At the last session of this Porridge & Play block we celebrated 5-weeks of Storyplaying together –  in Zombie Style…

In Storyplay you can DO ANYTHING…

Bridgeton families love it here

Bridgeton families dance and cheer!

We love moving our bodies, learning new steps and shapes and rhythms – children and grown-ups all shared their ideas in the Dancing Warm up!

Funky Chicken is another old favourite at Bridgeton Hub!

Every week we start with a round of Funky Chicken – is such a great game to get your imagination going quickly, by thinking of an animal and how it might move and sound! And so, on this last session –

Malak created a Happy penguin

Mohammed thought of a Happy Seagull

Miriam imagined an Ugly Pig

Retaj became a Funny Horse

Moira embodied a Singing Cow

Amar transformed into a Groovy Lizard

Lin was a Sneaky Cat

Big Mohammed offered a Dancing Tiger

Alan created a Wrestling Alligator

Salah showed us a Silly Monkey

Abakr was a  Foxy Dadoodee

Aleen became a Speaking Cat

Girisha was a Fire Lion

Lin embodied a Slow Turtle

Arafa jumped as a Happy frog

Maab became a Naughty Seagull!

 

At Storyplay you can BE ANYONE…

Another ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE game for the Bridgeton families is Dressing Up – they cannot wait for the big Dressing Up bag to be unzipped! Licketyspit Dressing Up bags are really just a few old clothes but with the spark of our imaginations, these ordinary clothes can transform into extraordinary garments that inspire us to feel differently…even to become ‘someone else’! And so…

Alan – ‘I’m the King of legends, all of them like… vampires! Many different ones there, even ones you don’t know about. A big pale Man he can travel from US and UK in less than an hour.’

 Salah – ‘I’m a Police man, 778 and 10 is my password and I like to eat supercarrots.’

 Big Mohammed – ‘I’m Dobby from Harry Potter, I eats green stuff, I like playing and drawing Harry Potter Day.’

 Amar – ‘I can send shockwaves when my pants drop.’

 Maab – ‘I’m a Penguin. I live in the snow, in a tiny home. And I eat grass. I dig in the snow.’

 Summer – ‘I’m a Teddy bear, I eat grass and I live in a house’

 

At Storyplay you can go ANYWHERE…

And of course, Magic Ball is also a very loved game because the Magic Ball truly can take you anywhere in the world of your imagination!

Magic Ball, Magic Ball

Take us where we want to go…

 

Today we landed in Zombieland – a bit of a scary start!

We crouched down low to the ground to discuss what to do?

We thought maybe pretending to be zombies might help us to blend in!

So, Malak gave everyone a spectacular demonstration of how to walk and move like a Zombie!

And Alan sprayed everyone with Zombie Smelling Spray to makes us even more convincing!

Just as we were all happily Zombie-Ing along, practicing our Zombie movements and sounds an actual Zombie turned up!

Now, it was clear that this Zombie was trying to tell us something. Big Mohammed translated, he said –  ‘The Zombie wants to eat all of our brains!’

 Well! We weren’t going to let that happen…

‘Might the Zombie eat something else? – we wondered?

 ‘I think he wants some soup.’ – Big Mohammed replied.

Mariam offered soup to the Zombie.  And then we all did!

And it went down very well!

So the Zombie left…

Phew!

Narrow escape!

We thought it might be a good idea to try to be silent in Zombieland.

So we practiced creeping silently….

Suddenly, Alan realised he had lost a hand!

Luckily Malak found it for him!

We were just doing a great Zombie Dance when a hungry Werewolf appeared!

So we fed him fruit and he went away!

A lovely, shared meal

 Enjoying eating food together is very important part of Porridge & Play but the last session of every block is extra special because families often bring delicious food to share with everyone! We get a chance to taste food from all our different countries. Finger-licking home-made treats! The Bridgeton Families went overboard and we had dips and cakes and falafels and many treats – delicioso!

How lucky are we to have such a brilliant big family of families at the Bridgeton Hub – thank you all for 5 wonderful weeks of brilliant Storyplay!

Andre, Nerea, Paul, Taz, Virginia, Ruby & the Bridgeton Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Click on the drawings!

