Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online 2025 blog where we share our stories and adventures!

Halloween is hands down one of our favourite times of the Year as we love to dress up and get all mysterious, mischievous and of course, spooky!!

Saturday had the Halloween vibes still in the air and the Online Hub fully embraced it from warming up with a scary boogie to the Monster Munch to turning the Funky Chicken into THE SPOOKY FUNKY CHICKEN!

Abisha introduced us to the Spooky Skeleton and Mohammed to the Spooky Snake. There was a Spooky Chocolate according to Aila and Khadeejah spotted the Spooky Pumpkin.

Dressing Up was a highlight today – we all became Witches! The best part of dressing up is that once you have your dressing up clothes on, sorted and combined just as you want them, slowly but surely, a characterstarts to appear…

And with the help of your brilliant imagination, you may in fact BECOME a cheeky witch for a little while…

Meet our Saturday witches!!

Witch Mohammad lives in a swimming pool underground and likes eating people with eyeballs. When he makes potions, he likes to add eyeballs, lettuce and carrots!

Witch Kadeejah comes from under a tree and eats eyeballs! Her best potion is made with carrots, eyeballs, poison apples and, well… more poison.

Witch Aila comes from under the ground and eats spiders!

Witch Abisha lives in a really dark scary black castle. BOO! She eats eyeballs and puts skeleton bones in her potion. – a very well-known ingredient amongst witches all around the world!

All the witches were deliciously scary and cheery and up for game of Witches Fingers that was full of trickery!

With one of your fingers TOUCH one of my Witchy Fingers – and repeat after me:

“I am going to drink a bottle of…’ 

Now prick up your ears and listen to me!

I will drink a bottle of different things –

But one of them surely POISON will be

and when I say POISON…run away from me!!!

So after a bit of witchy trickery came Witchy LOVE!!

All the witches wrote love letters to each other for a game of I Sent a Letter to My Love:

‘You are cute, and I love you’

‘My dear, I miss you’

‘I love you’

 

That got us all ever so inspired for our Reflective Drawing – we all ended up with fabulous images that came from our fantastic imaginary play and we shared them in our wonderful and legendary Licketyspit Art Gallery– where not only do you get to enjoy the art you also get to meet the Artists talking about their drawing!

Who said you can’t go on adventures from home with all your pals?!

Virginia, Sarah, Andre & the Online Hub

Some of our drawings from Week 4……

Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online 2025 blog where we share our stories and adventures!

We make fantastic shapes and swing about our hips

Jump and twist, hop and turn with our Online Peeps!

So my friends! We were all ready for an Online Boogie to wake up all our senses before we got stuck into our imaginary Storyplay! – we love to warm up our bodies and our minds so we can sharpen our imaginations – like a pencil! Ready to create all sorts of adventures, characters and situations!

We sang a song with people that tend to go to bed

With Fried egg on their Faces or Jelly on their Head!

At Porridge & Play we love singing and songs that tell good stories, are often the songs we like!

Like Jelly on His Head which is a cool rhyming song about all these wonderful and eccentric people who have funny routines before going for a good night sleep!

AND of course, we love The Funky Chicken, a brilliant shapeshift game

Each player becomes an animal and asks us to be the same!

Sam imagined a Three Legged Turtle and Ibrahim was a Funky Lion. Shawn was the Baby who goes to school, but Khadar was a Dancing Lion. And Khadeejah became a Funky Cat while Abisha was a Silly Giraffe and Aila imagined the Crazy Hedgehog!

They way we all dress up it’s not how you may think

We find old clothes and bits and bobs and lots of random things,

Combining them together in quirky funny ways

We turn into all sorts of folk. And on Saturday we were CHEFS!

Mohammed became Chef Pisa who uses spices and makes spicy French fries.  Khadeejah’s Chef Barbie makes pink things. Genesis transformed into Chef Cookie Genesis who makes cookies with cream! Abisha went for Chef Oliviaand Shawn was Chef Cheese who makes yellow noodles and has a pet zebra!.

Let’s Bake A Cake! – we all took part; we did try our best

To help this Chef who needed help, I say it not in jest!

Her French Chef pal was there as well to cook a superb feast

Our creation was a sensation, and a joy, to say the least!

We made the most incredible cake combining ingredients like flour, eggs and butter but also blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, ice-cream and chocolate sauce. The decoration was also fantastic- I have never seen so many sprinkles on a cake before! All topped off with a massive serving of whipped cream on top!

