A Celebration of Storyplay, family and community – with food, friends and play!

On the 7^th of July Licketyspit and Community Central Hall launched the Maryhill Storyplay Games Exhibition to celebrate our first Maryhill Storyplay Games 2026 (coinciding with Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games!), created with photographer Eoin Carey and the Licketyspit Child-Photographers.

 

Eoin, who has worked with Licketyspit for many years photographing many of our projects, events and festivals, perfectly captured the joy, creativity and community of Storyplay! His genius invention addition, was The Licketyspit Photography Studio, where child photographers took wonderful portraits of their families and friends!

The launch of the Exhibition at Maryhill’s Community Central Hall was a fabulous success, attended by Licketyspit families from across Glasgow, Licketyspit friends, supporters and members of the public who were experiencing Storyplay for the first time!

Our fantastic Licketyspit Patrons, actor Sanjeev Kohli and Storyplay Champion, Zainab Adeleye, cut the ribbon to open the exhibition. They spoke eloquently about the power of Storyplay to create and nurture this richly diverse, generous and inclusive community and the importance of play, not only for children but for everyone, and how creativity and human connection helps us all become people who can change the world!

There were crafts, reflecting drawing, dressing-up, a CCH cooking workshop making Quesadillas! lovely food, and we even had an impromptu Dressing-Up Parade!  And of course, everyone got to see all the brilliant giant and small photographs all over Community Central Hall!

“This place is amazing like you get to play with your mum and your dad or anyone that’s in your family playing these games has helped me find out that I can do more stuff than I think I can do. Being with your friends and your family is great”  – Child

“It also the place that everyone can feel belonged to this community and emotionally relieve the stress and feeling lonely. Even children can make new friends, also the adults can meet new people which help them to improve their language skills, make them confident in their daily lives. I feel super confident with others, they become part of my family!”  – Parent

A most excellent launch of a fantastic Exhibition that continued until the 15^th of August for the public to enjoy.

We hope this unique Exhibition can have a further life and share this celebration of children, families, play, multi-culturalism, optimism and joy with even more people!

Thank you from us 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

A new collaboration between Licketyspit and Community Central Hall

This Summer Licketyspit was delighted to host The Maryhill Storyplay Games in partnership with Community Central Hall, as part of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games Festival of art, live music, sports workshops, and community city-wide events celebrating the Commonwealth Games!

Licketyspit would like to thank EVERYONE who made this brilliant day possible, especially the fantastic Licketyspit volunteers, and the team at Community Central Hall, and of course, the wonderful Licketyspit families who are at the heart of everything we do and are the true ambassadors of STORYPLAY.

Thank you from us 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

Sunshine and outdoor play for all!

Another brilliant session at The Children’s Wood…

The sun was already shining, and we could all feel that it was going to be a proper hot Summer’s Day in Glasgow!

Licketyspit families strolled into The Children’s Wood with big smiles and full of hugs from everyone.

Today some families were meeting old friends and also making new ones, as some of the participants haven’t met each other before and Storyplay is a great way to connect with each other!

We got active quickly with our Warm-up Rhyme ‘Big as a House’ and with a rather jumpy game of Funky Chicken!

Dressing-up was fantastic and being outdoors certainly inspired everyone…

Ruby became Diana the Dragon Fly who flies about looking for mushrooms

Deon was John the Really Bad Dragon – ‘I do good things though! I get food for people; I live in a flat and I have a dog named Niko and a cat named Peanut.’

Ada turned into Victoria the Nun who likes wildlife and eats cornflakes for breakfast.

Zac was Pear Trader from Ninety-nine nights – ‘I live in the forest, and people bring me pearls and I trade them for stuff’

Yasna was Owl the Owl who scares people!

 Shanmukha became Chef Shanm who likes to make and eat pizza.

Iris was Diane The Dragon who is a friend of John The Dragon! – ‘I’m good dragon and I like to fly to the moon’

Jamie said ‘I’m baby tick, a lost baby tick! I lost my Mum and Dad on that Great Dane that passed by! ‘

Zoe became a Party Fairy, and she parties all day long!

Franky was Radioactive Man, Andzelika was a lion, Lizzie was a Superhero and

Penny was a Butterfly.

Yulia was a cat; Zofia was a Cowboy and Sruthi and Daiwik were bunnies!