At the last session of this Porridge & Play block we celebrated 5-weeks of Storyplaying together –  in Zombie Style…

In Storyplay you can DO ANYTHING…

Bridgeton families love it here

Bridgeton families dance and cheer!

We love moving our bodies, learning new steps and shapes and rhythms – children and grown-ups all shared their ideas in the Dancing Warm up!

Funky Chicken is another old favourite at Bridgeton Hub!

Every week we start with a round of Funky Chicken – is such a great game to get your imagination going quickly, by thinking of an animal and how it might move and sound! And so, on this last session –

Malak created a Happy penguin

Mohammed thought of a Happy Seagull

Miriam imagined an Ugly Pig

Retaj became a Funny Horse

Moira embodied a Singing Cow

Amar transformed into a Groovy Lizard

Lin was a Sneaky Cat

Big Mohammed offered a Dancing Tiger

Alan created a Wrestling Alligator

Salah showed us a Silly Monkey

Abakr was a  Foxy Dadoodee

Aleen became a Speaking Cat

Girisha was a Fire Lion

Lin embodied a Slow Turtle

Arafa jumped as a Happy frog

Maab became a Naughty Seagull!

 

At Storyplay you can BE ANYONE…

Another ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE game for the Bridgeton families is Dressing Up – they cannot wait for the big Dressing Up bag to be unzipped! Licketyspit Dressing Up bags are really just a few old clothes but with the spark of our imaginations, these ordinary clothes can transform into extraordinary garments that inspire us to feel differently…even to become ‘someone else’! And so…

Alan – ‘I’m the King of legends, all of them like… vampires! Many different ones there, even ones you don’t know about. A big pale Man he can travel from US and UK in less than an hour.’

 Salah – ‘I’m a Police man, 778 and 10 is my password and I like to eat supercarrots.’

 Big Mohammed – ‘I’m Dobby from Harry Potter, I eats green stuff, I like playing and drawing Harry Potter Day.’

 Amar – ‘I can send shockwaves when my pants drop.’

 Maab – ‘I’m a Penguin. I live in the snow, in a tiny home. And I eat grass. I dig in the snow.’

 Summer – ‘I’m a Teddy bear, I eat grass and I live in a house’

 

At Storyplay you can go ANYWHERE…

And of course, Magic Ball is also a very loved game because the Magic Ball truly can take you anywhere in the world of your imagination!

Magic Ball, Magic Ball

Take us where we want to go…

 

Today we landed in Zombieland – a bit of a scary start!

We crouched down low to the ground to discuss what to do?

We thought maybe pretending to be zombies might help us to blend in!

So, Malak gave everyone a spectacular demonstration of how to walk and move like a Zombie!

And Alan sprayed everyone with Zombie Smelling Spray to makes us even more convincing!

Just as we were all happily Zombie-Ing along, practicing our Zombie movements and sounds an actual Zombie turned up!

Now, it was clear that this Zombie was trying to tell us something. Big Mohammed translated, he said –  ‘The Zombie wants to eat all of our brains!’

 Well! We weren’t going to let that happen…

‘Might the Zombie eat something else? – we wondered?

 ‘I think he wants some soup.’ – Big Mohammed replied.

Mariam offered soup to the Zombie.  And then we all did!

And it went down very well!

So the Zombie left…

Phew!

Narrow escape!

We thought it might be a good idea to try to be silent in Zombieland.

So we practiced creeping silently….

Suddenly, Alan realised he had lost a hand!

Luckily Malak found it for him!

We were just doing a great Zombie Dance when a hungry Werewolf appeared!

So we fed him fruit and he went away!

A lovely, shared meal

 Enjoying eating food together is very important part of Porridge & Play but the last session of every block is extra special because families often bring delicious food to share with everyone! We get a chance to taste food from all our different countries. Finger-licking home-made treats! The Bridgeton Families went overboard and we had dips and cakes and falafels and many treats – delicioso!

How lucky are we to have such a brilliant big family of families at the Bridgeton Hub – thank you all for 5 wonderful weeks of brilliant Storyplay!

Andre, Nerea, Paul, Taz, Virginia, Ruby & the Bridgeton Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Click on the drawings!

