World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide

World Thinking Day

2024 Activity Guide

Our World, Our Thriving Future:

The environment and global poverty

Fun activities for Girl Scout Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors.

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide | 2

Here are the four steps to earn your

World Thinking Day award.

1. Explore World Thinking Day.

2. Experience World Thinking Day

with purpose.

3. Investigate this year’s

World Thinking Day theme.

4. Share what you learned and commit

to a better future.

Ready to think big and explore meaningful issues in

your community and beyond? Let’s get started!

reproduced, and distributed exclusively by GSUSA staff, councils, Girl Scout volunteers, service units, and/or troops solely in connection with Girl Scouting.

The World Association of Girl Guides

and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) is the largest

voluntary movement dedicated

to empowering girls and young

women in the world.

Join Girl Scouts and Girl Guides

in over 150 countries around the

world to make a difference on a

global level!

On February 22 of each year, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides

celebrate World Thinking Day. Each year has its own

theme, such as helping the environment, ghting

poverty, achieving gender equality, or making sure

everyone has access to education. On this day, Girl

Scouts and Girl Guides everywhere will honor their

global community by doing activities around this

special theme.

“World Thinking Day is a time for [Girl Scouts and Girl]

Guides all around the world to stop and think about our

sisters; especially those living in poverty, forced to ght in

war, or suffering from the impact of a natural disaster.”

— Rachel, Barbados

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide | 3

STEP 1: Explore

World Thinking Day.

World Thinking Day is one of the most popular events in Girl Scouting.

Find out how it started, what’s changed, and why it’s so important!

Choice 1: Make art about the World Thinking Day story.

With your friends, create a poster, mural, or collage showing the story in three

parts and include this year’s theme as part four. See The World Thinking

Day Story in Four Parts.

Choice 2: Sing “The World Song” and create your own song.

Gather your friends to listen to the video by Melinda Caroll* or see the activity

online here. Sing the song with friends, family, your troop, your community,

or at school. You can even create props. For instance, you could draw a ag

to hold while singing or tie a ribbon around your group to show unity. You

could also take turns singing each line, use hand movements to act out words,

or come up with a drumbeat or claps for the rhythm. After you sing “The

World Song,” create your own song or poem. Make it about this year’s World

Thinking Day theme. *Credit: Melinda Caroll Music, https://www.melindacarollmusic.com/

Choice 3: Write a message for your future.

On a piece of paper, write or draw your vision for what you want to happen

in the future. Think about things that would make the world a better place,

such as:

⇨ A cleaner planet

⇨ Education for all girls

⇨ No more poverty

⇨ No one goes hungry

⇨ Clean water for everyone

⇨ An end to all wars

⇨ Kindness

⇨ Healthcare for all people

⇨ Equal rights for all people

Next, decorate a cardboard paper towel tube using markers, stickers, and any

other craft supplies you have. Share your message with your troop, then put

it into the cardboard tube. Store it somewhere safe until next year’s World

Thinking Day. When that time comes, share what you wrote with your Girl

Scout friends and family. Why is this vision important to you?

The World Trefoil symbol’s

background is blue to

represent the color of the

sky. The outer ring’s gold

band represents sunshine.

The inside gold leaves stand

for the three parts of the Girl

Scout Promise. There are two

gold stars: one is for the Girl

Scout Promise and the other

is for the Girl Scout Law. The

center gold compass needle

is the safeguard between

the Promise and Law. The

gold base underneath the

compass is the ame of

international friendship.

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide | 4

STEP 2: Experience World

Thinking Day with purpose.

World Thinking Day is more than just thinking. It is knowing that you have the power to make a difference alongside

your global community of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides. Create an experience for World Thinking Day that helps you learn

more about the world and your place in it.

Choice 1: Investigate what’s global in your community.

Plan a eld trip with your troop or with a family member to explore what’s

global in your community. You might discover a parade, fair, exhibit, or

festival celebrating culture. Who is participating in this cultural event?

Where did the culture originate? Ask someone to help you check calendars

in your community center to nd an event with a global connection.

