Coronavirus Response Archives • Licketyspit https://www.licketyspit.com/category/coronavirus-response/ Firing childrens imaginations Fri, 02 Jul 2021 09:48:31 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.licketyspit.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/cropped-top-right-logo-32x32.jpg Coronavirus Response Archives • Licketyspit https://www.licketyspit.com/category/coronavirus-response/ 32 32 143557081 Storyplay City Launch https://www.licketyspit.com/storyplay-city/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=storyplay-city Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:22:45 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8953 Licketyspit wants to spark a children’s rights-based play revolution! The Glasgow Community and National Lottery Community Funds have let us make a start. This is just the beginning! Everyone can join. There is a big imaginary play train going round Glasgow and everyone can jump on board! What [...]

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Licketyspit wants to spark a children’s rights-based play revolution! The Glasgow Community and National Lottery Community Funds have let us make a start. This is just the beginning! Everyone can join. There is a big imaginary play train going round Glasgow and everyone can jump on board!

What is Storyplay City?

Everyone, of all ages, loves to play! We need to play! Play is at the essence of being human. When we play imaginatively with other people there are no limits and no mistakes, just endless possibilities. Licketyspit and our children, families and colleagues have got a recipe and a list of ingredients that make imaginary play an easy, wonderful and inclusive part of every day. We call this Storyplay.

Licketyspit has been developing Storyplay with Glasgow families for over 15 years. From LicketyLeap sessions in nurseries to Storyplay Schools programmes in primaries, to Porridge & Play in the community and Picnic & Play in museums and parks. Now, the Glasgow Community Fund is supporting us to build on our work to make Glasgow the first Storyplay City!

We all need what children need

Children know that the most important things in life are love, kindness, fairness, respect. Playing with children liberates adults to remember this! You can let your hair down and feel at home even with strangers! Storyplay is a celebration of collective invention where everyone is safe in the knowledge that they will always be seen, heard, valued, included. We can all relax! It’s not competitive, it’s fun. There are no mistakes, only endless possibilities. Everyone is welcome – the more the merrier!

Since May 2020 Licketyspit has been working with 120 Glasgow Families three times a week through Porridge & Play Online. Big groups of families are meeting on Zoom to sing, dance, rhyme, joke, go on imaginary adventures and make friends. Thanks to Glasgow Council, Bemis and the Scottish Government, these 3 weekly Zooms can continue in January 2021 as part of Storyplay City.

We play using the Lickety Playcards – old and new hilarious games that give people a licence to be creative and inventive together. Children are at the centre of this play – our world play-experts – supported by fearless Licketyspit actor-pedagogues and Play Champion volunteers – who know how to give children agency and create safe friendly spaces for everyone to play in.

“It makes it so fun, the sessions have showed me that it’s fine to be silly with your kids it’s fine to imagine the world abroad…we came here they had no friends and it made them lonely. But (now)… oh my god! I begin to see Beauty come out of her shell because she’s one of the introverts in the family, like in school they would ask questions and she wouldn’t want to put up her hand, but ever since she has joined, I got her school report a couple of days ago and I see that she has taken bold steps. She’s more confident which is phenomenal it’s great… In all essence I think these sessions are so educational they are vital to the family, it puts into perspective me knowing how to play with my children, it gives them confidence, it’s making them feel like they are not alone. You know these are weird times whereby it is a weird world where everyone’s saying it’s the new normal, well I don’t like the new normal we miss going outside we miss seeing people, but what Licketyspit has done, is it has revolutionised – it’s made them feel like their Saturdays are not just a waste, you know, they can dream up anywhere and see lots of people. (And) It’s so good for me, I know I’m not alone……” 

Mum, Drumchapel, Porridge & Play Online

Lickety-play can be enjoyed for its own sake or become a springboard for other things – e.g. in education, arts, health. This kind of play nurtures creativity, confidence, social skills, friendships, emotional literacy, family and community, equality, resilience, language, literacy, integration, multi-culturalism, confident parenting, physical and mental wellbeing, love, happiness and positivity.

A Glasgow network of Lickety Play Champions

Facilitating play like this is not as easy as it looks. It takes time and work but develops life-enhancing life-long skills. We want to share this children’s rights based practice with Play Champions of all ages across Glasgow as part of a movement to further embrace and celebrate the creative riches, kindness and humanity that characterize this city. We want to embed this play and playfulness in our culture to support us all to flourish despite the immense challenges of contemporary times. Collectively we are our greatest resource, people really do make Glasgow!

And once Glasgow has shown how to do it, we can lead the rest of Scotland and the world in doing it too!

If you or your organisation would like to join us in making Glasgow a Storyplay City, please get in touch.

Licketyspit – opening doors to imaginary playworlds to unlock the limitless possibilities of children…..and adults!