In a deep, cold and dark forest or a warm and sunny one

In a cave with bones and cobwebs or in a two-bedroom flat…

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Happy, scary and funny ones

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Cheery Monsters at Bridgeton Hub!

Girisha says – ‘I am a Red Monster and I am really scary. I can make it rain and I can make it STOP!’

 Mohammed says – ‘I’m a monster who can make people pause.’

 Alan is Larry the lumberjack Monster he says – ‘I live in a cave.’ 

Aleen says – ‘I’m a Blueberry Cup Cake Monster and I dance with this outfit. I live in a Cup Cake house.’

 

These monsters love to dance and draw, play Funky Chicken till it’s hot!

These monsters may seem scary,

But I promise you they’re not!

 

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Happy, scary and funny ones

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Cheery Monsters at Bridgeton Hub!

 

Mariam says – ‘I’m a Monster Pants and I save food, so I am actually a superhero’.

 Mohammed is Super Granny Monster – ‘I am here to destroy the other monsters. I live in a hut. I can freeze everyone. I live with another monster’

 Summer says ‘I am Monster Teddy Bear and I can fly. I live on a mountain.            It is always sunny’.

 

These Monsters love fruit!

These Monsters love soup!

They love a good circle and they love singing too!

 

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Happy, scary and funny ones

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Cheery Monsters at Bridgeton Hub!

Maab says –  ‘I am Monster Penguin. I also have freezing powers. I live in a forest. It is very warm.  

I live with witches and of course – I do my penguin walk!’.

 Amar says – ‘ I am Red X Monster. I’m also free!’

 Malak says – ‘I live in Malak; it is beautiful in Malak. I eat vegetables and cupcakes.’

All monsters yes, but different!

All with individual style,

These monsters are peculiar

But they’re all fantastic fun!

 

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Happy, scary and funny ones

Monsters, Monsters everywhere

Cheery Monsters at Bridgeton Hub!

 

Nerea, Paul, Steven & Bridgeton Hub Families

 

 

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Click on the drawings!

Come all, come all to Porridge & Play

You can be anyone; do anything every day!

With Funky Chicken you get to be,

Any animal you like – Yes even a flea!

A Happy Horsey or a Happy cat.

A Mad Lizard and a Scary cat!

An Angry Kangaroo and a Naughty Penguin.

– And let’s all cheer up that poor Sad penguin!

Pick a balloon of your favourite colour

Blow it up big and fly round the world

the world, the world which is best from the air!

People of all countries – they are here, here and there!

 

This is my red balloon, I blew it up and went to Antarctica,

 it was very cold; we counted to 5 and the balloon popped! OOOOOOOh!

 

Going around the world is like going outside our circle,

We saw lots of rainbows and our footsteps outside the circle,

going around and around and around…

 

The rivers, the countries, that’s a tree and that’s ME!

Pick up a balloon!

Fly wherever you want to be!

 

A very good cake just fit for a king.

We can bake you one in a blink!

And we can even sing!

Arafa added eggs,

Alan some raspberries,

Malak said –  let’s put apple in the cake!

Mohammed put 5 vanilla drops

And Summer binded it all up with flour!

‘let’s put rainbow cream in the cake! We put it on like this’

Salah showed us all :  sh-sh- sh- sh-ssssssh!

A cake for the King in a giant black castle!

And this is jelly, so so good with cake!

Also cream with the strawberries in!

Tastes delicious and on top… the king!

It is a birthday cake for the king of the castle;

Deliciously tasting of strawberry with pistachio!

 

All of us sitting together

we used ingredients for the cake –

flour, eggs, milk and many other things,

it was a delicious cake!

A castle and a cake!

There is also water here –

 And a dog inside a cave!

 

What a great Bridgeton Porridge & Play Day!

Thanks everybody for such a great Day of Play!

See you next week! When Nerea will welcome back Paul and Steven to our Licketyspit Team!

Ruby, Andre, Nerea, Virginia  & Bridgeton Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Click on the drawings!

Our Bridgeton families were in excellent form for Session 2 of our Porridge & Play Block…

We warmed up making ourselves As Big As A Bear with Nerea and  played a round of Funky Chicken with Andre!