Reflective Drawing is so cool to refresh our memories

Of all the things we’ve thought of while playing in our stories

We tell each other what we’ve drawn and how we made our way

Through dance and games and dressing up – we love to STORYPLAY!

Andre, Taz, Sarah & The Online Hub

Some of our drawings from Week 2……

Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online 2025 blog where we share our stories and adventures!

Together at home, together we all

We dance, we move, and we have so much fun

Do you know the Funny Orca?

What did you say?

Do you know the Tired Lion?

What did you say?

We make up animals with fantastic skills

Dress up becoming who we want to be

We Imagine ourselves as spies, whales or queens

And go on adventures you wouldn’t believe!

We blew up the Magic Ball as big as we could

To Jump up inside and asked if we should

Go up to a rainbow or deep in a cave

Or down through a tunnel or inside a cake!

If you imagine a place you would like to go

You might end up there but you’ll never know

Until you say those special words

Magic Ball Magic Ball

Take us where we want to go!

We landed somewhere with a glorious food market

Delicious smells made us all a bit hungry

We followed our nose and met a strange lady

Who looked like a mushroom but was very friendly.

Have you ever swum in a cheesy fondue?

 No, never, we haven’t but we are about to!

Cheese Fondue swimming is rather exciting,

Tasty, peculiar and very fantastic!

Suddenly a giant took issue with us!

That’s my Cheese Fondue!

I’m not happy with that!

Sorry Mister Giant, what can we do?

Make me nice wee brew and I may not eat you!

We mixed marshmallows and ice-cream

Carrots and cucumber

Stirred in some chocolate

And shook all together.

It was very refreshing just to start with until….

The giant found something floating in his drink

And after he found it he wasn’t so keen!

Who on Earth threw their smelly sock in?

We all run away laughing loud –HEE HEE HEE!!!

         What an amazing crowd!!!

 

Andre, Sarah, Taz & the Online Hub

Some of our drawings from Week 2……

Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online 2025 blog where we share our stories and adventures!

Porridge & Play ONLINE is just another way of doing STORYPLAY with friends – instead of meeting in the same place we all meet online using ZOOM and although we are all in our home playing, we are ALSO in each other’s homes playing together, cool right?

 So, this first Saturday, Sarah, Andre and Taz met Yahye & Ibrahim, Abisha & Aila, Mohammed & Khadeejah, Esther, Goodness & Glory and Simmi, Sam & Shawn for an action-packed Porridge & Play Online session and it was excellent fun!

Like we do when we play together in a big group, we started saying hello to each other and then we got all warmed up with a Dance Warm up and with Big As A Bear to get us all going.

 And then of course we played a game of FUNKY CHICKEN!

 Our love for Dressing up with things we find around the house is strong when we play ONLINE and so this Saturday, we thought it would be cool to dress up as Explorers – we all disappeared from our screens for a wee minute and came back looking rather intriguing…!!!

 Esther reappeared as a Fluffy Dinosaur that liked exploring chocolate forests, while Glory was a Bunny Lover Explorer who liked to explore about bunnies and Goodness became an Explorer who liked to explore shoes and hopping things!

Ibrahim Explorer liked to explore teddy bears Yahye explored plants! Simmi was an explorer of forests and seas, Sam an explorer of dark caves which is why he had a torch, and Shawn also had a torch in his bag to explore caves and do mining stuff. Mohammed was a Unicorn Explorer because ‘I love unicorns and when I sleep, I dream about them’. And Khadeejah explored to find mermaid tails!

Since we all looked the part, we thought that we should get on and do some exploring with a Flying Balloon – we had our balloons of different colours, and we blew them up so big that they lifted us high up into the sky!!

 As we flew away looking down and admiring everything beneath us – the world looked so tiny from up there!

 We were passing an interesting looking island, when Shawn shouted out that his balloon had popped, and he was trapped down on the island! Help! We all flew down to try to help him of course but there we found, not Shawn, but the pirate who had kidnapped him!

 The pirate said she wanted something in exchange for releasing Shawn, so we had a discussion about what to do…Abisha had a treasure box, so she passed it to the Pirate and who was thrilled because it was full of pearls!

