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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

Maryhill Art Gallery!

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

So we were nine families with 14 children this week at the CCH for Porridge & Play Maryhill. Everyone is feeling like we’ve become old friends! 

We started with a Dance Warm-Up to Salaar’s favourite song – Thunder by Imagine Dragons – and some Sufi poetry Amna introduced us to!

Rita said “Do you know the Funky Chicken?” And then an amazing array of characters appeared – The Squirmy Worm, Dizzy Elephant, Sunny Dog, Funky Monkey, Naughty Octopus, Scary Tiger, Lazy Cat, Loud Dinosaur, Happy Butterfly! Not forgetting Aarushi’s Jumping Rabbit and Shriyansh’s Jumping Dolphin!

Then we played “I’m going to drink a bottle of!!!…” This was Lizzie, Zoe & Zac’s first ever Witches Fingers and they created fantabulous witches – he he he!

Arvin was a Witch in our marvellous Magic Ball Story which Rita has written about below! (His witch pretended to eat the Ball – disaster! – but she tricked us!)

Our Dressing Up today was a delicious array of colour and invention and so was our Storyplay, and our food was delicioso! 

We had great chats and we realised that today is EID! So Happy Eid to all our friends

Here is the Magic Ball Story and our amazing Gallery!

See you all next week for our Maryhill Hub celebration!

Andre, Ruby, Taz & the Maryhill Hub

Maryhill Art Gallery!

Read the artists’ comments here!

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin’  by Rudyard Kipling – a Bookplay by our Castlemilk Hub families…

Our second Just-so-John Bookplay at Castlemilk Library was an absolute joy! Families got together exited to see which Just-So-Story we would jump into this time. So, we enjoyed a few of our Storyplay games to get us all going and then Ruby read us the story of…‘How the Rhinoceros got his Skin’.

ONCE upon a time, on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. 

Dressing up the Licketyspit way is the perfect way for us to become all the characters, places and things in the story!

And one day he took flour and water and currants and plums and sugar and things and made himself one cake which was two feet across and three feet thick.

But just as he was going to eat it there came down to the beach one Rhinoceros with a horn on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners. In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere.

We fabulously moved from being one character to becoming another as we recalled the story!

And the Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, and the cake rolled on the sand, and he spiked that cake on the horn of his nose, and he ate it, and he went away, waving his tail.

‘Them that takes cakes

Which the Parsee-man bakes

Makes dreadful mistakes.’

Mr. Parsee carefully planned how to get his own back on the rhino for eating his fantastic cake!

During a Heat Wave while the rhino was cooling down in the water…

The Rhinoceros took off his skin and carried it over his shoulder as he came down to the beach to bathe. In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons and looked like a waterproof

Mr. Parsee collected cake crumbs from his camp and sprinkled them all over the inside of the rhino’s skin and waited for the rhino to come out the water and put his skin back on…

And it tickled like cake crumbs in bed! Then he wanted to scratch, but that made it worse

The poor grumpy rhino tried everything to stop the itch! He even scratched and rubbed against a palm tree – that looked very much like one of our grown-ups and made us all laugh and laugh! But the itch wouldn’t go away which made the rhino grumpier and grumpier…

So he went home, very angry indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the cake-crumbs inside

What a fantastic way to play with a good story…that’s why we call it BOOKPLAY!

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

Listen to John telling How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin by Rudyard Kipling by clicking here!

Check out the wonderful ART GALLERY inspired by our  Just-So- John Bookplay at Castlemilk Library!

Week two of Porridge & Play MARYHILL got us all sharing our best moves – warming up our bodies and our imaginations, singing, dressing-up to transform ourselves into Forest Creatures and much more!

A very Big Circle to see everyone,

Cause our games are way best when we’re ALL in the fun!

First Big as a Bear gets us all going,

Running and jumping we are telling a story,

About how we can be whatever we like!

An Ox or a Hare or a Bird flying high!

So many of us here so let’s hear all our names,

And show everyone our cool move as well!

Then The Funky Chicken shows up to play,

Can you think of an animal? Does it move in some way?

What sound does it make? Can we do it again?!

Maya’s Funny Duckling liked Olesya’s Sleepy Tiger

Amna’s Happy Penguin liked Salaar’s Cheeky Lion!

Yachai’s Funny Bunny saw Rita’s a Happy Butterfly,

Shirley’s Jumping Rabbit loved Stephen’s Hyperactive Sloth!

But, have you heard before about a man called Fred?

Who likes to go to bed at night with Jelly On His Head?

If that sounds a bit silly just wait ‘til you hear,

What a girl called Bella Spears takes to bed in her ears!!

We sang about Grace, about Claire, about John,

What other funny things you could think to put on?

Dressing up – just combining old bits and old bobs,

Clothes now too wee or we don’t use a lot.

An ordinary shirt can become a spy’s cape,

A jacket an apron for an excited chef,

A scarf can become the long tail of a mouse,

Just have a good look and find things round your house!

Dressing up in this way lets us be anyone,

Dressing up in this way is just fabulous fun!

Today we were Forest Creatures just for a laugh!

Butterflies, flowers, a ghost and a squirrel, 

Cheeky cat, baby bear, a bat and a panther.

A kingfisher, giraffe and even a tree! 

A fox with a tail, 

Now what else could you be?

While we were admiring ourselves and our forest,

We heard of a Wolf who owns a cool watch,

If the creatures – who don’t! –  want to find out the time

They must ask Mr Wolf – Mr. Wolf, What’s the time?