Then Taz took everyone through the story of Miss Mary Mac and then we all had a go at My Name Is Joe and realised that poor Joe works far too hard!!

Now, the Bridgeton Hub LOVES to dress up and let me tell you, they get so inspired when they do – they often TRANSFORM into completely different people with all sorts of skills, likings, opinions and even missions….

MIRIAM – ‘My name is Orange – I go to the supermarket, I entertain the kinds, I do dancing.’

 MOHAMMED – ‘ I’m Superhero Green, I like to eat green vegetables and save the day.’

 MAAB – ‘I’m a penguin and I live in a tomato. On Sunday afternoon I like to poo.’

 ALAN – ‘ I am cagey. On Sunday I like to kill on my phone. I like to eat a wee sandwich.’

 MARIAM –  ‘ I’m the Doodie, I like to watch my phone, I like chicken’

 AMAR – ‘I’m SuperBlack – I like to cook people and bananas’

 ALEEN –  ‘ I’ like strawberries, I like Meera the devil hunter’

 It is FANTASTIC how a few bits of dressing up combined with a good idea can inspire you to imagine yourself as someone completely different! That’s how actors create characters! Because acting it’s all pretty much about imagining yourself as somebody else which is very much how children PLAY!

Magic Ball

Magic Ball

Take us where we want to go

WOOOOSH!

The atmosphere was…well…different and we noticed that we were walking rather slowly…

We had landed in the MOON!!!

We met a wee alien Moon Person who looked a lot like Aleen and she gave us the answer to a very famous question – yes, we can confirm that the moon is made of cheese!

‘It feels hard when we step on it! – said Alan

‘ Maybe it is made of HARD cheese!- said Taz

Why don’t we taste it? – said Ritika

And we did!

After that we walked about doing Moon Walks of all sorts and  then met another Moon Person who didn’t like cheese but did like vegetables!

We fed him all sorts of nutritious veggies until he was stuffed. So we decided to show him how to dance by sharing our best moves. He was impressed and very grateful – so much so that he took us in a long Moon Conga to a Moon Party.

When we got there, he sang us a song  and in exchange we sang Jelly on His Head for him which he LOVED! We said goodbye to the Moon Person and the Moon Party and climbed back into the Magic Ball to get back to Bridgeton for our drawing, our meal and our Licketyspit Art Gallery.

A fantastic afternoon full of joy, play, imagination and FRIENDS!

Catch you next week!

Andre, Nerea, Taz, Johnny & Bridgeton Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Click on the drawings!

Licketyspit’s Porridge & Play is back in Bridgeton with old and new friends and SO many new adventures to have together!

How lovely to see returning Bridgeton families and welcome some new families! 

There were big smiles and hugs galore! We were all so happy to be together again! And we discovered that some of us have got a lot taller!! Everyone was on great form and looking forward to Storyplay.

Our circle was BIG so we all took a moment to say our names and to welcome our new pals – Rikita & Girisha, Ghada, Mohammed & Amar, Lina, Aleen & baby Maysa and Mudathir & Ibrahim!

Then we made our selves as Big As A Bear! We love to warm up our bodies, voices and imaginations before playing all together – grown-ups and children!

Funky Chicken was packed with fabulous imaginings – Summer kicked us off with a Funky Chicken and Mabb created the Cheeky Frog. Salah imagined a Hungry Tiger and Amar a Fox Eating Cheetah. Girsha introduced us to a Snappy Crocodile whereas Aleen‘s Crocodile was sleepy! instead. Emilia became a Fast Horsey and Alan invented a rather funny Stupid Crocodile!

Pick Up A Balloon!

With every puff of air our colourful balloons grew bigger and bigger until suddenly we were up on our tiptoes ready for a last blow to take us all up, up high in the sky and over Bridgeton – the view from up there was breathtaking! As we flew over Glasgow Green we spotted a dinosaur party and a ladybug party – we could hear trumpets and drums! There were frogs all over the ground and we even spotted a spider! – it must have been a great huge one…wow! Then the Naughty Seagull popped our balloons and we fell down to the ground!