Or explore your neighborhood to nd signs of culture in your community.

It might be the food at a restaurant or the practices used at various places

of worship, or books for your age group in the library that explore various

cultures. Draw or make a list of everything you nd and create a journal

about what you learned about various cultures.

Choice 2: Get to know someone from another culture.

There are many cultural differences among people who grew up in the

United States, and there may be even more between people who grew up in a country outside of the United States. Let’s

learn! Connect with someone in your community—maybe in your own troop or family—who grew up outside of the

United States. Ask if they’ll speak to your troop about the culture they were raised in and what it was like coming to a

new country. Think of ideas together and invite one or more of these people to a meeting where you can ask questions.

Make sure to come up with ideas for questions beforehand. Ask your guest if they can bring something from their

culture to show the group, such as a food or a piece of clothing. Is there a special dance or song they can teach you from

their home country? Or maybe they can teach you how to say hello or show respect to adults in their culture.

Choice 3: Make a personal connection.

Ask your troop leader to help you nd international pen pals to exchange ideas

on leadership and how they’ll make the world a better place. Have your troop

leader browse the WAGGGS member organizations and check individual

country websites to research their pen pal programs. You can also spend time

with a friend or family member who has traveled to another country or comes

from a country outside of the United States. Look on a map to nd the country

your pen pal, friend, or family member is connected to. Have a conversation to

learn what their experience was like living in the country. What foods did they

typically eat? What was the common form of transportation? How did they like

to spend their weekends? You might nd that things are more similar between

the two of you than you realized!

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide | 5

STEP 3: Investigate this year’s

World Thinking Day theme.

The theme for 2024 World Thinking Day is Our World,

Our Thriving Future: The environment and

global poverty. Choose one of these activities to nd

out more.

Choice 1: Find out about Trees of Peace.

Think about your favorite food. Take a peanut butter

and jelly sandwich, for example. Where do the

ingredients come from? The bread comes from wheat

that is grown from the earth. The peanuts come from a

plant, too. And the jelly might be made from fruit juice,

which comes from fruit grown on land. All of these

foods need healthy soil and water to grow. The same is

true for all foods that we eat. What happens when our

climate changes and we can no longer use land to farm

and grow the food we need?

Many women live in places where they farm for their

food. They need trees to help keep the land, soil, and

water healthy. Without trees, these women can’t grow

enough food for their families.

Wangari Maathai was an activist who wrote a

book called Wangari’s Trees of Peace. When she

was growing up in Kenya, she was surrounded by

trees. Many years later, she was shocked to nd

whole forests being cut down. So, she gathered

the women in her community, and they started

planting trees together.

Borrow Wangari’s book from your local library to

read out loud with friends or family. Why do you

think it was important for the women of the village

to plant trees? What do you think would have

happened without the trees?

Then, draw the three stages of growing a tree.

1. Start with the seed. Seeds are different

depending on the type of tree. Pine trees, for

example, come from seeds from a pinecone.

Some seeds are found inside nuts. Some

seeds can be big and others small. Draw any

seed for your tree!

2. Draw the sprout. Once you’ve planted your

seed in the earth, a tiny stem will pop up

with maybe a few leaves. This is a sprout!

It’s a delicate time for your tree because so

many things can happen. It might not have

enough water or too much water, there

might be a re, or it might become food for

animals and insects. How do you want to

protect it?

3. Now draw your tree all grown up! What do

the roots look like underground?

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide | 6

Make the Girl Scout

Tree Promise

One of the biggest ways

that poverty affects the

environment is through

deforestation, which

means when trees are cut

down and not replanted

and forests are destroyed.

You can help reverse this

cycle by spreading the

word about how important

it is to preserve and care

for our trees.

Look at the illustration

on top of The Power of

One Tree meeting aid in

this activity packet. This

handout shows why trees

are important to us. Look

at the Our World, Our

Equal Future, and the

Girl Scout Tree Promise

meeting aid at the end of

this packet.