 ‘Ok, follow me’? she said, ‘and I’ll show you where Shawn is! Get your torches at the ready because we are going into a dark cave…’

 Wow! The cave was full of deep holes. We had to even swim under water through a tunnel where a mermaid lived! The mermaid wanted to see our best synchronized swimming moves before she’d let us pass through the tunnel to save Shawn!

We passed the synchronised swimming test extremely well. And we found Shawn, who as it turned out was actually quite happy inside the cave. He was busy mining and not worried at all!

 However, we were all quite looking forward to going back home for some Reflective Drawing and the Licketyspit Art Gallery! Our drawings were so interesting, and great for the gallery!

What a great way to spend a Saturday morning! Thanks pals!

 Sarah, Andre, Taz and the ONLINE Hub

Some of our drawings from Week 1……

A very sunny last Picnic & Play of the Summer in Troon Beach and our Whiteinch & Online Hub pals did not hold back…

The sun was shining, and our friends were well prepared for Picnic & Play on Troon beach – swimming costumes & goggles, big brothers and sisters, smiles and excitement – fantastic ingredients for a cool day taking Storyplay out and about!

We found a great spot on the beach, a big space that seemed to have a circle already drawn on the sand…coincidence?

Our circle was big and our warmup busy – we danced, we made ourselves as Big As A Bear and we had a good stretch while taking that beautiful salty sea air in.

Of course we played the all time favourite Funky Chicken and we had a Scary Tiger, a Galaxy Axalot, Jumping Starfish and Snapping crocodile amongst other funky animals!

‘Hello My Name Is Joe’ had us all pressing imaginary buttons vigorously and then we had a good round of Witches Fingers – cackling and running away!

Love was in the warm air with ‘Letter to my Love’ and after all that the excitement was growing and the hunger was too!…PICNIC TIME!

Everyone tucked in and got their energy up to get ready for seashore exploring and swimming! Shahla had brought cinnamon roles for everyone too which were delicious. Yum!

Let me tell you – our friends were ready to splash, dive, paddle, jump and explore stones and shells and even jellyfish!

Grown-ups also paddled and refreshed in the sea, it was actually not cold at all, and the sun was lovely and warming so if you ever got a wee bit cold in the water a few minutes out in the sun would warm you up again!

It felt even more like the perfect beach day as after our sea playing, we had delicious ice cream.

It’s funny how you can feel many things at the same time…we were a bit sad to leave the beach and at the same time we were so happy and grateful for a fabulous day on a beautiful beach with lovely weather and brilliant friends…

This was our last Picnic & Play of the Summer and the whole Licketyspit team felt very chuffed because it has been an absolute blast out there Storyplaying with our brilliant, creative and brave families! Huzzah for friends & play!

Sarah, Virginia, Taz, Nerea, Catherine & our Whiteinch & Online pals!

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

We all know how fast the weather in Scotland can change but our bold Govan & Online Hubs are always ready to adapt and enjoy whatever the weather.

We arrived in Balloch and saw some of the impact of a storm that had happened a couple of days before – branches scattered around and still some gusts of wind blowing now and again, whistling loud in our ears. We found a nice big clear space up the hill where we could make our circle and off, we started with Storyplay!

Have you tried dancing outdoors? We very much recommend it – you may even get some other passing people to be inspired to join you!

Funky Chicken was a lot of fun, and Hello My Name is Joe got us all panting and laughing in equal measure.

We met a few Witches & Wizards with long fingers and a flair for making different bottles of strange beverages – even a tiny wee Witch who chased us all!

As we were starting a game of ‘Letter To My Love’ the skies opened, and a summer shower descended upon us! But Licketyspit & friends are adaptable and determined so we quickly found cover under a canopy of trees where we not only played our game, but we also set up our camp so we could have our Picnic protected by the gorgeous big trees…it was rather magical!

We tucked into our picnic and drank hot chocolate, and then we were ready to set off and explore around beautiful Balloch Country Park at the Loch Lomond shores!

Loch Lomond is BIG and DEEP but oh so beautiful and inviting…

Swings and Swims!

Some of us had a blast at the brilliant play park – zip lining, pushing with our legs, learning about monkey bars, climbing and sliding, seesawing…

And some of us were immediately drawn to the water! – Aminata, Safa and Fatou were the first ones in. They didn’t hesitate and soon they were all swimming.

Azeem got inspired and after some discussion…in he went too!

Soon everyone else was exploring the shore: throwing stones, looking at pebbles and imagining finding some gold!