And everyone was up for a dance party and a game of Family Hide & Seek – so many great places to hide in…

Afterwards we got stuck into our picnic while sitting in the shade – we chatted about songs we like, and we thought we could put together a new playlist for us all to enjoy! So Emmanuel took a good note of all the songs that were suggested.

Free Play time got us all exploring around – some went to the Tree House to try out climbing and swinging from the wee trapeze! Lizzie was great at guiding some of the children through climbing and spinning.

Some played on the tight rope – like Ada, Iris and Zoe who were naturals at it!

Deon, Taz and Mihije got caught up in the massive Spider’s Web, they were joined by Andzelika, Sarah and Franky to experiment with getting in it – which is very easy – and getting out of it – which is really hard!

 Yasna and Aveen and Sruthi, Daiwik and Shanm were chilling and drawing under the lovely shade of the trees.

We found a football and a wee skipping rope so there was a kick about, a mini-Tug-o’-war and a massive game of skipping, when Ruby brought a bigger rope!! Some of the grown-ups really remembered how good they were at skipping when they were children and guess what? They are still very good at it now that they are grown-ups!. So good in fact, that they were helping the children to learn how to skip too!

What a laugh we had!

Another fantastic day out with friends of all ages playing, eating and hanging out together – hurray for FOREST STORYPLAY!

Ruby, Sarah, Emmanuel, Taz & Licketyspit Families

It was the last session of this block at Castlemilk Library and we all feel like we are great big family!

We get in our circle cause circles are cool,

Nerea plays music, we dance and we groove,

A twirly fun Conga made with all our pals

To get us all started and warm up our hearts!

Make yourself big as House or

As small as a mouse!

As Thin as a pin!

Or maybe a string??

As round as a ball,

As a tree, very tall!

Wobbly as jelly, Buzzy as a bee

Have a wee think…

What else could you be?

Funky Chicken is an old-time favourite,

Castlemilk families are so fast at it –

They all come up with fantastic ideas,

Take a wee look at what we have here…

Poppy’s Kangaroo was Cheeky,

And Kim’s Snake rather Stinky,

Haaris brought a Snow Turtle,

And Anusha invited a Sneaky Sea lion

 Zara’s Horse was Jumpy,

And Caroline’s Dog was Dancing,

Sayeda brought a Happy Cat,

And Ammar’s Penguin was Fast!

 Shabana’s Elephant was Angry

Rumaisa’s Sealion was Dancing

Abu thought of a Naughty Eagle

And we also met a Strong Mohammed!

Let’s Dress Up as Forest Creatures,

And imagine what we can be?

Butterflies, midges or rabbits,

A squirrel, fox, bat or a flea!

Haaris – ‘I am a hacker creeper, and I like to annoy people’

Muhammed – ‘I am a normal seagull called Cristiano Ronaldo’

Anusha – ‘I am a bat and I eat people’

Zara – I’m a fox and I hunt people’

Poppy – ‘I am a squirrel; I climb trees and spy on people…’

 

But in this forest, there’s only one creature

That if you dare to ask

Will tell you the time looking at their watch

In this forest, there is only one …

Wolfie Abu – I live in a house, it’s actually a flat, a dirty flat. My watch is brown and at 5 o’clock it’s time to play football!

Wolfie Mohammed – I live in a mansion, it’s black and white – black in the winter and white in the summer. And at 3 o’clock it’s time to ….play tennis!

Wolfie Ammar – I live in a cave, and I got my watch from my Mum

Wolfie Caroline – I live in a brick house that you cannot huff and puff away! I make cushions and I got my watch from Asda.

Wolfie Poppy – I live in a flat – nice and clean. I like to read books. Matt from across the street gave me my watch. At 4 o’clock it’s time to ….have a dance party!

 Wolfie Anusha – I live in a poor dirty house with a poor dirty swimming pool. I made my watch and I kept it because I like it.

 Wolfie Haaris – I live in a tree house, a brown tree house. I live with other wolves. My watch has diamonds, gold, cash and money. I got it from Asda. At 6 o’clock it’s time to ….swim in the pool!

 Wolfie Zara – I live in a cave above a river. Sometimes it’s tidy and sometimes it’s untidy, somewhere in the middle. My watch is like a flower with purple background and red flowers, roses! I got it from a lovely next-door neighbour. And at 3 o’clock it’s time to …do ballet!

