World Toilet Day in the Classroom: Creative Language Activities & Global Learning

World Toilet Day on November 19 offers a unique opportunity to engage learners in conversations about everyday life, hygiene, the environment, and global inequalities.
In this interactive workshop, teachers of German as a Foreign Language will discover how to integrate this seemingly ordinary topic into their lessons in a humorous, sensitive, and language‑supportive way.

Background & Awareness

• Significance of World Toilet Day (UN initiative)
• Global sanitation: opportunities, challenges, and discussion prompts
• How to address taboo topics respectfully and in an age‑appropriate manner

Didactic Impulses for DaF/DaZ

• Vocabulary work related to everyday life, water, and hygiene (A1–B2)
  • Unisex toilets
  • Toilet rules
  • School bathrooms
  • Useful classroom phrases and functional language
  • Toilets designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser
• Speaking and writing tasks for different proficiency levels
• Methods for encouraging discussion and perspective‑taking

Creative Teaching Ideas

• Picture and video prompts, as well as songs
• Problem‑based tasks
• Argumentation and opinion‑building activities

Materials to Take Away

• Worksheets for various ages and language levels

Workshop Goals

• Expanding the methodological repertoire for global learning in DaF teaching
• Handling humorous and everyday topics with sensitivity
• Providing ready‑to‑use materials for diverse learning contexts
• Strengthening learners’ communicative competences