound of the words, particularly if accompanied with a picture of the prehistoric animal might make learning new words and sounds exciting.

Dinosaurs

The longest genus name, Everything Dinosaur’s staff were able to recall is Micropachycephalosaurus (mike-cro-pack-ee-sep-hal-oh-sore-us).  That’s a hefty twenty-three letters long.  Could dinosaur name pronunciation leave a tingle on the tongue?  Certainly, most young children learning about dinosaurs seem to relish and enjoy saying the names of dinosaurs.

There might be a strong sense of achievement after the pronunciation, as for many young children, the names of dinosaurs might be the longest and most complicated words that the child has encountered.  Children could be picking up cues from parents who might be expressing a strong sense of pride as their child says Tyrannosaurus rex, just like an accomplished academic.

Dinosaur Names Help Teachers

A number of parents, learning support providers and home educators have exploited a child’s fascination with dinosaurs to help them with their writing, reading and sentence construction.  If the young pupil loves Stegosaurus, then using this Late Jurassic plant-eating dinosaur in a fun activity to look at how to pronounce words and to get to grips with writing is a bit like pushing at an already open door.

Triceratops Speech Bubble Dinosaur Themed Teaching Aid

Exploring emotions and helping to construct sentences. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur provides some handy, free, downloadable, dinosaur themed pronunciation bubble pictures.  These are available from the downloads section of the site along with other helpful teaching resources.

To visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

Developing Key Learning Skills – Thanks to Dinosaurs

Children either entering formal education or at an early stage of their careers in school can be helped to develop important skills thanks to dinosaurs.  Many learning support providers are keen to drive a culture of development and achievement, reinforcing key learning skills that will serve the students throughout their education.  Developing learning skills can form part of a coordinated plan to improve life-long learning.

The “Achievosaurs”, or as they are sometimes referred to as the “Achieveosaurs”, aims to teach children about positive ways in which their ability to learn can improved.  Qualities such as being determined and staying focused on a task, being prepared to ask questions and share ideas are rewarded by permitting the child to look after one of the “Achievosaurs” – a dinosaur soft toy which represents a character that shows that key skill.

One of the “Achievosaurs” Dinosaur Soft Toy Ranges

Some of the original “Achievosaurs”.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Soft Toy Dinosaurs

A set of soft toy dinosaurs can be used to help reinforce these key learning skills.  Staff members at Everything Dinosaur, with their teaching backgrounds have assisted learning support providers by offering all sorts of innovative learning materials for use in schools and nurseries.  For instance, a large number of schools use Everything Dinosaur’s soft toys to help deliver the “Achievosaurs” teaching concept.  However, as manufacturers alter their product ranges, so many of the dinosaur soft toys used in the original schemes of work become unavailable.  No worries, as Everything Dinosaur specialises in the supply of prehistoric animal toys and games, our team members are on hand to provide advice and to help teachers develop the “Achievosaurs” teaching concept.

Adopting the “Achievosaurs” Concept

Many schools adopt the “Achievosaurs” concept across all their classes in Early Years and Reception through into upper Key Stage 1, it often ties in with a related term topic covered by the children in Year 1 and 2 which enables them to learn about rocks, fossils and dinosaurs.

Key Learning Skills Typically Covered in the “Achievosaurs” Teaching Concept

• SOLVEOSAURUS REX – I can solve problems and improve (based on T. rex the most famous dinosaur of all)
• TRYCERATOPS – I try new things, don’t give up and work really hard (based on Triceratops, a very well known horned dinosaur with three horns)
• STICKASAURUS  – I stick at tasks and persevere (based on Stegosaurus a popular, plant eating dinosaur with plates on its back)
• THINKODOCUS – I think carefully about what I learn (based on the big, plant-eating dinosaur called Diplodocus)
• SHAREOSAURUS – I share my ideas and can work well with others (based on the Spinosaurus)

To view Everything Dinosaur’s range of prehistoric animal soft toys: Soft Toy Dinosaurs.

Helping young children to develop such important skills for learning later on in life.  Teachers are free to come up with their own variants and new additions, this is where our team members can help, by advising on educational matters and guiding teachers as to their choice of prehistoric animal to represent the particular skill or learning behaviour that they wish to develop with their class.  After all, what five-year-old can refuse the chance to look after their very own soft toy dinosaur?