Sex Ed for 5th graders

Flare, ASN, BSN · Nov 18, 2013

i use the proctor and gamble program- it's pretty thorough. Last year was my first year teaching that particular class. I have to say - was surprised how forthcoming the students were with questions.

schooldistrictnurse · Nov 18, 2013

We also use the P and G program. A male (usually guidance counselor or social worker) does the boys and I do the girls at the same time. We supplement the P and G give aways with a sample deodorant purchased for each student. Does your school district have a policy or any guidelines? There may be some areas that you shouldn't deal with--there may be a "scope and sequence" (educational term) of health topics. For example, we cover body parts, hygiene, menstruation, wet dreams, growth. More sexual content is covered in an older grade. Parents have the option to "opt out" their children. Parents are required by law to receive (in my state) the curriculum in advance. I also use three American Girl books as reference and loan out: The Feelings Book, A smart girl's guide to sticky situations, and The care and keeping of you. This is probably my favorite activity of the whole year.

schooldistrictnurse · Nov 18, 2013

BTW, ordering for the P and G materials hasn't happened yet for this year. I google it as: Always Educational Programs.

coughdrop.2.go, BSN, RN · Nov 18, 2013

I had to do the HIV Education for the 8th graders at my last district. I split them up in to boys and girls and I used curriculum from the American Red Cross that geared it toward the requirements here in California (they also worked with a school district in the State). I made my own PowerPoint from the program and then I showed a video from another curriculum program that had the rapper Bow Wow in it and the students liked it because they could "relate". Well when doing the class I realized that the students did not have basic sex ed knowledge and I spent a lot of time explaining stuff like what's a uterus and how the menstrual cycle worked. So I got permission to do a sex ed class for them. Again I split them up, I used a PowerPoint I made from the curriculum which was made by ARC as well, but it's specifically for sex ed. I also showed the video from PBS called The Miracle of Life, but I did not show the baby being born. They loved the movie and the class. Pretty awesome.

Some tips: at the beginning of the class I gave them note cards to write down any questions they had before starting the class and went through them while they took a pre-test in a group. I only talked about the "legitimate" questions and for some of them I explained that their questions is valid, but it is beyond the scope of the class and they should ask their parents (I know they can't but legally that's what I have to say). Also I mixed it up by having a little interactive thing by having them guess how much it costs to raise a child over 18 years. It was an all day thing and they really enjoyed it. Also, send a permission slip home with an outline of what's going to be covered in the class and allow parent's an opportunity to view the material at least a few weeks before hand. I did a parent's night for both the HIV and Sex Ed class. I made a PowerPoint for the parents with what we're going to talk about and showed them a printed copy of the PP I'm presenting and the movie if they wanted to watch. No parents showed up for HIV night and 1 parent did for Sex Ed night. Yay....

And keep in mind don't limit yourself to just Sex Ed! In my class we also talked about bullying and peer pressure and decision making. Domestic abuse is a great topic too. Plus here in California we had to cover the Safe Surrender Law. Have fun with it! Yes it's awkward but sex always is!

Here is the HIV program (but it's geared toward middle school or the high school kids-2 different programs): Positive Prevention HIV/STD Prevention Education

Sex ed (again broken up by either middle or high school): Positive Prevention PLUS Curriculum & Teacher's Guide - Sexual Health Education - CA Edition

AdobeRN · Nov 19, 2013

We also use the P&G program. Boys go with the principal & male 5th grade teacher, I get the girls with the female 5th grade teachers. I give them a brief explanation of what we are going to watch & let them know we are always available for questions if they feel they cannot talk to parents. I do not hold any Q&A questions anymore - found that I would get crazy questions that were out of the scope of the video & I did not want to offend any parents with info I may give - every year it shocks me at how uptight parents can be just discussing normal puberty stuff - not even going into sex/baby stuff.

JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN · Nov 21, 2013

My school uses the Planned Parenthood curricula (see Implementing Sex Education). However, at the 5th/6th level, we stick to the puberty teaching. PP can be controversial in some areas, of course, but I really like their curriculum.

debbiedippiedo · Dec 2, 2013

Thank you. I do need to brush up on some stuff, but like to be prepared, even though this won't happen till May/June. Our school counselor use to do something special with the girls in small groups/so will try to put together something special yet cover all the stuff needed.