An interactive story to teach your girls some of the history of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides, as well as Thinking Day.

Divide your group into 5 teams, named as follows:

1. Robert Baden-Powell
2. Agnes Baden-Powell
3. Olave Baden-Powell
4. Boy Scouts
5. Girl Scouts/Girl Guides

A chair is placed in the front of the room. All the teams stand approximately 10 feet (or whatever distance the room will allow) away from the chair but facing it. The leader reads the 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.

The Story of World Thinking Day

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 that 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-Powell to give up his other work and just organize the Boy Scouts. Two years later, he married and his wife was Olave Baden-Powell. Robert Baden Powell met Olave Baden-Powell on a cruise ship. 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 started in 1910. Girl Scouts started in 1912. Robert Baden-Powell and 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