Read the Girl Scout Tree

Promise out loud with your

Girl Scout troop and then

sign it.

Choice 2: Explore composting and recycling and play a game.

In the United States, we throw away a lot of food scraps and yard waste.

When this waste ends up in landlls, the rotting process releases a

greenhouse gas that harms the environment.

Composting our food and yard waste is one way to solve this problem. If you

put that waste—things such as banana peels, apple cores, carrot tops, tea

leaves, and dead owers—in a compost bin with earthworms, nature will

break it down in a way that releases less harmful gas. As a bonus, the waste

will also turn into material that can be added to soil to help plants grow. So,

not only are you preventing greenhouse gases, you are also reusing the waste

for good!

Recycling also keeps trash out of landlls. Recycling turns paper, plastic,

glass, and aluminum into new products. This means items like cereal boxes,

milk cartons, plastic bottles and bags, paper, and aluminum cans get a whole

new life.

Decorate one empty box with a sign reading Compost. Decorate another

empty box with a sign reading Recycle. On each box, draw the items that

can go inside it.

Then play this game with friends. Draw or write things that can be recycled

or composted on small pieces of paper or index cards. Ask friends to take

turns picking a card or paper and tossing it into the box where they think it

belongs. When you’re done, see what’s in each box.

Choice 3: Play a money game to nd out what equal

pay means.

In many jobs, women are not paid equally to men. Women earn about

80 percent of what a man gets in the United States. This means that for

the same work, a man will earn one dollar and a woman will earn 80 cents!

And actually, the number is not the same for all women: data suggests that

women who are Asian/Asian-American/Pacic Islander will earn 93 cents,

women who are White/European will earn 83 cents, women who are Black/

African-American will earn 70 cents, women who are Latina will earn

65 cents, and women who are Native American/Indigenous will earn 51 cents.

This doesn’t just hurt the women, it hurts the whole family because they

will have more difculty paying for their home, food, and basic needs to live.

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide | 7

Did you know that Girl

Scouts launched the

Fair Play, Equal Pay®

Gender Parity Initiative

to engage organizations

to take action now to help

build a more equitable

future for women and

girls? We believe gender

should not be a barrier to

equal opportunities for

leadership and success.

When the environment creates hardships for women and girls, equal pay

becomes even more important.

Find out what unequal pay looks like. You’ll need play money (dollar bills and

coins). Use your play money to create these three piles of money:

Pile 1: Imagine that a man just got paid $5 for the same job you did.

Put $5 in pile 1.

Pile 2: Count out 80 cents times 5 and put that in pile 2. (You can use

a calculator or have an adult help you with the math.) How much

do you end up with compared to the man’s $5? You did the same

job—does that seem fair?

Pile 3: Now put the money that should have been paid in the “company's

pile” (pile 3). This would be 20 cents times 5. This is the money the

company keeps that should have been fairly paid to you.

Daisy, Brownie, and Junior World Thinking Day 2024 Activity Guide | 8

Next, come up with some ideas for ways you and/or

your troop can help. Then make a plan to help. This

might be a troop Take Action project or one you do on

your own.

STEP 4: Share what you learned

and commit to a better future.

Share what you learned about World Thinking Day with

others! Did you connect with someone to learn about

their country or culture? Tell your friends about it and

share what you discovered. Did you explore something

interesting about the World Thinking Day theme? You

could share that instead.

Choice 1: Participate in a World Thinking

Day event.

Ask your troop leader to help your group plan an

event that can show what you’ve learned. Think about

creating yers or a poster with the message you want to

share. Have food or music from countries you may have

learned about. Find creative ways to show your guests

the problem you learned about and what some solutions

might be. Invite a guest speaker to talk to your group.

Reach out to your troop network to nd organizations

with experience in global issues, especially one that

connects to the theme you learned about. Find out from

your guest speaker how you can make a difference.

What can you do in your home, community, and

the world?

Choice 2: Create a message.

