A fun activity

Here’s a fun activity to begin a sex ed class, to help everyone have fun, laugh, and begin to feel comfortable around each other:

Write the names of sexual body parts on a big poster board or separate sheets of paper hanging around the room.  Be sure and write big enough so that the words can be seen from everywhere in the room.  Write at least three or four male and female parts.

The teacher stands on a table or a chair in the middle of the room with a bell.

Ask all the participants to stand up, and begin walking around the room.  They’re likely to start walking in a circle – let them know that’s fine, but that they’re welcome to walk however they want.  Ask them to look over the words on the poster board as they are walking.

The teacher says, “Every time I ring the bell, whisper one of these words,” and then rings the bell two or three times.  Then the teacher says, “And now a little louder when I ring the bell.”  Ring the bell two or three times again, and then encourage the participants to be even louder.  As the participants get louder and louder, the teacher should be getting louder too, and should be ringing the bell louder and louder.  By the end, everyone will be yelling body parts, and laughing.  The game should go on until the teacher doesn’t think the participants are going to get any louder, regardless of how she encourages them.

The shared silliness of this game is a fabulous ice-breaker.  Laughter opens up a space where trust can begin to grow.