 | | Brandon Wied
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| Two students from Fort Bend County will be “Walking With Dinosaurs” this week as winners of the Houston-area “Walking with Dinosaurs Essay Contest.”
Brandon Wied, a third-grade student at Needville Elementary, and Emily Keithley, a fourth-grade student at Fort Bend ISD's Scanlan Oaks Elementary in Missouri City, won their respective grade divisions from among thousands of entries. Sydney Young of Keith Elementary in Cy-Fair ISD won in the grade two category and Caitlin Eakin of Groves Elementary in Port Neches-Groves ISD won the fifth-grade division.
The winners were announced today at Houston's Toyota Center, which sponsored the contest, and where “Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience” will take place April 2-6.
Based on the award-winning BBC TV series, the unique production depicts dinosaurs during their 200 million-year reign on Earth. The live theatrical show features 15 roaring, snarling, life-size, “live” dinosaurs.
Elementary school students throughout southeast Texas entered the essay contest, penning their answers to the question, “If you had a pet dinosaur for a day, where would you go and what would you do in Houston?”
For Wied, the answer was easy: Take him to the Houston Livestock Show Rodeo.
 | | Emily Keithley |
Not only did Wied take his tyrannosaurus rex to the rodeo, but Zeli, as he named him, became the focus of a new event.
“We were riding him and seeing who could stay on the longest.” Wied explained, adding his choice of a T-rex was simple: “He's my favorite because he walks on two legs and has little, short arms.”
When asked where he came up with the name Zeli, Wied said simply, “I don't know - it just popped into my brain.”
His teacher, Reneˆ© Dworaczyk, said, “I'm just very excited and thrilled that he was able to write such a great paper and have such a wonderful accomplishment. We do a writing contest every six weeks, and he's gotten the highest score veery time He's a very strong writer.”
Wied said his mom gave him the news that he'd won the contest, and he was “so excited” to learn of the honor.
Mom Rhonda, dad Ray and younger brother Eric will be among those accompanying him to the Toyota Center to experience “Walking With Dinosaurs.”
Likewise, Keithley's family will accompany her, as will her teacher, Ashley Manuel, and Manuel's nephew.
Keithley's parents are Leslie and Garret, and she has two sisters, Reagan and Shea, and a brother, Campbell.
“Emily is a wonderful student,” Manuel said. “She is always eager to help and she gives 110 percent. She doesn't finish any assignment until it is perfect. She is a student whom I will miss dearly after this year, and I couldn't be more proud of her.”
Keithley chose to write about a baby dinosaur whom she took to a Houston Rockets basketball game and hid from her parents. She said she's been to a few Rockets games, so that idea came easy; but the notion of a baby dinosaur was one of several story lines suggested by her teacher.
“I was pretty surprised,” she said of the news that hers was a winning essay. “Writing is one of my favorite subjects and I write stories all the time.”
Wied, Keithley and the other two grand-prize winners each received 10 tickets to see “Walking with Dinosaurs.” The 90-minute show is in the midst of a two-year North American arena tour. Nearly 1 million Americans have seen the production since it debuted in July.
In North America, the show is headed by Bruce Mactaggart, who said, “This is a show that could only fit in arenas, as the creatures are so absolutely immense in size.
Audiences seated in the lower seats are all but overwhelmed by the dinosaurs, while those seated in higher seats can view the entire spectacle and panorama of the production. It is the closest you'll ever get to experiencing what it was like when they walked and ruled the earth.”
The show features 10 species, representative of the 200 million-year reign of dinosaurs. As the largest, the brachiosaurus stand 36 feet tall and 56 feet from nose to tail. As the history of the world is played out with the splitting of the earth's continents, the arid desert of the Triassic period is transformed to the lush, green prairies of the later Jurassic period. Oceans form, volcanoes erupt, a forest catches fire - all leading to the impact of the massive comet that forces the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Eight performances of Walking With Dinosaurs - The Live Experience will be given. Tickets are available by calling 866-4-HOUTIX, online at Web site www.toyotacentertix.com, and in person at the Toyota Center Box Office and select Houston-area Randall's locations. For group tickets, call 713-758-7577.
Visit Web site www.dinosaurlive.com for more information.
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