Find out more

Come & Play – Families
Storyplay Schools
Porridge & Play Online
Children & Families Network
Children’s Rights
Get involved – Partners

Licketyspit 2020 News Round-Up

Click on the image on the right to read our reflections on a year like no other, and find out what’s in store for next year.

Thank you to everyone in the Licketyspit family who’s helped us support each other, champion children’s rights and discover endless joy and friendship through imaginary play!

See you in 2021.

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]]> 8953 Christmas Video Message https://www.licketyspit.com/christmas-video/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=christmas-video Fri, 18 Dec 2020 17:07:40 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8831 A 2020 Christmas Message from Licketyspit A Christmas Video! We hope you'll enjoy this Christmas message and demonstration of two great games to play over the hoildays, from Ruby, Iona and Taz. The holidays are a great time to play as a family. We hope you have [...]

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A 2020 Christmas Message from Licketyspit

A Christmas Video!

We hope you’ll enjoy this Christmas message and demonstration of two great games to play over the hoildays, from Ruby, Iona and Taz.

The holidays are a great time to play as a family. We hope you have a lovely Christmas break. The Licketyspit team will be on holiday between December 24th-Janueary 11th so if we don’t get your message, we’ll reply as soon as we’re back. And remember, all we need to play is each other!

What’s in the video?

🤔 In the Way of the Word

💝 The Present Game!

More Holiday Activities!

There’s lots more to do on our website. Find Playcard Videos in Come & Play. Watch the Lickety Activity films and make your own (like other CFN children have done!) And catch up with all of the Big Porridge & Play Blogs in Happening Now!

We’d love to see what creative and playful activities you get up to over the holidays. Stay in touch!

Come & Play
Activity Videos
BPPG BLOGS

Licketyspit 2020 News Round-Up

Click on the image on the right to read our reflections on a year like no other, and find out what’s in store for next year.

Thank you to everyone in the Licketyspit family who’s helped us support each other, champion children’s rights and discover endless joy and friendship through imaginary play!

See you in 2021.

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]]> 8831 Feeling the love as Big Porridge & Play 2020 draws to a close https://www.licketyspit.com/bppg-online-23/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bppg-online-23 Tue, 08 Dec 2020 14:01:02 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8842 Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures we've had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join. Saturday What a brilliant session we had on Saturday with 30 families!! The sessions are so full [...]

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Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures
we’ve had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join.

Saturday

What a brilliant session we had on Saturday with 30 families!! The sessions are so full of excitement and generosity and feels like one big family!

We began with BIG AS A BEAR, our great warm up! Gyan told us that the warm up is important because it makes everyone feel comfortable and welcomed, which is so true! 👍

In FUNKY CHICKEN we met 10 hilarious animals! – Junior’s Funky Cat 🐱
– Adila & Muhammed’s Ninja Horse 🐴
– Janaiba’s & Ramtoulah’s Angry Lion 🦁

– Adesire’s Funny Butterfly 🦋 – Adeola’s Funky Cat 🐈
– Simmi’s Funky Chicken 🐓
– Modou’s Angry Horse 🐴

– Queen & Faly’s Slivering Snake 🐍 – Princess’s Crying Puppy 🐶
– Michris’s Baby Polar-bear 🐻

We then dressed up wonderfully for a very special occasion… to write and send A LETTER TO OUR LOVES!! And how beautiful we all looked! Everyone wrote fantastic letters!

Islam wrote her letter to her bed. 🛏 Donald wrote to pizza 🍕 ! Lawand wrote a letter to his squirrel 🐿 ! Ramtoulah wrote to her best friend! Yumna wrote to her mum, dad and pet fish! 🐠 Meerab wrote to her blanket, she loves her blanket because it keeps her warm! Taiwo wrote to his mum!

Such beautiful letters and so full of love! 💕

Next week is our final Porridge & Play Saturday session until January, so make sure you join us! I believe it’s going to be rather CHRISTMASSY!!! Ho ho ho! 🎅 🎄

Wednesday

11 families joined us yesterday for a brilliant Wednesday session!

🐶 🐇 🐝 In the FUNKY CHICKEN we met Javier’s Funky Dog, Lily Rose’s Cheeky Elf, Brown’s Buzzy Bee, Sara’s Happy Bunny, Jinru’s Happy Cat, Nuo Xuan’s Sneaky Snake, Emma’s Funky Elephant, Felicia’s Scary Bat, Ameen’s Angry Bear, Sayeh’s Tweety Parrot and Leo’s Baby Shark!

💌 🍕 🦜 Then, in I SENT A LETTER TO MY LOVE, we wrote and then posted our letters to our loves, singing the song. Taz wrote a letter to her love… pizza! She wrote that she loves pizza because it is shaped like the moon and tastes like cheese! Andre wrote a letter to his friend Pete, and Sara wrote a letter to her friends, her mum and dad and her new teachers! Sayeh wrote to Honey her pet parrot! Felicia wrote to Iona and Taz! And Lily Rose wrote ‘dear my lovely elf, Merry Christmas!’