 Wolfie Rumaisa – I live in a brown Tree House. My watch is made of metal and it’s pink. At 1 o’clock it’s time to ….read a book and

at 5 O’clock it’s time to ….buy toys!

What’s the time Mr. Wolf?

Do you dare to ask?

Aways be ready to run just in case you find it’s……..

DINNER TIME!!

 

What a brilliant Porridge & Play block we’ve had at Castlemilk Library and what a great last session! After all that, everyone made fantastic drawings. Then we all enjoyed eating the beautiful food that many families brought to share – as well as our usual Licketyspit meal.

The Art Gallery was great fun and we all agreed that we love Porridge & Play in CASTLEMILK!

Sarah, Taz, Nerea, Virginia and the Castlemilk Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Poor Bun Brother was a bit preoccupied although you wouldn’t think so when we first met him…

‘Aye, Aye, Aye

I’m The Best, I’m the Best

• clap, clap, clap
• clap, clap, clap

 We are the Bun Brothers; we are like no other! ‘

He was singing and cheering and clapping and he got us all involved in singing about him and his brother and how they are the best and they are like no other when suddenly…

Poor Bun Brother realised that he was on his own, without his brother (who couldn’t come) and he was in a right pickle because he couldn’t remember any of his fantastic recipes!

But his sadness didn’t last long as soon as he realised he had arrived in Castlemilk Library where he discovered a Delicious Crew of Brilliantly Creative CHEFs!!

There was Angel Chef, Cool Chef whose speciality is pizza, Crazy Chef, Pizza Pie Chef, Mean Chef who is a dog as well as a chef, Fairy Chef, Prince Chef, Ninja Chef who specialises in Chocolate Milk, Sad Chef & Happy Chef, Wee Chef, Jamaica Chef & the world-famous Candyfloss Chef!

 ‘Marvellous! We can work together and create a sublime recipe for an out of this world CAKE!!’ – the Bun Brother was beside himself.

So we got working…we had a massive bowl in the middle. There were so many of us we needed of course to bake a gigantic cake! SO,

Cool Chef mixed in Flour

And Prince Chef some white sugar

Ninja Chef went for melted chocolate

And Chef Angel put in Strawberries & angel cake – an extremely light cake!

Crazy Chef went for White sprinkles

Sad Chef threw in some Eggs

We are going to need some butter!

said another Chef!

Mean Chef added Potatoes

Big Chef liked the idea of Mango Chunks

Chef Pizza Pie, put in a cucumber

And it was all topped off by a nice rotten cheese from Happy Chef!

Stir and stir and stir and stir and Let’s Bake A Cake!
Let’s Bake A Cake!

Think of all the things that we like best…

A little bit of this

A little bit of that

NOW let’s put it in the oven!

 You have never seen a bigger CAKE TIN!

The cake cooked beautifully and all the chefs agreed about decoration…

‘Pink raspberry icing, cockroaches, Gummy sushi and Gummy Bologna!’

 It did look MAGNIFICENT, I’m not going to lie…But as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so we had to try the cake to make sure our recipe was a good one and then…

‘Oh…oh…something funny is happening to me…’

 ‘ And to me…’

 ‘Wait a minute…how light was that angel cake you put in Angel Chef?’

It turned out it was cake of the of the lightest kind, so light in fact that  we all started to float up away into the air!

We floated and floated …………..until we got to the moon!!

The view from the moon was amazing and floating about the moon is of course great fun but we did have to return to the Library for our meal. Thankfully Sad Chef had her special parachute! So, we all held onto it, pulled the string and whoooooosh….we landed in a heap and we all laughed!

Our food was as usual, delicious and this week we had a wee treat of Honey Mango from Pakistan!

After that we had a fabulous Licketyspit Gallery sharing our drawings, thoughts and opinions and few very interesting book reviews and recommendations.

We were so inspired that some of us took home some books about food that the brilliant Castlemilk Librarians had found for us! I wonder if our Castlemilk Families will be cooking  some more deliciousness this weekend?

Or even next Thursday for our Porridge & Play Celebration Session?!

See you there!