Where might we fly next? – to space? to New York City? what about planet Venus? WOW – we might see an astronaut, the moon, and many countries like Africa …or Sudan (which we love!)

So we blew up our balloons and off we went. Higher and higher we flew! So so high that suddenly we could see Portugal….and soon after that we found we could see Sudan …..and then………a UFO!

 We descended a bit to see the sea, where we saw mermaids ….and sharks! So we dared each other to tickle a shark. Down we all flew and that’s exactly what we did!

Dress up the Licketyspit way!

We found our big bag of dressing-up clothes and we transformed ourselves into a marvellous collection of Bridgeton Grannies! There was Rainbow Granny, Robot Granny, Granny Duck who lives in a straw house!. Granny Butterfly with her big ears, who lives on a boat and eats cereal, I’ll have you know! We met Grannie Biscuits, Cool Granny, Robot grannie – who lives on a boat, a Flying Granny and Grannie Fatma – who lives in a hut in the forest. Laughing Granny said she liked to sit on a chair to relax and Granny Arafa told us she likes making Art! There was a Granny who lives on an island too – where there is water everywhere! Who would have thought that Bridgeton had so many Grannies who are so different, so cool and so fun!!!

 Let’s eat together!

A highlight of Porridge & Play is the delicious food we all eat together round our big spotty table! It is great fun because we get to chat to each other and each week we get to know everyone better, which makes us all happy and fuzzy inside. What could be better than a good time with tasty food and a bunch of your pals?

And that was just Session 1 of this Porridge & Play block! See you all in for Session 2 …Toodleloo!

Andre, Nerea, Taz, Virginia, Johnny & the Bridgeton Hub families!

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Click on the drawings!

Discovering what’s free to do with your family in your city!

We are very lucky to have fantastic museums and cultural venues in our city and many of them are free!

Picnic & Play is all about taking Storyplay out in the world – we sometimes go to beaches, other times to lochs or parks but we also love to go to museums!

Picnic & Play in Glasgow is all about families taking local public transport to travel to enjoy Storyplay and a delicious picnic with Licketyspit at one of our wonderful Glasgow Museums – we have been to Kelvingrove Galleries, Gallery of Modern Art, the Tall Ship and this Easter we are having brilliant Storyplay at the Riverside Museum – the museum of Transport!

Since Picnic & Play is all about exploring other places through Storyplay we thought that makes us STORYPLAY Explorers! And so our intrepid families imagined themselves beautifully with the help of Dressing up and turned themselves into a very vibrant bunch ready to discover all sorts of things using our Magic Ball…

Magic Ball, Magic Ball

Takes us where we want to go!

Whooooooosh!

A Magic Ball Adventure poem

Explorer Sandwich Hat, Explorer Pine Man, Explorer Shoes and Explorer Paris Artist,

Explorer Plotato , Explorer Blue Dragon, Explorer Ruby & the Archaeologist

Explorer Cristal,  Explorer Lily , Explorer Dog and Explorer I See…

Together they make – a Storyplay Explorer Team Extraordinareee!!!

We landed on a beach but we were washed away

It was a bit too much to resist such a great wave!

We found a big ship but somehow, we were bigger

How will we all fit in?!!!

Just blow up this balloon, blow it up and you will shrink!

Anusha’s fab idea was a brilliant tip!

Cause we all blew a balloon and we all became small!

So tiny happy us enjoyed a cool ship trip

Until a massive Giant appeared on the scene!.

He said – Have you ever travelled by means of giant palm?

We said, ‘We haven’t, no!’ – as we climbed onto his hand!

But how can we go back to our normal size?

‘There is an old machine that can help you all with that’

We fought a fierce fire and rescued trembling Ruby,

We went by train with Amjad and that was also groovy!

And then we flew up high on a hot air balloon

And we looked down from the sky

And felt as high as the moon!

We looked at all the countries, the countries of our pals-

Spain, Poland, Scotland

Nigeria, Pakistan,

Iran, Iraq and England

We saw them like a map!

And so away we flew after exploring lots

To have a lovely Picnic and to draw all of our thoughts!