With the help of an adult, come up with a message

about what you learned and things you want to see

happen to help make a difference. You can draw or

write your message in a poster, lm it as a video, or

create a skit or play about it. Then, with your friends,

brainstorm ways you can share your message. For

example, you could post it on social media (with an

adult’s help), present it at school, or display your

message in a community center.

Choice 3: Plan a project.

The best way to help with a problem is to Take Action.

First, think about what the problem is. Write it down.

When you are done with all four steps, make sure you

celebrate! Working with your global Girl Scout and Girl

Guide community to explore this year’s theme and earn

your World Thinking Day award means you’ve helped

make the world a better place.

Write a Pledge

A pledge is a promise or agreement you make with

other people and agree to keep. Come up with a

pledge for yourself and your group to sign that

honors this year’s World Thinking Day theme.

Create a pledge using this model:

I join my global community of Girl Scouts and

Girl Guides on World Thinking Day.

This year’s theme is ________________________

___________________________________________

I learned about _____________________________

___________________________________________

I plan to share what I learned and make a

difference by_______________________________

___________________________________________

Signed, ____________________________________

Detailed choice activities, meeting tools, and additional resources and materials can be found within the Volunteer Toolkit on my.girlscouts.org.

The World Thinking Day

Story in Four Parts

Part 1: A Special Day

In 1926, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides from around the world met in the United States and created a special

day where we can all think of one another and express thanks for our community of Girl Scouts and Girl

Guides from around the world. They called it Thinking Day. They chose February 22 because it was the

birthday of both Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts, and his wife Olave Baden-Powell, who

founded the Girl Guides.

Part 2: A Birthday Gift

In 1932, at the 7th World Conference in Buczek, Poland, it was pointed out that since a birthday often involves

presents, it would be a good idea to offer gifts on Thinking Day to support Girl Scouts and Girl Guides around

the world. Olave Baden-Powell wrote a letter asking Girl Scouts and Girl Guides to “Send a penny with their

thoughts” on Thinking Day.

Part 3: World Thinking Day

In 1999, at the 30th World Conference in Dublin, Ireland, Thinking Day changed to World Thinking Day as a

better name to show our connection with Girl Scouts and Girl Guides around the globe.

Part 4: Coming Together

Each year, World Thinking Day focuses on a theme where the whole community of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides

around the globe works together to nd ways to help. This year’s theme is Our World, Our Thriving Future: The

Environment and Global Poverty.

For All Girl Scouts (K –12) | World Thinking Day 2024

Water

 A tree can capture 10–40% of the rainfall it comes into contact with,

depending on species, time of year, and amount of rain that falls in the

storm.

 Over the course of 20 years, a single red maple tree can intercept 27,000

gallons of rainwater, avoiding 4,800 gallons of runoff.

Climate

 A large tree absorbs 40–50 pounds of carbon dioxide—a greenhouse gas

that causes global warming—per year.

 Over the course of its life, a single tree can capture and store one ton of

carbon dioxide.

Forest Products

 According to estimates calculated by the University of Maine, one tree

can produce around 8,333 sheets of paper. The average ofce worker

uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year.

 “An apple tree can yield up to 15–20 bushels of fruit per year and can be

planted on the tiniest urban lot.”

exclusively by GSUSA staff, councils, Girl Scout volunteers, service units, and/or troops solely in connection with Girl Scouting.

DAISY, BROWNIE, JUNIOR | 2024 World Thinking Day Award

The Power of One Tree

Absorbs Heat

Helps cooling costs

Captures air

pollution

Creates

jobs

Boosts local retail sales

Shades

the street

People

 A single tree can capture 3.5 pounds of air pollutants—like ozone, dust

and particulate matter— per year. Air pollutants like ne particulate

matter are a major cause of asthma and other respiratory problems.

 A mature tree can reduce peak summer temperatures by 2°–9°F.

 “The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-

size air conditioners operating 20 hours per day.”

 “Trees absorb and block noise and reduce glare. A well-placed tree can

reduce noise by as much as 40 percent.”

 A single large tree can produce approximately 260 pounds of oxygen per

year.

