What do you say to that?

This morning, two school district nurses came to speak with our fourth grade girls about puberty. They mainly focused on two topics, menstruation and taking care of yourself, discussing things like eating healthy food and exercising. They brought a surprisingly good 90's looking video, and then talked to the girls and let them ask questions. It was quite amusing--nobody was willing to say the word "breasts" and there was a LOT of squealing--and at times frightening--when none of them actually knew girls could get pregnant once they'd had their period, no clue when they thought it could happen.

Well, one of the little girls got some mixed messages from the menstruation-and-self-care topics. Here's what went down later.

At lunch, there was some discussion about healthy foods. LaTia wasn't in on this conversation apparently, and she had a bag of hot chips that she bought in the cafeteria. As we got back to the classroom, she paused at the door and asked my permission to put the bag in her locker. As she did, a couple of the girls inside the room already made "ooh!" sounds and tsk-tsked her for having "bad" food. To this, LaTia inquired to them: "Why shouldn't I eat hot chips?"

And what does apparently mixed-up Leah holler across the room, from her group of one gorgeous-but-oblivious girl and several goofy boys?

"Because they're bad for your vagina! You heard that woman this morning!"

What do you say to that? Oh. My. Well, we did have a little chat about not saying "vagina" in the classroom, at least not with the boys around it, for Mrs. Most's sanity and the pure chaos and noise it induced!