Thursday

🐻 🐇 🦆 It had been very chilly day this week, so we put a lot of effort and energy into a fantastic WARM UP! We started with BIG AS A BEAR when we… ran as fast as a hare, quacked like a duck, then stretched to the ceiling. Gyan pointed out that warm-ups are so important because they make us feel comfortable and welcome. We agree!

💌 🍕 🥛 After an extremely creative FUNKY CHICKEN, Iona announced that we had to dress up for a special occasion… a game of I SENT A LETTER TO MY LOVE. Iona wrote her letter to her pillow, for being so soft and comfy! Mahek wrote a letter to pizza, for being so tasty! Agyei wrote a letter to milk, which he has in his cereal every morning! Mercy wrote her letter to her lovely daughters, and Areeb wrote a letter to his dad, who always listens to him!

NEW ACTIVITY VIDEO

Inspiration for outdoors play ideas in Exploring with Jack & Iona

There are so many benefits to getting outdoors, as well as to playing and using our imagination – so it’s no surprise that when we combine the two, those benefits are intensified! Our latest Exploring with Jack film shows the limitless adventures that we can have when we add our imaginations to outdoors play – why not watch it as a family and get inspired? 

When Jack opens his 🗺  Magic Map this time, a tiny Iona falls out! Iona has landed in the 🌲 Kingdom of Woodland – join her as she makes a sleeping mud potion for an ancient wolf, plays the tree orchestra, and more!

So, what are you waiting for? Get outside and you might be amazed at the adventures you can dream up from your surroundings – and then, when you get back, you can draw pictures or write about it in your 📙 Explorers Journal! Remember to send any pictures to cfn@licketyspit.com and we’ll share them with everyone!

The Kingdom of Woodland

LICKETY PLAY CHAMPIONS

“With no immediate family around, Licketyspit has been like my extended family. I have met so many friends and as a migrant mum I have found lots of things in common with the other families. I will never forget that first warm welcome. It’s the reason we and so many other families keep coming back.”
We were thrilled to hear what Lickety Play Champion mum Boatemaa had to say about her family’s experience of Big Porridge & Play in this interview with the National Lottery Community Fund.

The Community Fund enabled us to offer even more across the pandemic, delivering 72 online play sessions to our community of 120 fantastic families. It’s been wonderful to hear feedback from members of our Children & Families Network, and we’re so grateful to Boatemaa for sharing her specific insights into the importance of this project – for both children and parents.

Read the full interview

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]]> 8842 Dancing and singing with Adie Baako! https://www.licketyspit.com/bppg-online-21/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bppg-online-21 Mon, 23 Nov 2020 18:35:14 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8634 Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures we've had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join. What an exciting week! 🎵 ‘Everybody! Bring [...]

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Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures
we’ve had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join.

What an exciting week!

🎵 ‘Everybody! Bring your calabash! Bring your calabash!’ 🎶

At this week’s Big Porridge & Play Online sessions, we had the privilege of being joined by Adie Baako, a professional dancer from Ghana now living in Scotland, and enjoyed a week of dancing and singing and moving and grooving! We sang about the calabash, danced the Kpanlogo, a social dance from Greater Accra in Ghana, and found out all about Adie’s life!

Learning about Adie’s life

🇬🇭 🎣 Adie is a dancer from Ghana, now living in Midlothian, near Edinburgh. He’s been dancing professionally for 26 years and he told us how he started dancing when he was a wee boy growing up in a village. Adie grew up by the sea with his Dad, a fisherman, and his Mum, who worked selling in the markets. Before going to school Adie, like other children, would do chores in the house to help the family, fetch water for the pots, and then wash to get ready to go to school to learn. An early start in the morning for wee Adie!  

☀ 🥁 The heat in his village in Ghana would bring everyone outside, and growing up with no electricity, TV or screens meant that they had to make their own entertainment. So, all the villagers would gather in a circle and they would drum and sing and dance!  

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 ☂ When Adie was in his last year at school, he asked his Dad about becoming a professional dancer. “You must do what you love doing”, he said – and that’s how Adie joined his first dance troupe. He then trained with a very famous Ghanaian master who teaches artists from all over the world. In 2014, Adie came to Scotland during the Commonwealth Games. “I love Scotland, people are so nice. And I like haggis! But I sometimes miss the Ghanaian weather…” he told us, smiling.

What we did in the session

🇬🇭 🥣 First of all, Adie performed for us along to some fantastic Ghanaian music. Then he taught us a song all about bringing your calabash to be filled up with PORRIDGE! He taught us that ‘calabash’ is the name for all different sizes of pumpkin. Calabash husks are used for many things – as plates and bowls, and to make jewellery, clothing and even musical instruments and toys! In the song, the porridge seller comes to the village and calls out “everybody, everybody! Bring your calabash, bring your calabash! Mofee mu ke tiene aba, mofee mu ke tiene aba, Waya waya nu koko, waya waya nu koko!” It was the perfect song for our Porridge & Play Sessions because of course, we LOVE porridge! 