 While lifespan varies by species and growing environment, trees

generally live to be 50 to 300 years old.

 The tallest tree in the world is a Coast Redwood named Hyperion,

growing in Northern California’s Redwood National Park. It’s 380 feet

tall!

More general facts/facts about more than one tree:

 In one year, an acre of forest can absorb up to twice the carbon dioxide

produced by the average car’s annual mileage.

 Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning

costs by 50%.

 Trees increase property value of your home by 10–20% and attract new

home buyers.

 Trees can reduce crime and improve perceptions of business districts.

 One study showed that hospital patients whose rooms had a view

of trees recovered more quickly and were less depressed than those

looking out at a brick wall.

 Students with trees outside school windows have higher test scores and

graduation rates after controlling for other factors. High school students

with more natural features like trees outside classroom and cafeteria

windows showed higher standardized test scores, graduation rates, and

intention to attend college, after controlling for socioeconomic status

and other factors.

 After a walk in the park or playing in green spaces, children with ADD

displayed fewer symptoms.

⇨ Eight in ten species found on land—that’s over ve million and

counting—live in forests.

⇨ More than half of U.S. drinking water originates in forests. Over 180

million Americans in over 68,000 communities rely on forests to

capture and lter their drinking water.

This content was provided by American Forests as a resource for the Girl

Scout Tree Promise.

1 https://extension.psu.edu/the-role-of-trees-and-forests-in-healthy-watersheds 2https://www.itreetools.org/

3 https://www.itreetools.org/

4 https://www.itreetools.org/

5 http://conservatree.org/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml

6 https://www.pca.state.mn.us/quick-links/ofce-paper

7 https://www.treepeople.org/tree-benets

8 https://www.nrpa.org/globalassets/research/nowak-heisler-research-paper.pdf

9 https://www.epa.gov/heat-islands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands

10 https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/r9/home/?cid=STELPRD3832558

11 https://www.taketwoenvironmental.com/how_trees_help_the_environment

12 https://www.thoughtco.com/how-much-oxygen-does-one-tree-produce-606785

13 https://www.livescience.com/28729-tallest-tree-in-world.html

14 https://www.itreetools.org/

15 https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/protocols/forest%20old/ctcc.pdf

16 https://www.hgtv.com/design/real-estate/increase-your-homes-value-with-mature-trees

17 Wolf, Kathy. Journal of Arboriculture 29(3): May 2003 “Public Response to Urban Forest in Inner-City Business Districts”

18 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03/how-nature-resets-our-minds-and-bodies/274455/

19 Matsuoka, R. (2008). High school landscapes and student performance. Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan.

20 Faber Taylor, A. & Kuo, F. (2009). “Children with attention decits concentrate better after walk in the park”. Journal of Attention Disorders 12(4).

21 http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/05/forests-housing-rare-and-endangered-species-lost-12-million-hectares-trees-2001

22 https://www.fs.fed.us/managing-land/national-forests-grasslands/water-facts

exclusively by GSUSA staff, councils, Girl Scout volunteers, service units, and/or troops solely in connection with Girl Scouting.

DAISY, BROWNIE, JUNIOR | 2024 World Thinking Day Award

Our World, Our Equal Future,

and the Girl Scout Tree Promise

Girl Scouts are taking the lead in protecting our planet

by taking the Tree Promise.

Our Goal? To plant 5 million trees in ve years and to protect and honor new and existing trees.

This will help reduce climate change and benet our communities. Girl Scouts everywhere are being

called to action to plant, protect, and honor trees in their backyards, camps, communities, and

states—across the country and even across the world.

Trees are one solution to

climate change.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that traps

heat in the atmosphere. Trees help stop climate

change by removing carbon dioxide from the

air and storing it in the trees and soil.

The climate crisis has a larger

impact on girls and women.

In general, women spend more time

acquiring food, fuel and water, or

struggling to grow crops.

There is a climate crisis.

The past 10 years have been the warmest

in centuries. Because of climate change, we

have more natural disasters like wildres,

droughts, hurricanes and oods.