Ruby, Andre, Taz & Whiteinch, Castlemilk, Maryhill, Govan & Cranhill families

Licketyspit’s Art Gallery

There’s lots of ideas and activities to get you playing at home. Try our interactive videos! Including…

• Making with Iona
• Cooking with Taz
• Exploring with Jack
• Funky Chicken
• Grandma Grandma

and many more!

Find out more about what’s happening at Licketyspit by clicking on the button.

We have some Lickety Mums who volunteer at our Porridge & Play sessions as Storyplay Champions.

If you would like to find out more about Storyplay Champion training and volunteering, click on this button or get in touch with us on cfn@licketyspit.com

Discovering what’s free to do with your family in your city!

We are very lucky to have fantastic museums and cultural venues in our city and many of them are free!

Picnic & Play is all about taking Storyplay out in the world – we sometimes go to beaches, other times to lochs or parks but we also love to go to museums!

Picnic & Play in Glasgow is all about families taking local public transport to travel to enjoy Storyplay and a delicious picnic with Licketyspit at one of our wonderful Glasgow Museums – we have been to Kelvingrove Galleries, Gallery of Modern Art, the Tall Ship and this Easter we are having brilliant Storyplay at the Riverside Museum – the museum of Transport!

Since Picnic & Play is all about exploring other places through Storyplay we thought that makes us STORYPLAY Explorers! And so our intrepid families imagined themselves beautifully with the help of Dressing up and turned themselves into a very vibrant bunch ready to discover all sorts of things using our Magic Ball…

Magic Ball, Magic Ball

Takes us where we want to go!

Whooooooosh!

A Magic Ball Adventure recalled by Poppy, Jesé, Deon, Zara, Taz, Kim & Caroline

When Poppy opened the Magic Ball’s zipper she shouted – ‘ITS A FOREST!!!’.

The trees were big and beautiful but suddenly Sarah and Mateo got grabbed by tree branches! Sarah was trapped in a tree embrace, and Mateo was being dragged by his leg!

‘Quick! Let’s get out of here!’

So, we ran away and found a great big train, which nobody knew how to drive, until Kim said – ‘I got this’. So, we held on tight and off we went. Let me tell you…good try Kim but her driving was rather bumpy and quite fast!

As we stopped, a man with a problem appeared – ‘And what kind of problem do you have?’

• ‘A pizza problem! I need all this pizza, and I have no clue where to get any!’
• What about MAKING some pizza?’ – a fabulous Italian Pizza Chef had the solution!

We told the Italian Pizza Chef that we were good helpers and off we went to her incredible Moving Kitchen – where the oven, the microwave and the fridge keep moving about making our Italian Pizza Chef rather confused and very lively!

We went to town with our ingredients – tomatoes, pepperoni, pineapple, cheese, onions, Indian flavours and even a wee bit of a potion that helps you see the sky closer!

And so with much freshly made pizza we had enough to feed the dinosaurs of the Man with a Pizza Problem and to have a right big slice for ourselves too – result!

After our pizza making, we took another train, this time the driver was Poppy and she was excellent! She took us to the beach in India and oh how we swam!

There we bumped into a group of teenagers who joined us on our travels by bus, this time to Africa! We took the subway to go to a big dancing party – we threw some cool shapes and enjoyed some funky moves, took some cool portraits, to remember our excellent adventure and then, actually quite hungry, we drove back to have a well-deserved Picnic.

All in all, a fantastic big adventure with great pals at the Riverside Museum!

See you all soon!

Andre, Sarah, Taz & fabulous Castlemilk & Whiteinch families

Licketyspit’s Art Gallery

There’s lots of ideas and activities to get you playing at home. Try our interactive videos! Including…

• Making with Iona
• Cooking with Taz
• Exploring with Jack
• Funky Chicken
• Grandma Grandma

and many more!

Find out more about what’s happening at Licketyspit by clicking on the button.

We have some Lickety Mums who volunteer at our Porridge & Play sessions as Storyplay Champions.

If you would like to find out more about Storyplay Champion training and volunteering, click on this button or get in touch with us on cfn@licketyspit.com

Bookplay is a Porridge & Play session where we all listen to a Story and then instead of the Magic Ball we ALL JUMP into the world of a BOOK to have an adventure!