Then trousers got rolled up and many of our pals were paddling in the water and taking in the beautiful view and enjoying the great outdoors.

Many grown-ups and children said what a beautiful place Balloch is – for fun and games, adventure but also for peace and quiet and to relax in nature.

We all felt lucky and grateful for being outside, playing and happy with such a great group of pals – it was hard to leave as we were having such a great time but, you know what? Balloch and other wonderful spots in Scotland are there for all to visit and take care of so we can continue to enjoy our beautiful country!

A fantastic day all round with a fantastic bunch of families!

Taz, Sarah, Andre, Taiwo, Zainab & our Govan & Online pals

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

Picnic & Play is here and Licketyspit is delighted to go on trips with friends from all our Porridge & Play Hubs across Glasgow. Picnic & Play is an opportunity to Storyplay away from our Glasgow neighbourhoods – visiting public spaces in our city – like museums, parks or galleries or visiting outdoor places outside Glasgow, like Troon Beach or Balloch Country Park and bringing Storyplay to all of them!

The sky above Troon Beach looked dramatic – a combination of greys with occasional rays of light braking through the clouds. The wind was blowing and there were seagulls screeching loudly while circling in the air through a drizzle of rain. Sound dramatic, right?

Well, no drama for our Maryhill Hub friends! – they were full of beans and so very excited about their day out that they almost didn’t feel how fresh it was – one certainly needed a couple of layers on!

Graeme and Andy, our drivers dropped us near the promenade so carrying all our bits and bobs for our picnic wasn’t a huge effort and everyone helped so it was even easier.

We settled and quickly many of our friends were already running around, digging in the sand or checking out the shore!

DANCING ON THE BEACH!

Our dance warm up got the attention of folk who were there also enjoying a day out and many passersby were smiling at us and admiring our moves! Ruby got us all started, and we threw some cool shapes.

Funky Chicken with Andre was hilarious, and seaside infused! We had a Pinching Crab and an Angry Sea-turtle as well as of course, a Naughty Seagull!

We had to make our voices loud for Hello My Name is Joe and after that, running away in Witches Fingers was particularly satisfying running in the sand!

Letter to my Love is a great game to play outdoors! You can make a massive, big circle and friends get turns very quickly – it is also a funny game with everyone trying to pull the least suspicious face they can possibly master!

We also had a couple of rounds of Monsters Footsteps with some really scary looking Monster Trees…

TIME FOR A PICNIC!

We put down some tarps and big cloths to sit down on the sand and have our tasty picnic which it was so delicious that of course it got the seagulls attention. However, we managed to eat peacefully, and we even had some ice cream before heading to the shore to explore, paddle and…SWIM!

Yeah, you read it right.

Some of our wee pals were determined and in they went for a full swim!

Moman made up a game about jumping waves and Shiva said she got a wee bit nervous when something in the water brushed one of her legs…it was just some seaweed! Dan also swam like a fish and Yasna, Amira and Gabbie loved collecting seashells on the seashore.

Shaylin and Gabriella couldn’t make up their minds. One minute they were jumping waves and the next running away from them! Maha decided after a while that she was going to get in the sea too, but Adam was not convinced, and he just decided to look at all the dogs playing around on the beach and feed muffins to the seagulls!

Did I mention that most of the grown-ups also went for a wee dip …..of their toes?

It was a fantastic and action-pack day at the beach so some of our pals had a wee nap on the bus on our way home but others, like Yasna and Amira, decided to make up games to play while travelling. Clever, eh?

The Picnic & Play season is officially open!!

Andre, Ruby & Taz and our Maryhill Hub

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

It’s a place for us to PLAY and hide and seek and run.

It's a place to have a picnic, it's a place to have fun!

 

Once we made our circle we learned The Children’s Wood Welcome Rhyme!

The Children’s Wood it’s a green space in our city of Glasgow that is being looked after by the community. So of course we can play and have a lovely time there but also we can help to look after the Wood by being very careful with the trees, plants, bugs and beasties that live there and by not stepping over the bits of the Wood that are regenerating (that means that grass and plants grow by themselves and we help them by letting be and not disturbing it).

With the help of a Flying Balloon, we all followed Andre and went so high up in the sky that we could see the whole of the Wood far below us! We spotted bees having a race and people playing in a circle… (who do you think they were?) We saw creatures and the mud kitchen and Sarah spotted a dragon!

