Big Porridge & Play is Going Online!

2022-08-17T08:47:41+00:00

Licketyspit Press Release 28/04/2020 We may all be at home, but in our imaginations we can go anywhere, be anyone, do anything. All we need to play is each other! Scotland’s pioneering intergenerational imaginary play specialists Licketyspit have received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to adapt their popular family project Big Porridge & Play Glasgow to tackle social isolation and support families during the Coronavirus lockdown. The charity will bring groups of families together via Zoom to play games, sing songs and go on imaginary adventures - all from their own living rooms! In trial sessions, families have made Flying Butterfly Cake, talked to Polar Bears, flown through a Tornado and climbed a Hot Chocolate Volcano with the Licketyspit Actor-Pedagogues! Big Porridge & Play has been created with and for children and supports families to tap into their imaginations for hours of joy, excitement, creative learning and connection. Families across Scotland will be able to join open sessions every Saturday morning at 10am from 30th May (Taster Session this Saturday 2nd May at 10am). There will be a dedicated Children & Families Network Facebook Group and lots of ideas for things to do at home in between sessions. Families in Govan, Milton and Easterhouse, as well as the Gorbals, Whiteinch and Ruchill where the project has run since 2017, will be invited to community-specific, closed sessions on weekdays at 3.30pm (details below). They will also receive sets of Lickety Playcards, a fantastic [...]

Big Porridge & Play is Going Online!2022-08-17T08:47:41+00:00

Big Porridge & Play is BACK!

2022-08-17T08:48:21+00:00

We are thrilled to announce that Big Porridge & Play Glasgow is BACK for another 3 years! We're very grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund for continuing to support this innovate project and we are delighted to be taking BPPG to *3 new communities!* Volunteering - We'll be recruiting more volunteers! Click on the link to find out more and please get in touch if you're interested in becoming a Lickety Volunteer. Where it's happening - We'll be in our 3 existing communities... Ruchill The Gorbals Whiteinch And 3 NEW communities! Easterhouse Govan Milton Watch clips from last year's film: Find out more! https://www.licketyspit.com/families/licketyspit-projects/porridge-play/big-porridge-play/

Big Porridge & Play is BACK!2022-08-17T08:48:21+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 7

2022-07-13T15:56:22+00:00

13th June 2019 Our last session at the St Francis Centre was a wonderful celebration of what Porridge & Play can be, with families bringing countless delicious things to share in the meal, guests dressing up with the same gusto as everyone else, and big, collective games together in the circle. We started with Big as a Bear, during which we could hear several people joining in with the whole thing word for word. Then we played Funky Chicken, with lots of people revisiting their favourite invented animals one last time, and everyone joining in the actions - like the Happy Lion, the Sneaky Fox and the Slithery Snake.   There was an incredible level of focus on what the funny witches would say when we played Witches Fingers,and it was fantastic to have our wonderful Lickety Volunteer Saliha becoming a brilliant first witch! We sang Grandma Grandma, which was particularly enjoyed by the visitors as it's such an inclusive, feel good song for joining in the first time. Much the same could be said for Letter to my Love, kicked off by Arush and Jack, which could have gone on for hours before anyone got bored. And we finished with our story, Anoo the Alien and Jack the Deer, with a dozen people reading a line or two each round the circle. The story is a real achievement that everyone should feel so proud of, and it was lovely to end the play session with this before we sat down to eat. What a treat we had [...]

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 72022-07-13T15:56:22+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 6

2022-07-13T15:57:04+00:00

6th June 2019 Week 6 at the Gorbals was a day for Pirate captains keeping things ship-shape on the open sea, storytelling and a surprise from poor Old Rodger. Everyone really at ease playing together today. We had some extremely committed Pirates, wearing fantastic costumes and really feeling like we were on a huge ship, drinking our grog and swimming away from sharks. Everyone over 5 volunteered to read some of the story we wrote together last week, which was really special - a beautiful, focused moment. Anoo the Alien and Jack the Deer also appeared in some of the Reflective Drawing, as well as “a butterfly high in the sky all the way to the moon” (3 year old) We also sent a Letter to our Love to everyone’s great amusement – this along with Balloons is an absolute favourite. There were huge smiles all round in Old Rodger and it was great to see how much the parents were supporting the children to get involved in planting the tree and tumbling down the apples. This was mirrored in the songs, where those who have been coming to Porridge & Play for longer were really making people laugh with their full-bodied renditions of Jelly on his Head. Everyone was really excited for the Celebration session and keen to bring lots of exciting homemade food. Everyone was also delighted that Saliha brought some Turkish Delight to share following Eid celebrations.   What you said... [...]

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 62022-07-13T15:57:04+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 5

2022-07-13T15:57:25+00:00

30th May 2019 Travelling from the St Francis Centre in several taxi’s, we all managed to avoid the wind and the rain arriving at the wonderful and exciting Dream Machine on the London Road! As we warmed up and danced like Funky Chicken’s we could tell we were in for a great session and we were not disappointed! There was a special birthday in the group this week so we all decided to bake a cake! There were lots of exciting ingredients - delicious melted chocolate, fresh strawberries and grapes as well as some more unusual and odd ingredients added like…. a pair of shoes, a beautiful pink dress and even a door! We all helped pour the mixture into a baking tin, open the oven door and pop in the cake to bake! With a loud beeeep! The cake was ready! We all decorated it and sang Happy Birthday to Alan! who turned 4! (Then we tasted the cake! Yumm!) After we had finished eating our cake we had some story time! Jack read a brilliant story called Cockatoos by Quentin Blake. This is the story of Professor Dupont and his wondering and hilarious Cockatoos who get fed up of the Professors morning routine one day and decide to run away! I wonder if we can all remember where the Cockatoos were hiding?! The story of the cockatoos [...]

