Teach “¿Puedo ir al baño?” in Spanish: 8 Days of Lesson Plans
Published onAug 11, 2025 • • ViewLesson Plansblog posts
If you teach beginning Spanish, there are a few phrases you know your students are going to need almost immediately.
¿Puedo ir al baño? is definitely one of them.
Years ago, we made a music video about a student named Justin who desperately needs to go to the bathroom. It has since become one of our most popular videos to use at the beginning of the school year.
If you’ve never seen it, here it is.
Teaching ¿Puedo ir al baño? at the beginning of Spanish
“Can I go to the bathroom?” isn’t exactly the most glamorous first phrase to teach. But it’s useful, students actually want to say it, and they’re going to hear it all year long.
That’s part of why this video has stuck around for so long. It takes a basic classroom phrase and turns it into a story students remember.
There’s a prequel to ¿Puedo ir al baño?
Justin’s story doesn’t actually begin with the music video.
Years after making ¿Puedo ir al baño?, we went back and answered a question nobody had ever thought to ask:
Why did Justin need to go to the bathroom so badly?
La lucha de la limonada: the story before the song
La lucha de la limonada is a 20-page graphic novel that tells the story leading directly into ¿Puedo ir al baño?.
And we didn’t write just one version. The same story is available at four proficiency levels: Novice Low, Novice Mid, Novice High, and Intermediate Low.
The physical book also includes a per-page Spanish-to-English glossary, and you can read the first five pages on the store page before deciding whether it’s something you want to use with your students.
See La lucha de la limonada →Turn the video and graphic novel into an 8-day Spanish unit
This is where the two stories really come together.
La lucha de la limonada now has a 3-day lesson plan, and ¿Puedo ir al baño? has a completely redesigned 5-day lesson plan. Teach them together and you’ve got eight days of scaffolded instruction built around one connected story.
La lucha de la limonada
The new plan adds a full day of instruction, improved scaffolding, optional assessments, and a cultural extension on aguas frescas.
Like the graphic novel itself, the classroom experience is designed to work across proficiency levels.
One of the Lucha gallery walk slides where students guess why Justin had to go to the bathroom.
¿Puedo ir al baño?
The Baño plan was completely redesigned, with more than half of the language rewritten to better support all four proficiency levels, especially Novice Low and Novice Mid learners.
Students only watch the video twice. Most of the week is spent getting compelling input, retelling the story, discussing it, and recycling the language in new ways.
In Carrera al baño, players try to be the first to reach the bathroom.
Four proficiency levels, one connected story
The phrase ¿Puedo ir al baño? makes this an obvious beginning-of-the-year choice for Spanish 1. But the lesson plans themselves aren’t limited to beginners.
We wrote them at four proficiency levels, so you can use the same characters and story from beginning Spanish through more advanced classes, with the language and tasks growing along with your students.
The Nuggets now match the lesson plans, too
Both stories have overhauled eLearning Nuggets that mirror the updated lesson plans. Students can work with the language together in class, then reinforce that same language independently.
Want to teach the whole story?
Both updated lesson plans are included in your subscription. Log in, open La lucha de la limonada or ¿Puedo ir al baño?, and head to the Lesson Plans tab.
Log in to Wooly →You can watch the full ¿Puedo ir al baño? video above for free. Wooly subscribers also get the scaffolded lesson plans, Nuggets, and the rest of the Wooly library.
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