🎵🥁 🎶 During the song Adie played his wee calabash, which are used to make shakers – a percussive musical instrument – but he told us that originally, the small pumpkins were used by the grandfathers to keep their tobacco in! Then the children would use wee calabash to make toys for themselves, finally turning them into rhythm shakers!

🕺🏿 We also learnt a whole dance routine, and Adie gave us good ideas to remember each move, such as…

💃  Move your arm like a screen-wiper in a car
💃  Pick up an apple from the tree and give it to Mum
💃  ‘Roll and show’
💃  Say your prayers
💃  Wiggle your hips in a circle!

We got really good at each move first, and then we put them all together with music and performed our dance TOGETHER! What fantastic dancers everyone turned out to be! 

📖 👂 We also had time to ask Adie some questions about his dancing, his costumes, his homeland and his travels – everyone had lots of questions and was very chatty, which was a lovely welcome to the group for Adie. “Does your family dance like that?”, we asked him. “Of course!”, he said. “It’s in our blood! Everyone sings and dances!” Adie told us his favourite food is fufu, which he said is a bit like mashed potato! We were all transfixed. Adie’s descriptions of his country and his village, his stories, the music and the dancing – together with our imaginations – painted a perfect picture. We could almost feel the heat of the Ghanaian sun!

Many thanks to Adie for sharing with us – and to our Big Porridge & Play participants for being so welcoming and doing such fantastic dancing! Bravo! 👏🇬🇭🥁

Iona 😊

 

LICKETY CHAMPIONS

Exploring with Zainab!

Inspired by our Exploring with Jack video series, we were thrilled when Zainab, one of our Children & Families Network members, sent us her own ‘Exploring with’ video over the summer. This week, we were delighted to receive her THIRD one! This time, you can join her on a virtual adventure to Djibouti, the third smallest country in Africa. Watch out for 🦈  whale sharks, 🌊  Lac’Assal – Crater Lake, and 🏝 Moucha Island! A huge thank you to Zainab, one of our Lickety Champions, for sharing her creativity and knowledge with us.

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]]> 8634 Another chance to join our spooky party – from home! https://www.licketyspit.com/bppg-online-18/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bppg-online-18 Tue, 03 Nov 2020 13:54:21 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8527 Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures we've had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join. What a fantastic Halloween party we had! Did you join [...]

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Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures
we’ve had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join.

What a fantastic Halloween party we had!

Did you join us on Saturday for our 🎃  Halloween Family Party 🎃  with Parent Club? The great news is that you can watch the video again any time you like – joining in with an HOUR of imagination-fuelled fun, from your own house! Halloween may be over for this year but when it’s dark and spooky outside you’ll still enjoy all our ghostly games and frightening fun…

For anyone who didn’t join us, we don’t want to ruin all the spooky surprises… let’s just say you’ll meet some funny characters, do some fantastic, silly dressing up, play Lickety Playcard games like MUCKY BREW and SPOOKY CHICKEN, dance along with us to a surprise Halloween song, and so much more! Watch the video to find out for yourself! 👹👻🎉✨

You can also watch it on the Parent Club Facebook page here, if you’d like to leave a comment and see what other parents have said. See below for some of the fantastic drawings and feedback sent in so far!

Remember to send your drawings and any feedback to cfn@licketyspit.com and we’ll include them in our gallery!

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]]> 8527 Celebrating our many languages in The Hello Game! https://www.licketyspit.com/bppg-online-16/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bppg-online-16 Tue, 20 Oct 2020 14:27:22 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8470 Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures we've had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join. Saturday 17 October 2020 It was great to get back [...]

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Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures
we’ve had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom! See below for details of how to join.

Saturday 17 October 2020

It was great to get back to Big Porridge & Play this Saturday after a week’s break – and we have 8 more weeks of Saturday sessions to look forward to! Hooray! What a brilliant time we had! We played 👵 GRANDMA GRANDMA and 🐔 FUNKY CHICKEN, went on an epic 🔮 MAGIC BALL adventure – and also enjoyed a brand new game called the HELLO GAME! 

Celebrating our multi-lingual network!

Did you know that there are 158 different languages spoken in Glasgow?! Wow! We found this out last week, and so decided to invent the HELLO GAME to find out some of the languages that are spoken in the group – and it turned out there were SO many! Here are some of the ways we learnt to say HELLO to each other this week:

👋  In Kurdish – Salaam
👋🏿  In Yoruba – Bawo ni
👋🏾  In Shona – Mhoroi Mhoroi
👋🏿  In Hungarian – Szia
👋🏻  In Urdu – Assalamu alaikum

But then, we found the Magic Ball!

