Dino on the Go!: Overview of Vocabulary

If you've been teaching ESL/EFL for a while, you'll probably be aware of the fact that learning English (or any other language) hinges upon both the amount time spent studying and the amount of repetition involved.

For this reason, knowing what English words kids study in public school can be very useful, even if you happen to be teaching them in a private school.  These are, after all, the words kids are most familiar with, these are the words they use the most often, and these words are the foundation upon which they build future understandings of the language.

Presented below are the words used in the Dino on the Go! textbook series, published by Han Lin 翰林.  Other textbook series will use some other words, but given the government-mandated curriculum the vocabulary won't vary by much.  In my time at Tung Hai Elementary School, we've used five different textbook series, and all of them were/are very similar.

I'll start with the vocabulary, or "Key Words" for each lesson.  These should be the words that students are most familiar with.  The different font colors represent grade levels.  The list proceeds from grade one to grade six.

one	two	three	four
five	Dino	Danny	Irene
Niki	Owen	six	seven
eight	nine	ten	book
pencil	eraser	bag	marker
ruler	blue	green	red
black	pink	yellow	eleven
twelve	thirteen	fourteen	fifteen
a boy	a girl	tall	short
fat	thin	big	small
a bird	a cat	a dog	a rabbit
father	mother	brother	sister
grandpa	grandma	a cook	a teacher
a student	a doctor	a nurse	sixteen
seventeen	eighteen	nineteen	twenty
fly	jump	swim	sing
dance	roller-skate	cook	run
walk	draw	read	write
apples	bananas	oranges	papayas
watermelons	grapes	a hot dog	an egg
bread	juice	milk	a cupcake
tea	twenty	thirty	forty
fifty	thirty-five	forty-five	fifty-five
drinking	eating	sleeping	running
swimming	writing	bathroom	bedroom
dining room	kitchen	living room	yard
a ball	a box	a chair	a desk
a key	a kite	a table	sixty
seventy	eighty	ninety	one hundred
cloudy	rainy	snowy	sunny
windy	go camping	go fishing	go shopping
go swimming	bank	bookstore	hospital
library	park	post office	supermarket
zoo	bears	elephants	horses
lions	monkeys	tigers	turtles
zebras	arms	ears	eyes
foot	hands	legs	headache
runny nose	toothache	one thousand	Sunday
Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Friday	Saturday	Sunday	breakfast
lunch	dinner	a hamburger	noodles
rice	salad	soup	art
Chinese	English	math	music
PE	social studies	cap	umbrella
wallet	workbook	glasses	gloves
socks	backpack	Australia	India
Japan	Singapore	Spain	Taiwan
the UK	the USA	by bike	by boat
by bus	by car	by MRT/metro	by plane
by scooter	by taxi	by train	on foot
listen to music	play baseball	play basketball	play football
ride a bike	surf the Internet	go jogging	watch TV
get up	go to school	have lunch	go home
do my homework	take a bath	go to bed	at home
at school	at the mall	at the museum	at the movie theater
at the restaurant	at the train station	listened to music	played basketball
played the piano	surfed the Internet	visited a friend	watched TV
spring	summer	fall	winter
warm	hot	cool	cold
a coat	a dress	a hat	a jacket
a T-shirt	a skirt	pants	shoes
shorts	jeans

Along with the vocabulary for each lesson, there are (of course) sight words incorporated into the text.  These sight words form the basis of grammar exercises done in class.  Again, the grade levels have been color-coded.

how	are	you	I’m
fine	what’s	your	name
my	is	old	this
that	a	an	color
it’s	years	yes	no
am	not	it	isn’t
who’s	he	she	your
can	can’t	what	do
I	these	those	they’re
like	want	and	time
o’clock	doing	in	the
where’s	on	under	next to
how’s	weather	go	going
to	see	some	many
there	wrong	his	her
hurts	have	has	day
today	for	does	doesn’t
whose	where	from	he’s
she’s	after	free time	were
yesterday	was	wasn’t	did
didn’t	your	favorite	season
much	dollars

There are also phonics words.  Many students will have forgotten the meanings of these words, and many will be unable to use them in a sentence.