The Just-so-John Bookplay stories are by a writer called Rudyard Kipling who was born 160 years ago in India! Rudyard travelled all over the world, which was quite amazing because this was before there were aeroplanes so you could only travel by foot, by boat, by horse, by bicycle  or by train!!  

Rudyard’s stories for children were inspired by all the different places he saw – a bit like us with our Flying Balloons game! His Just-So stories are about animals in India and Africa! (His most famous children’s book is The Jungle Book – which you might have heard of! ) His Just So Stories are about how he imagined some of the animals in the world came to be the way they are – how the camel got his hump? , how the leopard got his spots?, how the whale got his throat? and other questions.

Virginia’s Dad John loved these Just So Stories when he was a child. When he grew up he read them to his children (including Virginia) and then he read them to his grandchildren! John lived until he was nearly 91! When he died  some of his friends and family decided it would be fun to help Licketyspit to do some Just-so- John Bookplay Sessions to introduce the stories John loved to more children!  We are calling these our Just-So-John Bookplays! We hope you enjoy them!

‘How the Whale got His Throat’ by Rudyard Kipling – a Bookplay by Bridgeton, Whiteinch and Maryhill Hub families…

Today our Bookplay session was outdoors in a spot Licketyspit families love to go to …the Children’s Wood!

The Children’s Wood is a brilliant green space in Glasgow – we are very lucky that we live in a city with so many big and wee green spaces for us all to enjoy and look after. Our pal Andrea from the Children’s Wood Team joined us too and of course we thought – what’s more exciting than to listen to a good story around Andrea’s campfire?

 

 Excellent idea, my beloved!

Andrea knows everything about building fires we can enjoy safely and without damaging any nature around us – so we set up our Storyplay camp around the campfire, with a nice big picnic, and a wee shelter to make us all feel cozy and give us cover in case it rained – It didn’t! hurray!

And so, we sat round the fire and Ruby read the Rudyard Kipling Just So Story about ‘How The Whale Got His Throat’. You could have heard a pin drop! Everyone was so engrossed in the tale!

‘By means of a grating, I have stopped your ‘ating.’

While we toasted some marshmallows we all chatted about the story –

How many characters were there?

Who would like to play what?

How could you be one character one minute and another the next?, just

like that?

And how could the Mariner (sailor)manage to create a giant grating for the Whale’s throat with only a wee knife?

Well…the Mariner, as we had heard, was ‘a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.’

Did you know that infinite’ means ‘never ending’ and ‘Sagacity’ means ‘clever and canny’ ?

It was time to get on our feet and JUMP INTO the Kipling story of ‘How The Whale Got His Throat’ and a great way in is to dress up!

Abackr got started as the Stute Fish and Malak was a crab, Waheed felt strongly that he wanted to be the Whale and Farah decided to be the Sea itself! Many doubled as fish and other sea creatures, and everyone embodied the Big Great Whale swimming across the sea…whoosh!

Then Sarah and Grace became the Mariners and got eaten up by the whale – and that was too much fun not to have a go at, so other people became Mariners and enjoyed getting gulped up too!

 

‘Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?’

Inside the Whale’s belly a riot ensued and we all ‘stumped and they jumped and they thumped and they bumped…they pranced and they danced and they …hopped and they dropped and they ..danced hornpipes where they shouldn’t!” until the Whale got the hiccups.

Getting out of the Whale’s belly was also very fun, so quite a few Mariners got ejected!

The grating created by the Mariners who cut up the raft with the cunning use of the wee Jack knife, which proved to be very effective – the Whale tried several times to eat up more mariners but with no success because the grating we had stuck across the Whale’s throat was most effective. From that moment on, no fish or humans could ever be eaten by the Whale. Which also meant that the Whale’s digestion was going to be much more comfortable – happy days!

We had our lovely Picnic sitting together beneath the trees in the Children’s Wood enjoying being outdoors in the fresh air – we even had time to chase about between the trees!

Isn’t it great how you can Bookplay absolutely anywhere you like? All you need is your favourite story, some friends and your fantastic imaginations! What other great story could you Bookplay with your family and friends? Maybe you could tell us about it?

Ruby, Sarah, Taz, Andrea & our pals at The Children’s Wood

Could you BOOKPLAY a story with your family and friends this weekend?