🚀 After flying through the stars in a spaceship we found ourselves in a land where everything was pink!

🎣 Make spotted a hungry golden fish who asked for some little fish to eat, so Ala and Ruta handed out some fishing rods and we all went fishing! Mohammed caught the teeniest tiniest fish – who started to speak! “Excuse me, I didn’t want to be caught!”, she said, “but would you join me at my underwater tea party?”

🧁 The little fish gave us magic dust to rub on our foreheads so that we could breathe underwater, and down we went – and ate some delicious cup cakes!

🦈 Suddenly, a family of sharks appeared (Queen, Faly and Lydia), so we swam as fast as we could until we reached a cave, full of plants that glowed in the dark. We hid there for a while until the coast was clear, and then made our way back to the magic ball!

🖍 We finished off with our reflective drawings, which you can see below. What brilliant creative pictures!

See you next week!
Iona

😊 🎈 ⭐

Wednesday 14 October

Wednesday!

Our sessions with families in Govan and Whiteinch are back, and what a brilliant first session. 10 families, 28 participants and 8 different languages – wow!

When we played the HELLO GAME we discovered that we had EIGHT different languages in this group alone! These were Urdu, French, Polish, Spanish, English, Mandarin, Georgian and Yoroba! So, we went round each family and discovered how to say ‘hello’ in each language – it was really exciting! Maybe one week we’ll make a song with all of these new words?

After a great game of 🐔  FUNKY CHICKEN we took out our 🎈 FLYING BALLOONS so we could fly over the world and saw all sorts of things…
🐜 George spotted small people that looked like ants
🦖Javier saw a green and brown dinosaur
🚀 Moatasim saw a rocket going to different planets
👨 Zaki saw some men
💐Christelle and Emma saw a garden with beautiful flowers that we flew down and smelt!

Thursday 15 October

Thursday!

We had a wonderful first session back with our families in the Gorbals and Easterhouse – a small session, full of enormous ideas! We sailed high with our magic 🎈FLYING BALLOONS, flapped along in the 🐔 FUNKY CHICKEN. Then, after we’d dressed up and had a dance, we found ourselves deep in a magical forest where some grannies lived… so we played 👹 MONSTER’S FOOTSTEPS and came up with some really hilarious grannies.

🏖 Granny Emmanuel lived in a hut on the beach, and every morning for breakfast she ate a full Scottish breakfast of toast, sausages, eggs and mushrooms! Yum!
🌳 Granny Aminata lived in a tree and ate hundreds of pancakes!
🥞 Granny Ayo lived in a puddle and ate pancakes too – we tried some and they were deeelicious!

But the grannies had to be careful of the trees, because when they weren’t looking, the trees turned into… MONSTERS!

COMMUNITY SESSIONS

Do you live in Govan, Whiteinch, Gorbals
or Easterhouse?

If so, as well as on Saturdays, you can also join us for smaller Porridge & Play Sessions through the week! At these ones you’ll notice there are fewer families than in the bigger Saturday sessions, so there’s more chance to join in, say hello to other families and children, and let us know your fantastic ideas!

⭐  Govan and Whiteinch
Wednesdays from 4pm-5.15pm
Every Wednesday until 11 November

⭐  Gorbals and Easterhouse
Thursdays from 4pm-5.15pm
Every Thursday until 12 November 

If you live in one of these areas and would like to join, please email Ruby on cfn@licketyspit.com or text/call on 07413 800 342.

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]]> 8470 All the things we can still do while we’re at home! https://www.licketyspit.com/lockdown-resources-blog/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lockdown-resources-blog Tue, 22 Sep 2020 09:56:11 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8283 As the restrictions around coronavirus continue, we know that many families may be feeling frustrated, stressed, or worried. We know it's a difficult time, so we wanted to remind you of all the things we CAN still do at the moment, even when we might not be able to play with all of our [...]

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As the restrictions around coronavirus continue, we know that many families may be feeling frustrated, stressed, or worried. We know it’s a difficult time, so we wanted to remind you of all the things we CAN still do at the moment, even when we might not be able to play with all of our friends or family. There are so many ways to keep using our imagination and creativity at home! Reading, writing, making, dancing, singing, drawing… and PLAYING! 🎈🎉✨

Get cooking, exploring and making!

When the lockdown first started, we made some Lickety Activity Films which were specially designed to show you simple, fun, creative and cheap activities that you could do at home as a family – alongside your friendly Lickety hosts! Taz, Jack and Iona each guide you through a fun activity or on a special adventure – which you can follow along with at home! You can either watch and do the activities along with us, or use them to inspire your own ideas!

Why not…
🥘  Think of another recipe you could cook with the same ingredients, after watching Cooking with Taz?
🍅  Research one of the ingredients online and find out more about it?
🍋  Plant a tree using the seeds from some fruit, after making a delicious fruit salad or zingy lemonade?
🗺 Close your eyes, take out your Magic Map, and see where it takes you! You can go anywhere in the WORLD with your Magic Map. Why not draw or write about the things you saw afterwards?
🗞 Think of what else you could make with… a plastic bottle? A plastic bag? A newspaper? Some netting from a bag of oranges? Toilet rolls?

