World Thinking Day is celebrated on February 22nd each year, the joint birthday of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell. It is a day when we think about Guides and Girl Scouts all over the world and also learn about important issues that affect girls and women worldwide.
Each year, all of the units in Caledonia get together for a Thinking Day celebration on the Tuesday night of Guide-Scout Week (the week in which Thinking Day falls). The program is planned and run by the Pathfinders for the Sparks, Brownies and Guides. The Rangers and Guiders help out where needed.
The Theme for World Thinking Day this year is protecting the health of mothers and children. In some parts of the world, mothers and children do not have access to health care, nutrition and basic medicines. This means that they can get very sick from things that we do not think about in Canada
As the girls arrived, they were asked to write down 3 things they could do to help their mother (or other female adult) and to draw a picture to go along with this. The challenge is to see if they can do these things before their next meeting!
After the unit openings, we made a teddy bear craft out of fun foam in branch groups. They were very cute when finished.
For the main part of the evening, the girls were split into three groups of mixed ages (so, each group had Sparks, Brownies and Guides), and they rotated through three stations.
Station 1 looked at the spread of disease, and the girls played Mosquito Tag and then had an activity/colouring sheet about malaria.
Mosquito Tag
Two players are the mosquitoes and they ‘bite’ the other players by touching them. Some of the players are secretly given a bead or token which represents a mosquito net. If a player is bitten, she must leave the game, only the players with the nets, they can stay in the game. The ‘net’ should be secretly passed on to another player. The game ends when only those with nets are in the game.
Stand in a circle with your group. One member will say “let’s…” along with a way to be active (for example, “let’s go for a swim!”), and will make a movement related to that activity.
Everyone will respond by saying, “yes, let’s…” and copying the movement. Each person will share a different physical activity until your group runs out of ideas.
- Cut an empty pop bottle in half, remove the cap, and invert the top half inside the bottom half.
- Arrange your filter materials in the top half of the bottle in order:
- Paper towel
- Cotton Balls
- Charcoal
- Soil
- Gravel
- Make ‘dirty’ water by mixing some cookie oil, soil and small pieces of paper into a glass of water.
Oral Rehydration Solution
Make the Oral Rehydration solution by mixing 1 teaspoon of salt and 8 teaspoons of sugar into 1 litre of water until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved. This mixture is given to children who are dehydrated to replace the fluid and minerals they have lost.
The evening ended with a snack (cupcakes and juice boxes) and a campfire.