 Taz, Ruby, Virginia and Castlemilk Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Our Castlemilk families have many cool moves

When they hear music they can’t stop to groove –

Let’s dance some more! For a little bit longer!

Let’s get together in a fabulous CONGA!!

We also DRESS UP with gusto and style

Combining materials and sharing smiles

Today we decided to turn into PIRATES

but colourful ones – striking like parrots!

 

Haaris turned himself into Pirate Angel,

Anusha became Spy Pirate who spies on people,

Poppy was Mermaid Pirate and she looks for cool treasure,

Zara was Pirate Pretty who looks for treasure with Pirate Mermaid,

Rumaisa  decided to be Cool Pirate.

We also had wee pirates Massi, Udo and Ammar

And wee baby Ugo was the littlest one!

We blew up a Red Magic Ball and after much discussion on possible destinations we chanted the magic words…

MAGIC BALL
MAGIC BALL
TAKE US WHEN WE WANT TO GO…WHOOOSH!!

We landed on a beach…and there must have been a party going on somewhere because we could heard music  – so we immediately danced to the beach music! We couldn’t resist!

‘We are in Hawaii, it’s great!’ – shouted Pirate Pretty.

‘Ice cream anyone? –  Spy Pirate offered.

We all wanted some ice cream – Spy Pirate had bubble gum flavour.

We went into the ocean determined to find treasure as we swam and swam and swam… BUT there was a shark in the water! And then Pirate Taz got into trouble ! So we pulled her out as fast as we could!

‘We found some diamonds!’ – Pirate Pretty & Mermaid Pirate shouted.

‘It must be part of a famous Hawaii bigger treasure! If only we had the map to look for it!’

‘We do!’

While making sense of the treasure map, we suddenly heard a grumpy voice…

‘What are you doing with MY treasure map?!’

It was a Grumpy Pirate Captain. So cross with us!  and tired and a bit cranky…

‘Get in a line! Let me look at you lot’ – she shouted.

‘I am getting on, my knees hurt and I need to find some replacement for my ship…

‘Have  you ever worked on a ship?’

‘No!’ – said we.

‘Have you ever BEEN on a ship??’

‘No…’ – we admitted.

‘Oh dear…well, let’s get you started!’

So the Captain started to boss us, shouting lots of orders we had to follow!

‘Port! Starboard! Scrub the deck! Climb the rigging! Cook my dinner!’

It was tiring but we were actually quite good at being a pirate crew…

‘Ok, let’s try out some of you…YOU!’ – she pointed at  Pirate Muhammed

Pirate Muhammad took over being the Captain – ‘Poooooort!’

Then Cool Pirate – ‘ Make a pizza!’

Then Pirate Abu – ‘Mop the floor!’

We followed  the orders to the letter… and while mopping the floor Pirate Pretty screamed –

‘It smells disgusting!’

And she was right, it did!

But after all that hard work we could finally relax –

‘I have some Funky music, let’s play and dance!’ – So we did our crazy pirate dance!

‘Now…I’ll show you all where the big treasure is…right …..under there!!’.

We dug and dug until we found a chest containing…

 2000 coins!

And rubies!

And diamonds!

‘What shall we do with all this treasure??’

‘We could buy some go-karts in Costco!’

 ‘Great idea!’

So we all headed off to the Costco in Hawaii and got ourselves super cool go-karts of different colours and went for a spin!

It was  fantastic being a pirate crew but we realised we were starting to get a bit peckish.

So, we got back into the Magic Ball and returned to Castlemilk Library to do some Reflective Drawing to remember our adventure and get some nice grub in our tummies! ARRRRGH!!!

Sarah, Taz, Nerea, Virginia and the Castlemilk Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

It’s so hot outside, we are melting away

But in Castlemilk Library

We still STORYPLAY!

We giggle, we smile

We’re rolling with laughter

We enjoy a good play

And some nice food after!

Whatever the weather

We are getting together

To play with our friends

Imagining forever…

 A Sleepy Capibara, a Stinky Snake,

A Happy Cow smiling

and Dancing one as well.

 Our Dressing Up bag

Full of colourful rags

That turn into magic

When we mix them all up!

 A pair of old tights to wear on your head

A long bit that tied up will be your long tail

A red pair of trousers to wear round your waist

And some wee green t-shirt to cover your face…

Just some bits and bobs and imagination

And you are the Monster taking over a nation!

