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

Govan Blog!

Celebrating play & friends at Licketyspit’s Porridge & Play!

It has been great to meet and play with friends old and new in Govan this year, we have had so much fun! We feel so lucky that you have all shared your incredible ideas with us!

After a brilliant dance warm up we were feeling all lovely so…we decided to send Letters to our Loves! But we kept dropping them! and then we had to try and guess WHO had picked the letter up and put it in their pocket?! It was hilarious!

Then we tipped out our magical mess of dressing-up and we all became CHEF’s!

What would our Chef name be?

What ingredients would we cook with?

And what style of cuisine would be our favourite?

We wondered……?

And then we discovered…

Shazia was Chef Carrotas who uses just carrots in ALL her recipes!

Shamaila was Chef Patita who cooks pita bread with flour, salt, black pepper and mint!

Haniya was Chef Pitu and she makes pizza with cheese.

Firas was the very interesting Chef Hole, who lives in a Black Hole. He said it feels very crazy because every time he makes something good it becomes bad! His favourite creation is pizza with pineapple and smelly socks. Mmm Tasty!

Safa was Chef Safa who lives in a castle with her Mum and she does ALL the cooking. Her favourite creation is pizza with cheese and she is a master of throwing pizza dough high up in the air and then forgetting to get it back!

Zakiyah was Chef Veggie. Her favourite vegetables to cook with are carrots, patatas and lentils.

Rodeyna was Chef Fritata whose most famous dish is meat cooked in shoes, an ancient technique called ‘Meat A la Chaussure’. Or is it ‘Meat a la Shoessure’?…mmm, I can’t be sure!

We learned that the President Of Mars was searching for cake.

‘Let’s Bake A Cake’ we said and we had just the song to do it to!

It turned out that the President Of Mars dislikes patatas so Chef Patatas was in trouble as Chef Patatas only cooks with patatas! Luckily all the other chefs were up for sharing some culinary expertise with poor Chef Patatas!

What a cake we made!

A cake recipe for disaster? Maybe, perhaps…

We got our mixing bowl and we sang and we stirred in –

Smelly socks

Dinosaur eggs

A Toblerone

A big unicorn

Strawberry & frog pies

Soup made of smelly shoes so smelly that you can’t actually smelled them and plums

A mermaid

A whole chicken

Fish soup

Veggie and smelly sock soup

Yellow, red, brown and green patatas

Baby patatas

We stirred in EVERYTHING – Stir and stir and stir and stir and let’s bake a cake!

So we baked it in the oven!

Then the Chefs decorated the cake with toy cars, Brussels sprout icing, rainbow sprinkles, chicken pasta, olives, bits of chocolate cake and bubblegum ice cream and marshmallows.

IT WAS A DISASTER! DISGUSTING!

Chef Patatas left the building terribly disappointed and all the other Chefs laughed and laughed.

Before we did our Reflective Drawing we sang ‘Jelly On His Head’ which is about different people who go to bed wearing food on their heads and faces!

What great session to finish our Porridge & Play in Govan!

We had lovely Celebration treats for our meal! Shazia had made delicious (carrot) Gudgarella! scented with cardamom (funny because her Chef only cooked carrots!), Zakiyah had made Lugaynat – yummy little doughnuts in syrup! And Imaan brought delicious chocolate and marshmallow biscuits!

We all hugged and hope it wont be too long until we are together again!

Our Govan friends took a set of Storyplay cards home so they can carry on playing all the Licketyspit games anywhere they like! We promised to send links to Licketyspit activities online – where by the way you can all Cook with Taz!

Thank you again for all the fun and we will see you all again soon!

Love from,

Sarah, Cami, Virginia, Taz, Steven, Paul & our Govan Friends

 

We almost always do ‘Reflective drawing’ at the end of a Storyplay session. It’s nice to relax and draw & think about what we’ve all done & how we feel about it.

Reflective drawing isn’t about doing a ‘good’ drawing – it’s about drawing whatever comes into your head when you think about what you’ve just done.

