I have learners of all ages but this lesson came to me after surfing the net looking for things to put on one of my Pinterest boards.  I ran across a picture of a ring made from a dollar bill.  I then set out to find a clear and precise video explaining how to make this ring dollar bill ring.  I just knew that this would be an interesting successful lesson to motivate three students that I teach in a group.  Finally after a thorough search on You Tube I found someone explaining how to fold a dollar bill into a ring.  I’ll link the video below.

Firstly, I made a list of important words needed to follow the instructions to fold the dollar bill.  Keeping in mind these key words can be used to fold origami as well as be used to express other everyday ideas.  Since these students are 12 and 13 I tried to make the list of words short and sweet.  Here’s the list I used:  crease, fold, edge, tuck, lift up, corner, faint, layer, pop outward.  The last word pop outward is a little complicated but it was better to show them what it meant to avoid any comprehension problems.  I made a definition worksheet which contained these words and their meanings in English that they could keep for future use. You can also illicit other ways we use these words and maybe your learners will ask what they mean like mine.  One asked “What does you’re living on the edge mean?” You can explain what it means to be tucked in at night.  you can ask your learners if they have ever felt faint, etc.

After the explaining the key words, the learners watched the short You Tube video and then I gave them a dollar bill so that they could follow along the second time they watched the video.  Before starting the video, I explained to the students that thy were to watch the video and that they couldn’t ask me any questions until the task was completed.  They could help each other in English and ask me to backtrack the video as needed.  I paused the video at times to give the learners a chance to do the folding.  During this process I didn’t speak.  I didn’t want the learners to be distracted from the video.  Once finished they had a ring and a dollar bill as a souvenir of the class; really cool for them.  Evidently, you’re not going to give all your learners dollar bills to do this lesson.  What I suggest is to get some nice decorative paper ie. gift wrapping paper or just plain white paper.  Cut it to the size of a dollar bill, which is approximately 15,5cm x 6,5cm.  If you decide to do it with white paper you can get your learners to decorate the rings themselves.  In the end you get…

Lots of fun this lesson.  You can then carry on by dictating how to fold an origami bird, the crane.  Give out some white paper cut into squares or use origami paper which can be bought in a local craft shop.  Don’t worry it’s affordable. The crane is one of the easiest animals to fold and then you can see how much your learners have understood of the different commands.  You can even make it into a competition of who folded the neatest bird.  At the end of the lesson you give the learners the definition worksheet and a copy of explanations on how to fold the

crane, which you can see below.  Voilà, you have an easy, fun, original, and certainly entertaining English  lesson.  For a longer lesson you can replay the video and go over what was said and explain any vocabulary or expressions not understood.  Give it a try and have fun teaching while your learners are having fun learning!

How to make an origami dollar bill ring