 But I will tell you a secret if you’ll listen to me…Shhh!

When it’s time to go home, NO-ONE will see

That we were ever here, because we played with such care

For the plants and trees and bugs and bees all living here!

 Everyone was very caring and careful and still we had big belly laughs!

The dressing up was tremendous. We had children and grown-ups transforming into hilarious and wonderful Forest creatures! Ala became a Deer, Anas was a Bear and Andrea became a Flying Squirrel! Shamaila was the Lion King and we had Batman Shazia! Gabbi - the Magic Invisible Unicorn - was delighted to hang out with a Mermaid and Zainab was a Jelly fish in this forest too! (Interesting!).

We had a few fierce Mr. Wolves too! Wolfie Taiwo who lived in a smelly cave! Wolfie Anas - who lived in a cosy cave! And Wolfie Taz who lived in a tree house on top of the tallest tree.

Our Picnic was enjoyed in the sun and then it was time for the fire!

Andrea told us how to be safe around a fire and enjoy.

We learnt how to make flints spark!

We twisted dough onto sticks we held over the fire and it turned into hot bread!

We toasted marshmallows and we sang Miss Mary Mac and Grandma, Grandma!

And let me tell you, doing Reflective Drawing in the forest is rather inspiring!

What a great time we had with our friends from Govan and the Online Hubs. We can’t wait to see our friends from all our Hubs and share the beauty of playing in nature at Forest Storyplay without leaving Glasgow at the wonderful Children’s Wood! HURRAY!

Taz, Andre, Virginia, Sarah & our Govan & Online friends

 

 

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

Forest Storyplay is a new collaboration with our friends from The Children’s Wood!

After last year’s fantastic Picnic & Play sessions and Storyplay Festival 2024 at The Children’s Wood we all wanted to go back there for more Licketyspit fun! The Children’s Wood are very happy to have us back and so this Summer we will bring families from across all our Hubs to enjoy more fantastic Storyplay outdoors.

Click on the logo to go to The Children’s Wood website!

At Forest Storyplay sessions this Summer we’ll have our Licketyspit games, a nice wee picnic and we’ll also get to learn a bit more about how to enjoy and look after The Children’s Wood!

Did you know that they grow food as well as beekeeping?

And that they have a labyrinth?

Did you know that not only they grow new flowers and plants but they also help the land recover by allowing different parts to grow wildly?

And do you know about the fairies? And the giant? And the dragon?!

I wonder how many characters and stories we can come up at the magical Children’s Wood…

We cannot wait to see you there very soon for FOREST STORYPLAY!

Taz, Andre, Sarah, Virginia & all at Licketyspit

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

Welcome to the Big Porridge & Play Online blog where we share our stories and adventures!

Goodbye for now – not forever!

A fabulous session to finish off our online block of Big Porridge & Play Online! It was a very sunny day in Glasgow and we felt the sunshine through the zoom this week too!

The Snowy Leopard, the Jumping Bee, the Curious Ardvark and the Jumping Cat all came to play in the Funky Chicken before launching into a lively round of Hello My Name is Joe!

We all dressed up to play I Sent a Letter to My Love and wrote the most marvellous letters…

Ibrahim became Mrs Carrot who lived in carrots and ate carrot cake!

Queen Fiire wrote a letter to her long lost Princess who she missed oh so much!

Yahye became Lego Man!

Khadar was Captain Undergold who wrote a letter to Future Place which he hoped would bring him everything he desired!

Iona wrote to her beloved water bottle, which kept her hydrated on hot days like this one!

Let’s hear Khadar’s letter!

‘My name is Captain Undergo and I live in a futuristic city! It’s called the Future Place, there’s flying cars! And no weather system! There are no houses made of stones or wood, there’s just houses made of robots and metals! What I eat for breakfast is wrenches! Wrenches are like a metal thing, it’s like a cereal where you put oil on top of it! It’s a very good breakfast! Here is my letter! To my love, my future place, I love you very much my future place you are just my place in my house and everything that I have been raising and growing up!’

Fiire’s letter said, ‘Dear my long lost Princess, I love you love you love you love you. I really hope I see you soon!’

Another fabulous session filled with rich ideas and imagination! So, remember to keep 8th of July free for our Picnic & Play in person session!! Enjoy the sunshine and see you soon.

Iona, Virginia & Andre xxx