 We heard of some Grannies who live in the forest

They have groovy gardens with veggies and flowers –

 ‘ I’m Smart Granny – I live in a purple house and my garden has poppy flowers, star flowers and sunflowers. I like making chocolate chip cookies for breakfast!’

  ‘I’m Foxy Grannie – I live in a blue house. I grow potatoes in my garden, and some are magical and some are not. I hide the potatoes so no one can steal them. I like making candy for breakfast’

We played MONSTERS FOOTSTEPS

And gave them a fright

But they had a giggle and it was alright!

 We do love to draw all the things we imagine

We do love to eat together while laughing

We do love to show each other our art

At Porridge & Play we sure are SMART!

Sarah, Taz, Nerea and the Castlemilk Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery

Castlemilk Library is a very cool place

You can come to hang out, borrow books and to play!

Play? Play, you say?

Well…YES! Castlemilk Library has been hosting Licketyspit’s Porridge & Play for five years now – so once a year we get together with some Castlemilk families at the library for 5 weeks in a row, to Storyplay, eat and hang out together and this is also a chance for new families to learn to Storyplay and join Licketyspit’s Children & Families Network family!

So, for our first session of Porridge & Play this block we had Caroline, Poppy, Jacqueline, Evie, Sayeda, Abu, Sobia, Rumaisa ,Haaris, Shabana, Anusha, & Ammar with us again and Chioma, Udo, Ugo, Jodie & Leo coming for the very first time!

What a joy to see some old friends again and to meet new ones! The best thing about Porridge & Play is – you NEVER run out of friends.

Now, have you ever played beach ball with a Dragon while flying up high on a Flying Balloon? WE DID EXACTLY THAT!!

We blew up our Flying Balloons – they came in many colours!- and flew all over Castlemilk…What a view!

We were so high that at some point we could REALLY feel the cold but luckily Anusha had brought jackets and hats for us all and Caroline had some fluffy socks for everyone too.

‘What’s that down there? – Taz said

Beach balls! – Caroline shouted’

Caroline saw beach balls all over the place and it turned out that a dragon down below was throwing beach balls up in the hope someone would play ball with her! So we did!

First up Caroline caught a beach ball, threw it back down and….whoosh! up it came again for Poppy to catch!

Then Poppy threw it back down and ….whoosh! Up it came again for Haaris to catch!

Then Haaris threw it back down and…whoosh! Up it came again for Ammar to catch!

Then Ammar threw it back down and…whoosh! Up it came again for Rumaisa to catch!

Then Rumaisa threw it back down and…whoosh! Up it came again for Evie to catch!

We all had go at the Dragon Beach Ball game until the Dragon got tired and cooked a barbecue instead!

Do you like dressing up? Well, we LOVE IT at Porridge & Play but what we really like to do is to dress up the Licketyspit way…

Our Dressing Up style is out of this world even though we use random bits and bobs – we use old clothes that we have in the house, or clothes that are too wee, or any type of clothes we have and we wear them in interesting ways to create all sort of characters!

This week at Porridge & Play we all became Castlemilk Grannies.

And what an stupendous collection of Grannies we were!

 Anusha was Granny Hungry who likes to eat humans – Dangerous Granny! Poppy was Sporty Granny who really likes running – Fast Granny! Ammar was Granny Greg who really likes going – Busy Granny! Rumaisa was Granny Skeleton who enjoys scaring people! – Naughty Granny! Abu was Cooking Granny who likes making cakes – Delicious Granny! Haaris was Mr Coin who likes swimming in a pool – Not even a Granny! Caroline was Funky Granny who loves shopping and going to the Bingo – Leisure Granny!

All that playing always makes us hungry so after doing a bit of Reflecting Drawing to draw about what we’d liked best today, we sat down to lovely fruit, cheese, bread, boiled eggs and tomatoes and we all enjoyed a chilled meal together chatting and sharing!

After food the Licketyspit Art Gallery saw everyone telling each other about their drawings. We all cheered and clapped – which makes us all feel great about ourselves and our friends! HURRAY FOR PORRIDGE & PLAY!

See you all next Thursday for more adventures and fun at Castlemilk Library!

Sarah, Taz, Nerea, Virginia and the Castlemilk Hub Families

Licketyspit Art Gallery