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 52022-07-13T15:57:25+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 4

2022-07-13T16:03:29+00:00

23rd May 2019 This week the BIG Porridge & Play Gorbals families set off from the St Francis Centre through the Gorbals and over the Suspension Bridge to play on Glasgow Green. We had a brilliant session! The Funky Chicken arrived with lots of funny animals - like the cheeky dog, the roaring t-rex, the angry cheetah, the happy lion and the cheeky spider and we had a great time dancing, singing and roaring as we walked along the road together like a big family. When we got to the park we wept and wailed over poor Old Roger. We planted some apple trees over his head - but when the apples grew ripe and all tumbled down a cheeky old woman came along and popped all the apples into her basket! She was very pleased with herself until suddenly…Old Roger hopped up from his grave large as life and gave her a SHOCK! Which made the old woman go Hippety Hop! We all think this story-song is hilarious! Everyone wanted a go at being Old Roger (and the Mums were scared!) We played a huge game of Witches Fingers with some scary parent witches cackling away! The witches had a terrible time trying to catch us though because we had the whole of Glasgow Green to run away to! We had wonderful Monster Trees which crept slowly up [...]

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 42022-07-13T16:03:29+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 3

2022-07-13T15:57:43+00:00

16th May 2019 Our third session of BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow at the St Francis Centre in the Gorbals was very enjoyable indeed! Jack and Ruby were joined by Iona, our Lickety volunteer Saliha and 35 participants as we played, sang and ate together on Thursday afternoon. We flew high above the St Francis Centre and high above Glasgow, travelling around the world holding on to our multi-coloured balloons! We saw four polar bears in the North Pole, we met a beautiful purple octopus and we just missed our balloons being popped as we ducked in and out of some aeroplanes at a busy Airport! We also saw 22 people, so small they looked like ants, playing football and luckily, we were just in time to see one team score! Gooooaaaaaallllllll! We had some great dressing up on show which made the game of What’s the Time Mr Wolf all the more fabulous! We had some very energetic animals in the woods and we need to remember for the next session just how scary the wolves are! We don’t want to get too near otherwise we might get eaten! Ahhhh! Love was also in the air throughout this session! We heard a romantic letter to a love but tragically it kept getting dropped onto the floor. Thankfully there was always someone there to pick it up! There was [...]

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 32022-07-13T15:57:43+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 2

2022-07-13T15:57:54+00:00

9th May 2019 We returned to the St Francis Community Centre for our second BIG Porridge and Play Glasgow session in the Gorbals where we visited the tropical forests of India, met people with some strange bed-time habits and were chased by a scary witch. With 13 families made up of new and returning members of the Children and Families Network, we had a fantastic session with all participating in our adventures. One parent exclaiming after the session, “they’re so happy!” Ruby and Hilde were joined by Jack and our new Lickety Volunteer Asem. We all enjoyed meeting the group again and playing and singing together! The Funky Chicken introduced us to some of his new friends, we met the fancy swan, the roaring tiger, the purring cat, the rainbow unicorn and the oinking pig! We also met some of Ruby’s friends! They all had one thing in common, some very very strange sleeping habits! One of her friends goes to sleep with a Jelly on His Head and another of her friends goes to sleep with Ice-Cream in her ears! We all wondered how they get to sleep at night! We travelled around the world for the first time leaving the St Francis Centre in our Magic Ball arriving in a very hot tropical forest in India! We trekked our way through the dark forest with torches and [...]

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 22022-07-13T15:57:54+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 1

2022-07-13T15:58:03+00:00

2nd May 2019 Our first Big Porridge & Play session in the Gorbals was a lovely coming-together of new and familiar faces in the St Francis Community Centre. 35 participants joined us, with several families from St Francis Nursery where we did a taster session the day before, and lots of local families from our Children & Families Network. We played lots of Lickety Playcard games and met the Fancy Peacock, the White Hampster and the Funky Horse in the Funky Chicken! In Balloons we saw the pacific ocean, a green pirate ship and a Brachiosaurus, the river Clyde and a door that went to a special place... Dressing up was a highlight, followed by Pirates - with a couple of hearty captains and Monsters Footsteps was very popular, appearing in lots of drawings. We had a Grandma who lived in a Yellow Cave and another who lived in a Golden Castle and grew tomatoes and carrots in her garden! We had a delicious lentil, carrot and leek soup, fruit and crusty bread, and ended the session with Reflective Drawing and the Licketyspit Gallery, where children and parent artists presented their work and shared what they liked most about the session! Even the youngest participants came up to share their detailed drawings and there was a lovely focus during the Gallery. You can find out more about our food [...]

Big Porridge & Play Gorbals Week 12022-07-13T15:58:03+00:00

Big Porridge & Play Glasgow Year 3 has launched!

2022-08-17T08:49:02+00:00

3rd May 2019 BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow Year 3 has launched! We were delighted to welcome over 40 families to Big Porridge & Play in the Gorbals, Whiteinch and Ruchill for the start of Big Porridge & Play Glasgow 2019. Launching in Ruchill first last Saturday, April 27th and in Whiteinch and the Gorbals on Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd May, we had a brilliant time meeting new families and seeing friends from last year, playing lots of Lickety Playcard games, dressing up and sharing a meal together. Look out for more updates from each venue on the Big Porridge & Play Glasgow page. BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow is a 7-week block of Licketyspit Playcard Play & food sessions for families with children under 12. This year for the very first time we will be going out for sessions 4 and 5 to have Picnic & Play sessions in cultural centres around Glasgow. Find out more by clicking here!

Big Porridge & Play Glasgow Year 3 has launched!2022-08-17T08:49:02+00:00

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