See all the Activity Films!

Use your IMAGINATION!

Every Saturday, here at Licketyspit we all get together and go on an adventure – which you’re all invited to from home, of course! During our Big Porridge and Play Online sessions (on Zoom) we do fun warm-up exercises, play games, sing songs, and go on adventures all just by using our imaginations! But the fun doesn’t need to stop there – you can still use your imagination after the video has stopped to be anyone, go anywhere or do anything! 

Why not…
🔮 Close your eyes, take out your imaginary Magic Ball, and see where it takes you! You can go ANYWHERE with your Magic Ball. Another planet, under the sea, the Eiffel tower, a scary forest, inside a ball of wool… Afterwards, draw a picture of what you saw!
⛳ Collect some small objects from around your house or garden and make your own Miniature World from them! What would it look like? Who would live there?
🖍 Write a poem about what you’d like to do if you could do ANYTHING in the world
🧣 Find some old clothes, hats or scarves… and dress up as a new character! What’s your name and what do you do? You can be anyone at all!
📹 Make up a performance about something you really care about, then make a video of it!
📖Write a story about you and your best friends where you go on an adventure

Learning some new games and songs!

 Our Lickety Playcards are a pack of colourful, illustrated cards featuring a selection of new and traditional games, rhymes, songs and imaginary play activities for 3-12s and their families. We use these ALL the time in our play sessions, not only because they are tried-and-tested activities that children seem to love, but because they’re brilliant at inspiring FURTHER play – creative writing, making up songs and performances, drawing, or making up new characters! Once you’ve got them, the possibilities are endless!

Why not…
⭐ Watch our Lickety Playcards videos showing you how to play some of the games and sing the songs!
⭐ Get a set of Playcards for your family to use together! You can buy the full set of 16 online for just £10
⭐We also have a limited number of Playcards packs to offer to families who may not be able to afford them. If you could be eligible please do drop us a line at cfn@licketyspit.com or call 07413 800 342 😊

Find out more!

Immerse yourself in a brilliant story!

🏰 🤴🌲 Molly Whuppie is a play by Licketyspit about BRAVERY – and you can now watch it online! Based on a traditional Scottish tale, the story follows a bold and brave wee girl called Molly who finds herself on a great adventure. As she journeys through a forest, meeting giants and kings, she soon realises that nothing is what it seems, and that she is braver and cleverer than she ever imagined…

Why not…
📺 Molly Whuppie is spread over 12 gripping episodes of just 5-6 minutes each, so why not sit down to watch an episode each day as a family? Everyone will be desperate to know what happens next to brave wee Molly! You could even draw a picture of what she gets up to in each one, or write a story guessing what might happen next!

Come on an adventure with Molly!

Coronavirus, Explained – for children!

Keep smiling, keep creating, and keep PLAYING! 🎈🎉✨

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]]> 8283 How YOU can help shape a revolution in children’s rights! https://www.licketyspit.com/uncrc/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=uncrc Wed, 09 Sep 2020 16:33:29 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8181 Why are we so excited? Last week, something happened which made us very happy here at Licketyspit! In a big document outlining their plans for the next year the Scottish Government promised to deliver “a revolution in children’s rights” - how exciting does that sound?! They plan to do [...]

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Why are we so excited?

Last week, something happened which made us very happy here at Licketyspit! In a big document outlining their plans for the next year the Scottish Government promised to deliver “a revolution in children’s rights” – how exciting does that sound?! They plan to do this by incorporating a major international law protecting the rights of children into Scottish law.

It’s called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is a bit of a mouthful, but that’s because it’s the most complete statement of children’s rights ever to be written. This means that it covers all parts of a child’s life. No-one, or nothing, is left out: the needs of each child is as important as the next.

So, as well as extremely important things such as a right to education, healthcare and protection from violence, neglect and exploitation, did you know that children also have…

⭐ The right to be LISTENED TO
Article 12 – respect for the views of the child

⭐ The right to EXPRESS THEIR THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS
Article 13 – freedom of expression

⭐ The right to PLAY WITH THEIR FRIENDS
Article 15 – freedom of association

⭐ The right to RELAX and PLAY!
Article 31 – leisure, play and culture

What does this actually mean for your children?

If the UNCRC becomes part of our law here in Scotland, it means that – on the most extreme side of it – we can use the legal system to defend young people if anyone takes away any of these rights. But, it will also have an impact on your children’s day to day life, because it means that ADULTS will be legally responsible for making sure that children get to enjoy all of these things!