But as you draw you realise more about what you thought or imagined in the session. And it’s great to share that with everyone & hear what they thought! So many things go on in Storyplay!

Here are our Reflective Drawings from this week! Below is some of what we said!

 

READ SOME OF THE ARTIST’S REFLECTIONS FROM THE LICKETY 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

Govan Blog!

Witches, potions & a Magic Ball adventure!!!

The sun was shining in Govan today and our lovely space for Porridge & Play was full of sun rays!

Storyplay began with a warmup that is also a story full of action! Have you heard about Joe who works in a buttons factory? He has a wife and three kids, and his boss is very demanding…

We all got involved with ‘Hello! My name is Joe’ and got warmed up and ready to imagine!

We all needed to get ready to attend a very important event…a Witch Convention. So, we transformed into the most fabulous witches with our very own way of dressing up: using old clothes and turning them into all sorts of fantastic bits to create our own character!

The Witch Convention was compered by Witchy Tail Hair and her assistant Witchy Such & Such and they went around meeting and greeting all the other witches and they even interviewed a few!

Witchy Mohammad lives in the sky and is magic! Watch out.

Witchy Like Mohammad lives where Mohammad lives and he tricks people with their shoes… he he he!

Witchy Evangelina lives in the sky where it’s very fluffy and comfortable. She loves sunny side up eggs and makes cloud potions. Yum!

Witchy Safa lives in a castle pink with slime. Her favourite potion to make is made with nothing and it makes people grow curly hair. Very stylish!

Witchy Shada lives in different types of shoes, sometimes in a Castle Shoe. She lives with two people; one is messy and the other helps her. She makes a potion that makes ugly witches beautiful – this was much discussed amongst the witches!

Witchy Imaan makes a potion that makes people tiny. Very, very tiny!

Witchy Prew lives in a shoe castle that is pink. She lets random people live with her and her fave potion makes people blind. (She was rather evil!)

All the Witches then had a hoot playing their favourite game: Witches Fingers! And they loved it because it’s a game about tricking people! He he he!

But the fun did not end there for Witchy Safa had something in her pocket that she didn’t know about…a Magic Ball!!!

A Magic Ball is one the most exciting things one can experience. This tiny wee ball can be blown up huge, big enough for us all to fit in it! We open the zipper, and we step inside the great big Magic Ball and together we chat about where we’d like to go. Then 3 times chant the magic words:

Magic Ball Magic Ball take us where we want to go!

Magic Ball Magic Ball take us where we want to go!

Magic Ball Magic Ball take us where we want to go!

WHOOOOOOOSHHHHH!!!

Now the most exciting thing about the Magic Ball is that you never know where you are going to end up but what is for sure is that you will have a one-off adventure with all of your friends.

We landed in a soft play and as we bounced about, we discovered that we were in fact in a bouncy bog where Witchy Bogy lived. Witchy Bogy used to make tons of potions but these days she couldn’t remember how! Luckily for her we were there ready to share our Witchy knowledge and help her make a fantastic potion mixing ingredients like vanilla ice cream, snails, strawberries and unicorn slime. Wait, what? Where will we get Unicorn Slime?

You won’t believe it but Witchy Bogy had a Unicorn friend, but the Unicorn wasn’t very slimy at all since it hadn’t played a game in ages and it was bored and annoyed… eek!

And so the Witches thought…what about a game of Funky Chicken to cheer you up, Unicorn?

And what a game it was! The Unicorn had so much fun that it gave us some of the rare Unicorn slime and we finished the potion! And it turned out to be a Turning Potion!

Each and every Witch tasted the potion and turned into their very own animal:

Rodeyna and Firas turned into donkeys!

Mira was a kitten!

Shada was a snake!

Afira a swimming dolphin!

Eleen a wee donkey!

Zakiyah a flying bee!

And Shamaila – a lion that roared!!