Listen to John telling How The Whale Got His Throat by Rudyard Kipling by clicking here!

Lots of Storyplay, lots of friends, lots of food, lots of FUN on our last session of this block.

We always call the last session of each block a Porridge & Play Celebration because we celebrate many things that day – making new friends who live in the same bit of the city, learning things about each other, learning games that we can play together as a family and as a community, tasting and sharing delicious food and the fact that the Licketyspit family of families keeps growing!

Our circle was as big as ever and Big As a Bear got louder than EVER! Andre got everyone going and ready to welcome Funky Chicken – Zoe was a Naughty cat,  Xiyu a Golden Fish, Maya was  the Silly Giraffe and Waheed a Mountain Lion. Xiya became Karate Cat, Violet was Sunny Dog and Salaar was the Funny Lion! We particularly loved being Dying Flies today!

Next up was Dressing up – the Maryhill Hub families, children and grown-ups alike, are big fans of Dressing Up and they became exuberant Chefs with exuberant names like Lobster Chef! Ruby Chef was in a pickle because she needed some fresh ideas and help for an exquisite new cake recipe…we all were up for it: Let’s Bake A Cake!!

With ordinary and extraordinary ingredients – I recall mango, pineapple, eggs, flour and a smelly sock or two – we baked the most delicious, finger- licking and exciting cake ever seen in Maryhill! But can you believe that when we were enjoying a piece, suddenly Andre found something unexpected in his…a Magic Ball!!

Naturally, we all wanted to go on an adventure, so we blew the Magic Ball up to make it big enough for us all to climb inside, chanted the magic words and…WHOOOOSHHH!

Zac guided us all as he knew we had landed in the Jungle! and Zac knows everything there is to know about the jungle! As we were cautiously creeping about, we heard a sort of a roar ……AND a big green Dragon appeared and before we knew  it we were inside her belly!

Thrishitha and Salaar speak Dragon so they could speak to the Dragon. They found out that in order to get out we needed a boat and someone who could steer it! Waheed was ready to step up, so we climbed in and Waheed steered the boat out of the Dragon! Then the Dragon gave us a ride on her back…how kind! It was a very exciting flight and we had excellent views!

We had just landed and we were saying Cheerio to the Dragon when….WOOOOOOF!

A howling trio of wolves appeared! – Wolf Stuart lived in a dark cave, Wolf Andre lived under a mattress and liked to eat mustard and Wolf Violet lived under water and liked chocolate – A nice game of What’s The Time Mr. Wolf ensued…which took us, neatly to ‘Dinner Time!’

We love to share food at our Celebration, and the Maryhill families brought gorgeous delicacies from home to share  – Cinnamon rolls made by Rita, Maya and Olesya, chicken sausages that looked like octopus that Mai and Mali brought, Arvin and Shirley brought dumplings and Violet, Claire and Steven had made cornflakes & chocolate cakes.There were veggie sandwiches & Chocolate sandwiches made by Amna and Salaar and a Honey Cake made by Penny and Yulia plus lovely Kiir that Rohini made and another Indian sweet made semolina and cashews homemade by Gouthami. Plus, leek & tattie soup and lots of bread, cheese, hummus and fruit – what an absolute feast!!

The best part was, well…everything! Children and grown-ups together playing and sitting at a table to eat and chat like in a great big family gathering. And although it was the last session of the block, Storyplay adventures have just only begun for the families at our Maryhill Hub – look out for Bookplay and Picnic & Play adventures coming up very soon!.

 

Taz, Andre, Virginia, Ruby, Johnny and Maryhill Hub families

 

Maryhill Art Gallery!

There’s lots of ideas and activities to get you playing at home. Try our interactive videos! Including…

• Making with Iona
• Cooking with Taz
• Exploring with Jack
• Funky Chicken
• Grandma Grandma

and many more!

Find out more about what’s happening at Licketyspit by clicking on the button.

We have some Lickety Mums who volunteer at our Porridge & Play sessions as Storyplay Champions.

If you would like to find out more about Storyplay Champion training and volunteering, click on this button or get in touch with us on cfn@licketyspit.com