Thinking Day Program Ideas

WAGGGS Family Tree

The first thing we did was create a WAGGGS Family Tree. We drew a large tree (about adult height) on some butcher's paper and wrote "WAGGGS Family Tree" on the trunk. Next we gave each of the girls about 5 dried gumleaves (you could also draw and cut out your own). Each of the girls called out a country that they thought might be a member of WAGGGS. We got out the book "Trefoil around the World" and if they were right, they got to write the name of that country on their leaf with a texta and stick it to the tree (you could use glue or we used blu-tac). As we ran out of names of countries that they knew, we started to read them out from the book. We didn't get all of the countries up on the tree (we ran out of time) but we covered a fair few! The girls were amazed at how large their WAGGGS family is and how many countries belonged. We left the tree stuck up on the wall for a few weeks and got lots of impressed comments from parents and even the Boy Scouts that we share the hall with!

Magic Wishing Flowers

The second activity we did was called "Magic Wishing Flowers".

Each girl was given a sheet of white paper and 2 coins - one large and one small. You trace around the large coin first, this becomes the centre of your flower. Next you place the small coin so that it is touching the centre cirle and trace around it - these become the petals of the flower. Do not allow the petals to touch each other as they need to be separate so that you can fold them over.

The next step is to colour in the flower with wax crayons - be as creative as you like as long as there is no white paper showing through. Now cut out the flower, being careful to cut right around each petal except where they join on to the centre. Place the large coin in the middle of the flower and fold the petals down over the top, one at a time. Drop the folded flower into a bucket of water and make a wish for your Sisters-in-Guiding around the world. We used a large round washing up bowl from the camping equipment.

Watch carefully, over the next couple of minutes the flowers will gradually unfold and you end up with a bowl full of beautiful flowers, all gently waving in the water. The girls were most impressed with this!

Payment for Lifestyle

The final activity we did was called "Payment for Lifestyle".
Each girl was asked to bring a handful of small coins - 5 and 10 cents mostly. A bowl was placed on the floor and the girls sat in a circle around it. They were asked to suggest things that they have that Guides in some of the developing nations wouldn't have. The ideas flew thick and fast - cars, fresh running water, good food, walkmans, gameboys, schools (not that they wouldn't have given that one up if they had a choice!), their own bedroom, big houses, holidays.............. Each time they suggested an idea, they threw a coin into the bowl. When they had run out of money (and ideas), we counted up the money they had given and donated it to the Thinking Day Fund for Guides in developing nations.

Please email us if these instructions are not clear! We will try to explain ourselves better :-) If you have any great ideas that have worked for Thinking Day activities, let us know so we can try them too!