The Convention actually explains what adults need to do to help, which could mean some differences in how a whole range of things in your child/ren’s life are approached, such as how schools decide what to teach them, what opportunities they have to play and socialise, and how they are spoken to by doctors, teachers and other adults.

Also, all of the rights are of equal importance. So, if the Scottish Parliament approves this Bill, being able to play, see their friends, form their own beliefs and have their voices heard will be (legally) just as important as anything else in children’s lives – which we wholeheartedly agree with!

Here’s where you come in!

For the government to make this happen, they need to speak to young people. It’s ADULTS who put these laws in place, but it has to be CHILDREN who tell us what they want, need and think – or it doesn’t make any sense!

One way of doing this would be to have a conversation with children. But if we really want to speak to children in their language, how about we PLAY together instead…?! Play is children’s language, and the better we learn to speak it, the better we’ll be able to represent children as their champions; it’s a brilliant way to find out what children think, feel, want and need.

That’s why on Mon 21st and Mon 28th September, we’ve invited policy makers from the Scottish Government to one of our play sessions. We’ll play our usual games and have our usual fun, and through play, we’ll encourage the children to talk to us about what they think and feel about how things are going at school, at home, in their lives, and anything they’d like to change.

By taking part in our session, YOU can help your children’s voices be heard and respected. Together, as children’s champions, WE can help to make vital changes to create a brighter and happier future for children across Scotland.

P.S…
If you want to have your say in the meantime, the Children’s Parliament have created this How Are You Doing? survey for 8-14 year olds to find out how children are doing and collect their thoughts on how they’re feeling, in their own words. Children’s experience matters! ❤

If you’d like to join…

Simply email Ruby at cfn@licketyspit.com and we’ll send you the details. The sessions will take place on Zoom; if internet access is an issue for you please do let us know and we will try our best to help.

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]]> 8181 Providing digital tablets to families who need them https://www.licketyspit.com/tablets-for-families/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tablets-for-families Tue, 25 Aug 2020 15:10:32 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8059 Have you heard the news?! A few months ago, we were overjoyed to receive funding which enabled us to buy tablets and SIM cards with mobile data for families in our network and beyond, who would struggle to buy these themselves. This meant that they could join in with our Big Porridge & Play Online [...]

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Have you heard the news?! A few months ago, we were overjoyed to receive funding which enabled us to buy tablets and SIM cards with mobile data for families in our network and beyond, who would struggle to buy these themselves. This meant that they could join in with our Big Porridge & Play Online sessions! We can now tell you that we’ve received further funding from Migration Exchange and have a limited number of additional Lickety Tablets for eligible families!

If you are a migrant, refugee or asylum seeker looking to join our online imaginative play sessions, please get in touch to see if we can help you. Or, if you know a family who might benefit from this, help us to spread the word! Please note that as we do have a limited number to give out, unfortunately we can’t guarantee availability – we will allocate the tablets to families who most meet our criteria. Email Ruby on cfn@licketyspit.com or text/call 07413 800 342 and we’ll do our best to help!

Why are we doing this?

Well, as some of you may know, at Licketyspit we were already using lots of different ways to stay in touch with families in our network, as we knew not everyone could get online easily. As the pandemic hit this year, we spoke directly to our families – and this need for internet access and suitable equipment became even more apparent.

Thanks to funding from the Scottish Government’s Wellbeing Fund, as well as additional support from BEMIS, we were thrilled to be able to buy and deliver 25 Lickety Tablets to families in our network experiencing digital inequality! It has been fantastic to see the children getting so much joy from our sessions, but also knowing that they will benefit from all sorts of other online learning and connection that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

The benefits of Big Porridge & Play Online!

Our Big Porridge & Play Online sessions are more than just a couple of hours of great fun! By taking part in all sorts of creative, joyful activities, the children are then inspired to play and imagine at home long after the sessions are finished – which has been particularly useful during the lockdown.

It’s also meant they have been able to play imaginative games with other children who they might not otherwise have met, getting the benefits of socialising, making new friends and learning to play imaginatively with others. And for the parents, they’ve provided a fantastic way to feel less isolated by seeing other parents, carers and families and feeling part of something, especially by joining our network and getting access to our welcoming Children and Families Facebook group.

P.S. Our local community sessions go one step further, as you’ll also meet families who live close-by, and connect in the community Facebook group! At the moment, we’re about to start sessions for families in Ruchill and Milton. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more!

During the sessions we do things like… 

🚶 Fun and energetic warm-up games to get us all moving
🎲  Sing songs and play games using our Lickety Playcards as inspiration
😎  Dressing up with things we find around our houses, so we can transform ourselves into crazy new characters
🔮  Using our imagination to take a trip together, using our imaginary balloons or magic ball, and tell everyone what we see – we’ve been to Mercury, Mars, underwater carnivals, Marshmallow Land, Robot Land and so many more magical places!
🖍  Encourage everyone to draw pictures for our Lickety Gallery – see opposite for just some of the fantastic drawings we receive!