A quick Returning Spell by Sadeen turned us all back into Witches and we set off to find the Magic Ball throwing fantastic shapes that looked like a funny dance!

What a great Storyplay session this week!

And next week…. PARTY! WOHOO!

Sarah, Cami, Taz & The Govan Friends

 

We almost always do ‘Reflective drawing’ at the end of a Storyplay session. It’s nice to relax and draw & think about what we’ve all done & how we feel about it.

Reflective drawing isn’t about doing a ‘good’ drawing – it’s about drawing whatever comes into your head when you think about what you’ve just done.

But as you draw you realise more about what you thought or imagined in the session. And it’s great to share that with everyone & hear what they thought! So many things go on in Storyplay!

Here are our Reflective Drawings from this week! Below is some of what we said!

 

READ SOME OF THE ARTIST’S REFLECTIONS FROM THE LICKETY 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

Govan Blog!

We had a lovely Porridge & Play this week with Sarah, Cami and with Paul Chaal.

Paul is a Glaswegian whose Mum and Dad came to Scotland from India when they were teenagers. So although Paul was born here he can speak Urdu, Hindi & Punjabi as well as English, which was very handy for this Govan session!

Paul started Porridge & Play today by leading us in a wonderful Dancing WarmUp before we did the Funky Chicken – and what animals we met!!! Shamaila introduced us to the Hungry Pigeon, Safa showed us the Silly Fish, Sumaira brought the Neigh Horse and Ariana the Meow Cat!

Then we all dressed up as Forest Creatures! Arianna was a Furry Fox, Shazia was a Roaring Lion and Noureen was a Wolf AND we had Hania as a Granny and Firas as a tree!

Now in this forest the Wolf was the only animal who had a watch! So all the other creatures could only find out what the time was by asking Mr Wolf BUT!!! They had to be very careful to try not to ask him when its DINNER TIME!!!! When it’s not Dinner Time Mr Wolf does lots of other things which the creatures can do too! Like – going swimming or running or brushing our teeth or playing the piano or the guitar ot playing basketball! But when it’s DINNER TIME Mr Wolf likes to eat Forest Creatures!!!! So they all have to run away as FAST as they can so he can’t catch them for his Dinner!

Oh there were some fantastic Wolves in our game! Safa’s Wolfy Fox lives in pink/purple treehouse and likes to eat fish – when he’s not eating Forest Creatures, and his watch was gold!

Firas’ Wolfy Tree-Fox lives in a small red house and eats fish (When he not eating Forest Creatures) and he has a gold watch too!

Wolfy Ariana lives in a pink tree house and has a beautiful gold watch too.

And Wolfy Hanyia and mum – Sillywolf live in a pink box and wear a watch made of rainbows!

Then there was Arooba’s Wolfy Goldilocks with a diamond watch!

Lots of great drawings were made about the Storyplay and them we all sat round the table for Cami’s delicious Leek & Tattie soup (We have put the recipe below, you can add a tin of butter-beans for more protein if you like), bread,cheese and fruit & a nice chat!

Then we had the Art Gallery (You can see and read about the gallery here!)

and THEN we all loved singing Three Craws!

The old Scottish song about –

The Craw (crow!) who couldna flee (fly) ataw!

The Craw who fell and broke his jaw!

The Craw who was greetin’(crying) for his Maw (Mum)!

AND

The Craw who was’ni there ataw!

Then we all did a brilliant Magic Clap and we went home!

Don’t forget to come early next week. We only have 2 more sessions so we want to play as much as we can! Please come at 3.50pm for a drink & a biscuit to be ready to start at 4pm!

If you cannot come on time please tell us and let another family who can, have your place.

Have a lovely weekend!

Love from Sarah, Cami & Paul & all at Licketyspit xx

 

We almost always do ‘Reflective drawing’ at the end of a Storyplay session. It’s nice to relax and draw & think about what we’ve all done & how we feel about it.