ant	apple	bear	boy
cat	cup	dog	duck
egg	elephant	fish	frog
goat	girl	hippo	hat
ink	igloo	jet	juice
key	kite	lion	lemon
monkey	mouse	nose	nurse
ox	otter	pig	pink
queen	quiz	red	rabbit
snake	sun	turtle	tiger
up	umbrella	van	vest
watch	window	fox	box
yo-yo	yellow	zoo	zebra
bad	mad	sad	cat
fat	mat	bed	red
Ted	get	pet	wet
big	dig	pig	kick
Nick	sick	hop	mop
top	cot	hot	pot
cub	rub	tub	cut
hut	nut	bag	cook
doctor	five	gift	happy
kick	marker	nine	pencil
quiet	ruler	spider	teacher
up	van	witch	six
yes	ham	jam	Sam
fan	man	van	hen
pen	ten	bell	sell
yell	lip	sip	zip
kit	quit	sit	hog
jog	log	lock	rock
sock	bug	mug	rug
fun	run	sun	book
cupcake	dance	flower	green
jump	kid	milk	papaya
tea	yummy	cap	cape
bake	hat	hate	cake
kit	kite	hike	pip
pipe	ride	not	note
nose	hop	hope	rose
cut	cute	cube	tub
tube	duke	lamp	pool
seal	rope	deer	flour
bath	teeth	three	that
this	those	whale	when
white	dolphin	Phil	phone
chair	church	lunch	fish
shop	short	king	ring
sing	bank	Hank	pink
Kate	lake	wait	lay
stay	Pete	Taiwanese	green
sheep	tea	cheap	bike
kite	pie	tie	fly
sky	note	rose	boat
goat	low	row	cute
tube	dew	new	fuel
Tuesday	river	singer	summer
teacher	actor	doctor	sailor
tailor	art	car	farm
jar	corn	fork	pork
short	circle	dirty	girl
shirt	nurse	purple	Thursday
turtle	coin	noise	point
soil	boy	Roy	soybeans
toy	house	loud	mouse
shout	cow	flower	shower
wow	lake	wait	bay
Pete	see	tea	kite
pie	fly	rose	boat
row	cute	new	Tuesday
cap	fan	ham	bad
red	yell	hill	pig
sit	fox	rock	top
jump	run	tub	sweet
swim	Spanish	speak	stand
stone	skate	ski	crab
cream	grasshopper	green	tree
truck	drink	drum

And lastly the books introduce additional vocabulary.  These are the "Daily Talk/Words of Wisdom," holiday, and "Classroom English" sections.  I wouldn't expect students to remember these words beyond the semester in which they're taught.

hello	goodbye	happy birthday	good morning
good afternoon	cool	good job	a bat
a ghost	a jack o’lantern	a pumpkin	a spider
a witch	happy Halloween	let’s go trick or treating	that’s right
louder, please	let me see it	try again	nice to meet you
I don’t know	how about you	me, too	a card
a flower	a gift	a heart	love
happy Mother’s Day	this is for you	raise your hands	put your hands down
take out your books	put away your books	open your books	close your books
come here, please	go back to your seats	help	of course
watch out	are you OK	yummy	yuck
here you are	hurry up	a moon cake	a pomelo
eat	Chang-O	Jade Rabbit	look at the moon
let’s eat moon cakes	are you ready	go	let’s count
stop	let’s play	time’s up	please repeat after me
read aloud	time for lunch	hooray	take a rest
come and join us	wake up	wait	it’s here
it’s over there	the Easter bunny	a basket	color the eggs
go egg hunting	let’s color the eggs	let’s go egg hunting	point to the word “cat”
circle the word “cat”	spell the word “cat”	write down the word “cat”	please turn to page 25
it’s your turn	may I go to the restroom	come in, please	good idea
have a good time	sorry, I’m late	follow me	be careful
can you give me a hand	calm down	take care	a bell
a candy cane	a Christmas tree	Santa Claus	a star
a stocking	merry Christmas	let’s open the gifts	excuse me
say cheese	may I help you	you’re welcome	good for you
I see	amazing	what’s the matter	dragon boat race
egg standing	a sachet	a zongzi	we can eat zongzi
let’s watch the dragon boat race	all roads lead to Rome	you’re the apple of my eye	no pain, no gain
honesty is the best policy	firecrackers	hot pot	lion dance
lucky money	rice cake	spring couplet	seeing is believing
east or west, home is best	an apple a day keeps the doctor away	time is money

Some words are repeated in and across lists.  Sometimes these words are used as vocabulary, sometimes to highlight a phonics concept, and sometimes in relation to a holiday.  The alphabet/phonics vocabulary also changes over the course of several books.

There are a few stray words that didn't make the above lists, but these words are used so infrequently that they're not really worth mentioning.  What you see above takes up about 99% of the textbooks.