If you’d like to join…

⭐  email us at cfn@licketyspit.com
 ⭐  text us on 07413 800 342
 ⭐  sign up using this form


We’ll let you know all the details, and which dates we’re welcoming new families at (we do this one Saturday per month). Our sessions are open to all children and families, so please do get in touch!

DIGITAL INEQUALITY

If you’d like to read more about the work we’re doing to help with digital inequality, and why we believe this is so vital, Artistic Director Virginia Radcliffe talks about this in more detail in Virginia’s Blog. We’d like to thank the Scottish Government’s Wellbeing Fund, BEMIS, Home Start Glasgow North and the Scottish Refugee Council who have provided either funding, or support, enabling us to achieve this wonderful goal of providing practical support – and a little more equality – to children across Glasgow. 

 

Virginia’s Blog

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]]> 8059 Big Porridge and Play Saturday Sessions are back! https://www.licketyspit.com/bppg-online-8/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bppg-online-8 Tue, 18 Aug 2020 11:36:53 +0000 https://www.licketyspit.com/?p=8012 Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play blog, where we share the stories of the adventures we've had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom. If you'd like to join our online weekend sessions (every Saturday, from 10.30am), all you need to do is email us at cfn@licketyspit.com or text us on 07413 800 [...]

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Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play blog, where we share the stories of the adventures we’ve had during our virtual play sessions on Zoom. If you’d like to join our online weekend sessions (every Saturday, from 10.30am), all you need to do is email us at cfn@licketyspit.com or text us on 07413 800 342. We’ll let you know all the details, and which dates we’re welcoming new families at (we do this one Saturday per month – see below for dates). Our sessions are open to all children and families, so please do get in touch!

Saturday 8 August

It’s so good to be back!

Iona shares her thoughts after last week’s Big Porridge and Play online session, for which 22 FAMILIES joined us! The fantastic pictures opposite show just a glimpse at the sort of things we did and saw…

How fantastic it was to be back with our Saturday families for Big Porridge and Play Glasgow! It was very exciting to see everyone and hear what they had all been up to over the past few weeks – and what a great first session back it was! Full of energy and hilarity and excitement!

We kicked things off with 👵  GRANDMA GRANDMA, with very enthusiastic actions and great big wriggles! By the time we’d finished, everyone had arrived – all 22 families, ready to play!

We then made ourselves as big as a bear in our warm up, with fantastic actions from everyone, followed by a lovely stretch and deep breaths – waking up our whole bodies and shaking any tiredness away. 🐔 FUNKY CHICKEN was next, then we each found a balloon on the floor and blew them up for a game of… 🎈BALLOONS! 

🎅 We flew up and up, high into the clear blue sky above Glasgow, spotting people on swings and even some elves in Christmas factories!

🌍  On our second flight, we flew right up above planet Earth, until it just looked like a great big green and blue bouncy ball!

🌈  Precious and Donald spotted a rainbow up above us with a pot of gold, so we reached out and all took a piece!

🌕  We then flew over Mars and the moon, spotting craters and aliens until finally, landing on the moon we met the beautiful Neptune, goddess of the sea! She was very eccentric and kind and told us all that we must all DRESS UP as trees to disguise ourselves from the martians!

👵  She then introduced us to Granny Martian and we had a fantastic game of SPACE MONSTERS FOOTSTEPS! We met grannies who lived underground and ate bacon and sausages and grannies who lives in a green and white tree house and liked to drink milk!

Then, we realised that we better get back to Glasgow – but how?! Luckily, Adesayo came to the rescue, presenting her golden magic ball! Hooray! So we blew that up and got inside and said the magic words… ‘magic ball, magic ball, take us where we want to go!’ And Whoooooosh! Off we went, back to our houses!

What a fantasticosical adventure! We can’t wait to see you all next week!

Iona 🎈

Would you like to join in?

Well, the news of how much fun we have together must have been spreading – last week’s Saturday open session was our busiest ever! To make sure that we can all get the most out of them, we’re offering one open session each month where new families are invited to join. We’ll ask you to join the video a little bit earlier, so we can say hello and let you know how it all works.

Our next open sessions will take place on: Saturday 22 August, 5 September, 17 October, 31 October (a Halloween special!) and 21 November.

🙂  If you’d like to join, please email us at cfn@licketyspit.com or text us on 07413 800 342  and we’ll give you all the details!

COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Introducing the Free Books Campaign!

The Free Books Campaign is a fantastic new initiative providing books to anyone who can’t afford to buy one, or who has accessibility issues preventing them from buying them. You can either choose from a community-chosen reading list – featuring authors of colour exclusively and including some brilliant books for children – or request another book, provided it’s also been written by an author of colour.

For more information or to claim a free book, email accessiblebookscampaign@gmail.com or get in touch with them on Instagram (freebookscampaign) or Twitter (@accessfreebooks).

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