Reflective drawing isn’t about doing a ‘good’ drawing – it’s about drawing whatever comes into your head when you think about what you’ve just done.

But as you draw you realise more about what you thought or imagined in the session. And it’s great to share that with everyone & hear what they thought! So many things go on in Storyplay!

Here are our Reflective Drawings from this week! Below is some of what we said!

 

READ SOME OF THE ARTIST’S REFLECTIONS FROM THE LICKETY 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

Govan Blog!

We had a wonderful start to Govan Porridge & Play 2024! Such a great group of families old and new! 18 children with 9 Mums & a grandmother. Sarah led a Dancing Warm-Up while we waited for everyone to arrive (please try to come by 4pm next week so we can all have as much Storyplay as possible!). Steven led us in the Big as a Bear Warm-Up before we played Funky Chicken and met lots of marvelous and hilarious characters from the Funny cat to the Yellow giraffe!

Cami invited us to blow up our many coloured balloons and float up high into the sky over Govan! We were so high that the trees looked like broccoli and the people looked like ants and the river Clyde looked like a shining snake slithering across Glasgow! We saw birds and fish and boats and dynausaurs and some pirates cooking fish on their boat! It smelled so delicious that we flew down to eat some before the Naughty Seagull POPPED our balloons and we fell back to the ground! We blew up another balloon and up we went again, so high in the sky that now Scotland looked like a wee bit of lego and we could fly over the whole world – the sea, forests, deserts, the North Pole, the Great Wall of China and Paris France! It was an amazing adventure until – uh oh! – a big eagle came and popped our balloons again! (If you look in your pocket you may find another balloon waiting for you. You can blow it up and fly into the sky whenever you want!).

We LOVE dressing up at Licketyspit. With a bit of imagination and just a few old clothes we can make millions of brilliant costumes and invent characters! A dress can be a cloak, long hair, a granny’s shaw, a chef’s apron or a monkey’s tail! Today everyone dressed up as the most fantastic and funny Grannies! (Some told us they like to eat Hot Dogs, Macaroni Cheese & Pizza!)

We played Monsters Footsteps where the trees at the bottom of the Grannies’ gardens turned into Monsters when they turned their back and crept up on them until…..they caught them! Haaa! Then we did the GrandMa Grandma Rhyme!

Everyone did beautiful Reflective Drawings about the session and showed them in the Lickety Art Gallery! You can see some here! And we sat at the table and had a great feast of Steven’s delicious lentil soup with bread, hard boiled eggs, cheese and fruit – watermelon, bananas, tangerines & pineapple!

People asked for the soup Recipe which you can find here!

Ingredients:

Oil of your choice (Steven used sunflower oil but any oil will do)

2 large onions

500g carrots

500g red lentils

1 litre water

2 vegetable stock cubes

Salt

Pepper

Chop the vegetables (because the soup will be blended, it doesn’t matter how you chop the vegetables but if you chop them into small pieces then they will cook quickly)

Add oil to a large pot. Put the heat on medium

Wash the red lentils

When the pot is hot, add the onion and cook until translucent

Next, add the carrots and cook for about 10 minutes

Next, add the red lentils and cook for no more than 5 minutes

Then, add two vegetable stock cubes and 1 litre of boiling water

Add a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper

Turn the heat up to high and wait for the water to boil

When the water is boiling, turn down the heat to low and cook for about 25-30 minutes. You will know the soup is ready to blend because the carrot will be soft and the lentils will have broken down

Once the carrots are soft and the lentils have broken down, get a hand blender. Blend the soup until it is smooth

If the mixture is too thick, you can add water until it is the desired consistency

Once you have blended your soup, taste it. Add more salt and pepper (if you think it needs more)

Serve with bread and enjoy!

We are so excited to see you all again next week at 4pm when Taz will be back!

Love from Sarah, Cami, Steven & Virginia

 

We almost always do ‘Reflective drawing’ at the end of a Storyplay session. It’s nice to relax and draw & think about what we’ve all done & how we feel about it.

