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Thinking Day Activities

Fruit Basket Upset
This is a good, active game. It can be played like Musical Chairs or it can be played without anyone being out of the game.

Start with the girls standing in a circle. The leader stands in the middle or to one side. Each girl picks the name of a fruit. The leader calls out the names of two fruits and the players must change places. When the leader says, "Fruit Basket Upset", everyone must trade places.

Map Antics
Put up a map of the world on the wall. A board or card table top may also be used.

Make paper flags for straight pins to mark map, tie colored yarn to straight pins or use sticky-type stars. Cover map with clear plastic and use a felt-tip pen to mark.

  1. Locate the member countries of the World Association. (A list of WAGGGS countries is available from the San Francisco Bay Girl Scout Council on form #63x.)
  2. Mark the equator with a felt-tip pen. The equator and the North and South Poles give clues about the climate and seasons in any country. What is the weather like in countries north of the equator? south of the equator?
  3. Mark the major deserts of the world. What natural resources do they provide? What do people need to live in these areas?
  4. Mark the International Dateline. Locate the first Girl Guide/Girl Scout to start the day. When your troop is meeting, what time is it in Japan, France, Iran, Venezuela?
  5. Tie a pin an a pencil together on a string so they are two inches apart. Put the pin where you live and rotate the pencil to describe a circle. Do this from a point in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in South America. In each circle, note how many countries are touched, how many languages, how many cultural patterns affect the lives of people living there.
  6. Find sstores from or about other countries in newspapers or magazines to share with troop and locate on map.
  7. Name and locate: 5 oceans, 6 major rivers, 4 mountain ranges in the world
  8. Play a game: one person or patrol asks, "Where in the world is __________?" and names a place, city, river, etc. Others have to locate its location.
  9. Mark countries and regions which have contributed to the population of your community.

This document may be ordered from the San Francisco Bay Girl Scout Council by asking for form #860x.

Thinking Day Action Skit

One person is the narrator. The rest of the troop is divided up into 5 teams, named as follows:

  1. Robert Baden-Powell
  2. Agnes Baden-Powell
  3. Olave Baden-Powell
  4. Boy Scouts
  5. Girl Guides and/or Girl Scouts
A chair is placed in the center-front of the room. The narrator stands to the side. All the teams stand approximately 10 feet (or whatever distance the room will allow) away from the chair but facing it.

The narrator reads the following story. Whenever any of the above team names is mentioned, the team members race around the chair and return to their place. When Thinking Day is mentioned, all the teams race around the chair.

Robert Baden-Powell was a well-known soldier. When he came back from the wars in the early 1900s, he thought it would be a good idea to teach boys to be Boy Scouts. So, in 1907, he ran an experimental camp at Brownsea Island for all sorts of boys. He wrote out lots of ideas of scouting for different youth clubs to use. The ideas were such fun tht lots of boys who weren't in clubs wanted to be Boy Scouts and started practicing and making their own patrols. There was a big rally at the Crystal Palace in England in 1909. More than 11,000 Boy Scouts turned up. Robert Baden-Powell was surprised and pleased. After the Boy Scouts, came a group of girls in khaki skirts and shirts with whistles and Boy Scout hats and belts. He asked, "Who are you?" They answered, "We are the Girl Scouts." Robert Baden-Powell said, "There aren't any Girl Scouts." To which the girls promptly replied, "Yes there are because we are them!".

So, Robert Baden-Powell talked and planned with his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell and they decided to start a movement for girls called Girl Guides. In 1910, the Girl Guides began.

Agnes Baden-Powell was very keen and worked very hard with Girl Guides. The King of England asked Robert Baden-Powellto giveup his other work and just organize the Boy Scouts.

Two years later, he married and his wife was Olave Baden-Powell. She didn't know much about Girl Guides, but helped Agnes Baden-Powell and soon became very enthusiastic. She later became the Chief Guide of the World.

Robert Baden-Powell was later made a Lord because of his great work for young people.

When the Girl Guides decided to have a special day each year to remember all the Girl Guides and all the Girl Scouts in the world, they chose February 22nd, which was the birthday of both Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell and they called it Thinking Day.

So, now you know that Boy Scouts began in 1907. Girl Guides startedin 1910. Robert Baden-Powelland his sister Agnes Baden-Powell and his wife Olave Baden-Powell were the founders of the movement,and we all think of each other on Thinking Day.

Thinking Day Quiz. Click on the link and print out the quiz.

World Association Pin Coloring Page. Click on the link and print out the coloring page.

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