The Curriculum
Puberty: The Wonder Years™ curriculum provides puberty education for students in grades 4, 5, and/or 6. The teacher-friendly lessons are designed to be taught as a unit for students in each grade, ideally for three consecutive years. Repetition from year to year is helpful, even desirable. Because individuals develop according to their unique timeline and pace, the information is likely to be assimilated differently each year. Each grade level of curriculum reinforces some of the information taught at the previous grade level, but also adds new information that sets the stage for the following grade level.
Puberty: The Wonder Years™ teaches students the knowledge and skills needed to lay a foundation for developing into sexually healthy adults. Surveys of student behavior, such as the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, confirm that the vast majority of young people in grades 4, 5, and 6 are not engaging in intimate sexual behavior. The Puberty: The Wonder Years™ curriculum provides the knowledge, skills, and supports students need to delay sex as they focus on developing healthy attitudes and relationships.
Curriculum Adoption Tools
Each school district’s curriculum council or sex education advisory committee will determine which lessons should be taught at each grade. Because each community is unique, local districts may choose to adapt the curriculum. They may decide to teach one, two, or all three years of the curriculum. Or they may choose to teach the curriculum at a different grade level than the one designated by the curriculum guide.
These tools and resources will support you as you adopt the curriculum:
- Motivation & tools for stakeholders
- Curriculum adoption process
- “Process for Adopting Puberty: The Wonder Years in Schools”
Review the following documents for additional information about Puberty: The Wonder Years™:
- Synopsis of Puberty: The Wonder Years™ Grades 4, 5, 6 (revised 2017-3-12)
- Puberty: The Wonder Years Brochure (2018)
- Puberty: The Wonder Years Features (2020)
- Evaluation Outcomes (2018)
- Puberty: The Wonder Years Evaluation Infogram (2018)
- Puberty: The Wonder Years™ Flyer (revised 2017-4-20)
- Puberty: The Wonder Years™ Price List (revised 2020-3-13)
- Logic Model for Puberty: The Wonder Years™
Click on the menu to the right for helpful information about Puberty: The Wonder Years student learning objectives, how families are engaged, alignments to other health initiatives, and how the 2015 edition is different from previous editions.
Online Teacher Resources
Educators who purchase the curriculum guide also receive access to the many Online Teacher Resources that are needed to implement the lessons and enhance instruction. These resources include teacher masters, student worksheets, family resources, and full-color, animated PowerPoint slides. Family resources are available in English and Spanish.
Companion Materials for Puberty: The Wonder Years™
We offer companion materials to support educators and enhance student learning.
- Student assessment surveys for grades 4, 5, and 6
- Teacher survey (free)
- Implementation fidelity logs (free)
- Student workbooks for grades 4, 5, and 6
- Optional lessons for grade 6
- Videos
- Trainers Toolkit
Videos and Other Supplemental Materials
Videos and other supplemental materials are NOT included with the Puberty: The Wonder Years curriculum guides. However, selected videos are available for sale via this website for your convenience. Videos come in DVD format. If you need videos in USB format, please contact us to request a quote. The following two documents assist educators in selecting the videos that are needed to implement the lessons:
- Video and Materials List, Grades 4, 5, and 6 (revised 2017-5-10)
- Video Selection Checklist (revised 2017-5-10)
Professional Development Options
Three options are available for training on Puberty: The Wonder Years™:
- Face-to-face workshop
- Trainer’s Toolkit
- Online Training Course