Reflective drawing isn’t about doing a ‘good’ drawing – it’s about drawing whatever comes into your head when you think about what you’ve just done.

But as you draw you realise more about what you thought or imagined in the session. And it’s great to share that with everyone & hear what they thought! So many things go on in Storyplay!

Here are our Reflective Drawings from this week! Below is some of what we said!

 

READ SOME OF THE ARTIST’S REFLECTIONS FROM THE LICKETY 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

Find out what we all got up to at the Storyplay Festival 2024 at the Children’s Wood!

Saturday 13th July

Sunshine, Storyplay & a Family of Families!

Our second ever Storyplay Festival was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who came. It was a beautiful day and didn’t rain until the festival ended – lucky us!

In the morning, the Licketyspit team met at the Children’s Wood and quickly set-up for the festival. It took a lot of effort, but it was so worth it! Not long after we set up, we had the pleasure to welcome families from Bridgeton, Castlemilk, Cranhill, Maryhill & Govan as well as our families who join us for Licketyspit Online! We hosted over 125 people who all have one thing in common – they all love Storyplay!

The families arrived and we created an enormous circle and got started! To warm-up, we did the biggest ‘Big As A Bear’ I’ve ever seen! But we weren’t warm enough because then we did a massive Dancing Warm-up! The energy was high and so before we split up, we sang ‘Ickerickeroo’.

After some Storyplay as a huge group, we blew up our balloons and flew to our hub dens. We had families from 7 hubs, but for the festival we combined them into 5 – Bridgeton, Cranhill, Maryhill, Online & Govan and Castlemilk & Whiteinch. Each hub had their own actor-pedagogue who helped the group decorate their own space in the wood! Other hubs travelled around the wood visiting the other hubs dens! The other families were so happy to meet each other and play together! We also had a craft area which included arts & crafts materials as well as a dressing up space and a wishing tree! We had some lovely wishes, fantastic characters and a lot of artists making some incredible things!

The families played together then were treated to a delicious picnic! Since it’s our big Licketyspit celebration, we went all out with the food! We had samosas, pakoras, pasta salad, potato salad, jollof rice, Nigerian masa (bread balls made from rice) with a spinach dip, hummus, tzatziki, cheese, bread and a huge selection of fruit! It was so tasty, and we saw a lot of happy faces and a lot of full bellies!

Once everyone was fed, we got together again in a big circle to play a legendary game of the Funky Chicken! It was so funny and we had so many amazing suggestions from children and their grown-ups! We then played What’s the Time Mr. Wolf then we did the Magic Clap.

Thanks again to everyone who came. It was a wonderful day and we had so much fun in the Children’s Wood. We have some photos from the event but Eoin (The Capturing Cameraman) has loads more for us. We will share them with you all very soon. Until then, enjoy your holiday!

Lots of love,

Virginia, Steven, Taz, Andre, Sarah, Cami, Ruby, Iona, Paul, Colette & Catherine!

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 wasnae a dark n stormy night for our motley jelly headed crew! 

Excited our friends gathered below deck on the Tall Ship…

We played games & sang some of our favourites songs including Grandma Grandma

and then….

WE DRESSED UP AS PIRATES

in true licketyspit style fashioning eyepatches from pairs of tights & hooks from an old skirt

We got to meet Nabillah’s ‘Captain Spider’ and then took it in turns to make sure the crew was in ship shape, scrubbing the deck, cooking food, walking the plank! 

 3, 2, 1, AAAAAHHHH

After all that work we were ready to tuck into our delicious picnic before a big explore on the top deck! Bread, cheese, tomatoes, chocolate muffins washed down with tea & squash! 

Mohammed rang the bell & Annabel spotted a frog on the Clyde!

Yo ho yo ho

It’s a pirates life for all of us here at Licketyspit, 

Till next time me hartys!

Emma, Andre, Colette & Virginia xxx

What you said:

Thanks for playing with us, see you soon!

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