Written by Roseline Yang, Community Relations Officer
On Saturday, March 3, YCIS Girl Scouts Troops participated in their annual Girl Scout World Thinking Day, an exciting event gathering 400 Girl Scouts from schools in Shanghai to do some activities making them reflect on a specific topic. This year, the topic was “Impact”. The students get prepared for this event a month before to create pins for the highlight of the event: “Swap” time, where every participant exchange with other Girl Scouts from other troops the pins that they have created with their troops.
40 students and 16 adults from YCIS took part of the event. Everyone was excited to attend the event. Parents and students were happy to share what they learn out of it with you!
Parents Perspective
- What was your role and what did you think of this Girl Scouts inter-school event?
I was a parent helper – I was a parent helper – I stayed with my daughter’s troop like in a field trip but not actively and fully engaged in helping GS supporting activities as I’m a working mom.
Participating this event is a great experience not only for the kids but also for the adults. The sense of protecting and loving the world is to be taught at early young age so that they have senses of awareness and be responsible to world. The documentary about Plastic Ocean let us how serious the situation is. Apart from this, the exchange with other schools is also very worthwhile to the kids. They need to build up the courage to ask and share. I really loved this event and will definitely join again next year. Probably as a volunteer! – Supamard Yu, Faye’s momY3A
I was a parent volunteer – helping on the third floor with the YCIS-led activity with values labeled garbage pick-up game and discussion.
It was great to meet and work with people from other schools in Shanghai and specially to get to know YCIS Puxi parent who briefed us how to lead the activity. It was also such an exciting day since I was quite nervous at the beginning but after the first and second round of practice with the help of other moms and also the support of students, I managed to lead the third and fourth rounds all by myself, and in English! A big achievement for me! Last but not least, I got to teach some fun Chinese games to the other troops whose Chinese was not as fluent as our YCIS children. It was a great language and culture learning opportunity. – Shirley Jing, Anne (Y2B)’s mom
I am a Brownies Girl Scout co-troop leader with other 3 moms (Year 3 students) – Guided by Jutta our Girls Scouts Coordinator for YCIS, I was leading my own Girls Scouts and accompanying parents through the whole event: from the beginning to the end with pick-up point at Regency Park Campus, making sure all lunch boxes and coats are kept together when we arrived at the school-host place and of course going through the schedule of activities!
This was not my first time and neither was it for my daughters, so we will naturally have the tendency to compare with previous years, and let’s say (hihi-small laughs) that it was a bit less impactful, probably because there were less activities or because topics chosen were a déjà vu by YCIS students. That said, this is always a great opportunity for the students to interact with other students of other schools and the highlight of the event is usually the swap that the girls enjoy the most! – Carmen Ling, Julie (Y6A) and Sophie’s (Y3C) mom
Student’s side – Julie Lui (Y6A ) Junior Troop
What is the aim of the World Thinking Day and why Girls Scouts are attending it every year?
Girls Scouts started a Thinking Day at the beginning around 1926, but as Girls Scouts extended worldwide, it became World Thinking Day. It’s about connecting with other Girl Scouts from troop while discovering new things through activities.
What were the activities about?
There were mainly 4 themes:
- Understand about the impact of music in the world: drum beats & hula dance
- Understand about the impact of plastic pollution on our planet through video clips
- Understand about the impact of Morals & Religion around the world through dress-up games, pins on world map as well as defining the meaning of family for us.
- Understand about concepts & values and reflect upon the ones we think are the most important to us.
What did you learn?
We learn that our impact can change the world. For example, through the videos, we learnt about the importance of stop wasting and re-using instead!
What did you enjoy the most during this event?
I like the swaps, because we prepared for this part of the event and it’s exciting to get new stuff.I like doing the dance and the drums even more!We learnt about African music. Different beats and how it spread all around the world. – Runkel Lia Y5C
I like doing the dance and swaps and the part of YCIS with the mask – I thought it was fun. – Edmonds Paloma Y5C
Your mom was also at the event. Do you think it was useful? Would you recommend other parents to join?
I did not get to see her because she was with my sister’s GS troop but as we were walking home, we were discussing about the event and we could exchange ideas.
Yes, I would encourage parents to join at least once and participate to some activities. Sometimes, when we are tired, we do not feel like explaining all the things we have done during the day because there is so much to tell about.
If you would like to see more photos, feel free to click here to our photo gallery! Thank you to all parents who shared their photos!
If you would like to know more about Girls Scouts or get more involved, feel free to contact Jutta Petznick, our YCIS Girl Scout Coordinator at: jutta@familie-petznick.de