5th grade puberty class

proctor and gamble has a bunch of puberty stuff on the website. dvds, pamphlets, etc www.pgschoolprorams.com

That is where I ordered my "kits" from ... and they have a lot less than they used to offer. The girls only get a small pamphlet and a sample pack of pads/tampons and the boys only get a small pamphlet. They used to give deodorant samples as well ... I was not impressed this year.

I went ahead and ordered my own deodorant samples for boys and girls from my health room budget. If you order over $100 or $150 (I can't remember) you can get the samples for 67 cents each from weiners.com. Be sure your content is aligned with what has been approved by your school board. We send a letter home with the content and parents have the ability to opt-out. Parents are invited to come on the day the nurse talks with the girls and a guidance counselor talks with the boys. There may be a curriculum in place already--can the classroom teachers be a resource on that? Puberty is a week-long topic with different aspects covered daily such as emotional changes, physical changes, etc. It's one of my favorite things to do! We do use the DVD from Proctor and Gamble in the classroom--I think they still offer it on the website.

I can not locate "weiners.com" ... does anyone know anywhere else you can order these from?

my mistake--try weinersltd.com

thank you! I will have to see if I can get permission to order from there!

Thanks!

the first time teaching the class is always the scaryest :-)

Marsh Media has great videos. we seperate the girls and boys and they each have there own video to watch and then time is given for questions at the end. I also order the stuff from pg and the kids get that at the end of our talk. The girls always talk longer than the boys :-)

Our nurses don't teach the class (the teachers do), but one hint I have seen used is have them write the questions down. And if they ask something that makes you uncomfortable, it's ok to refer them to their parents.

My advice is to be open and honest. The kids are really curious. It is best if they get acurate information from a reliable source. My feeling is the better their understanding of how both the female and male body/ minds mature, the more likely they will make better decisions about their health.

During puberty sessions I have used body out lines and asked the class to draw both physical and emotional changes on the body that occur during puberty. I let them have a free reign. Then as a class we can discuss the changes and why they occur.

Some other things that are important during puberty as well are:

Relationships

safe sex messages

feelings and emotions ( good and bad and the physial effects they have on the body)

Goals

STIs

I hope this helps.

I am just glad to see that it is being taught this extensively. This did not happen when I was in 5th grade ('88-'89 or somewhere around then). They always touched over it when teaching about the body, but nothing about relationships, emotions, and the like.

I would be careful about being too open or honest. Had a 6th grade teacher asked "how to men have sex with men" answer openly and honestly with "oral and anal sex" I was just waiting for the floodgates of outraged parents. Stick to the cirriculum (never can spell that work right) - our's goes through the "sensitive materials committee" and you should be ok.