At 3 ride a bike, at 7 we nap, at 10 go to school,

But we all know the golden rule –

Be careful, be careful we better watch out…

Guess what happens at DINNER when Wolfy’s about?!

When playing is done doing some drawing is good! 

Then we’re usually hungry and ready for food!

Fruit, cheese, tomatoes, fresh bread and some soup,

Olesya, Rita and Maya brought home-made hummus too!

The Maryhill Hub families truly are game, 

So full of ideas in the sun and the rain,

When we meet there is no doubt we will all find the way,

To enjoy some amazing STORYPLAY!

See you next week!

Andre, Ruby, Taz, Virginia  & the Maryhill Hub families

 

Maryhill Art Gallery!

Read the artists’ comments here!

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘How the Whale Got His Throat’ by Rudyard Kipling – a Bookplay by our Castlemilk Hub families…

In the sea, once upon a time O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes

We gathered at Castlemilk Library and we found out today was World Book Day – which was perfect for a Bookplay! We were oh so ready to jump into this tale about a whale, a person, and a wee tiny but wise fish. 

Before jumping into the book, we got warmed up and ready by playing some of our Storyplay games to get our imaginations going and then Virginia read us the story…

All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth—so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small ‘Stute Fish

We all dressed up as the characters in the story!

Some  of us decided to be the tiny ‘Stute Fish’!

Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?’ ‘If you swim to latitude Fifty North, longitude Forty West (that is magic), you will find, sitting on a raft, in the middle of the sea, with nothing on but a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must not forget the suspenders, Best Beloved), and a jack- knife, one ship-wrecked Mariner, who, it is only fair to tell you, is a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.’ 

(‘infinite’ means ‘never ending’ and ‘sagacity’ means ‘clever and canny!’).

Some of us became the Mariner person…with the suspenders (or ‘braces’ to hold up his trousers!)  

And of course, some of us became the very hungry Whale!

A brilliant thing about Bookplay is that you can be one character at one moment and a different character the next – we all collaborated and worked together so we could play out the whole story

 Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?

A pair of ship-wrecked Mariners!

Even though the Whale had eaten all the fishes – except one! – he was still hungry so he ate the Mariners!

Inside the Whale’s belly the Mariners “stumped and they jumped and they thumped and they bumped…they pranced and they danced and they …hopped and they dropped and they ..danced hornpipes where they shouldn’t!”     amongst other things until the Whale got the hiccups!

‘Tell him to come out,’ said the ‘Stute Fish.

‘Nay, nay!’ said the Mariner. ‘Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my natal-shore IN SCOTLAND! 

The Mariner, who was indeed a person of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, had taken his jack-knife and cut up the raft into a little square grating all running criss- cross, and he had tied it firm with his suspenders, dragged that grating good and tight into the Whale’s throat, and there it stuck 

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

WHAT AN ADVENTURE!  Do you think you could Bookplay other good stories?

All we had was each other and our bag of dressing up clothes! (Which as you know is just a collection of old clothes no-one wanted anymore!)

If you do a Bookplay at home send us a message or a photo!

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

Check out the wonderful ART GALLERY inspired by our  Just-So- John Bookplay at Castlemilk Library!

A new block of Porridge & Play sessions has started with a fabulous group of families – some returning friends and many new ones gathering for the first time at the big Reid Hall.

Our circle today was BIG and all the families were smiling and ready to use their imaginations, relax and have quality time together.

‘Make yourselves as Big As A Bear’ – warming up is great to get everyone ready!

Funky Chicken was a hoot, and we met very many animals –

Thrishitha was the Naughty Dog and Yachai was the Angry Bird

Maya was a Sneaky Snake and Zoe a Grumpy Lion

Zac was a Happy Dog and Shriyansh was a Sleepy Lion

Farah was a Cheeky Rabbit and Violet a Good Dog

And Mai got as all dancing as the Dancing Dolphin!

‘Flying Balloons’

There were yellow and rainbow and purple and gold

and silver and blue and green and classic red balloons!

And we blew them up big and we flew up high in the sky

And we flew and flew above the Canal – what can you see?

Red birds and apple pie that tasted of chocolate, steak or blueberries? We heard music, is that a drum?

We saw a dog and even dolphins in the canal!

Dressing up was a hit!

All our friends new and not so new LOVED dressing up in the Licketyspit way – we don’t dress up in a costume to be just one character, we take old clothes and we combine them to transform ourselves into many different guises and today we were PIRATES!

Meet Pirate Potato, Pirate Carrot, Pirate Pizza, The Clown, Pirate Piano, Pirate Alloa, Pirate Strawberry, Captain Seas, Captain Purple, Captain Precious and the world famous ARRRRGGH Captain!

We scrubbed the deck and aye aye’d to our hearts content – A Haaa!

Then we sat round our big great table full of delicious fruit and bread and cheese and we enjoyed a tasty Carrot & Coriander soup.

A fantastic first session for the current Maryhill Hub families who left home smiling and wondering where they could go next on a Flying Balloon…

See you all next week!

Andre, Ruby, Virginia & Taz

Maryhill Art Gallery!

READ SOME OF THE ARTIST’S COMMENTS 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

Bridgeton Blog!

3rd October 2025

For our last Bridgeton Porridge & Play we thought we better bake a cake!

With Chef Santa’s chicken, Suliman & Mohsin’s chips

Niamate’s sprinkles and Maab’s jellyfish!

Chef Phillipe from France and Chef Pirate from India, joined many more with their ingredients.

Seena and Evanna brought strawberries and Chef Scary brought buns.

Chef Duaa brought ice cream that tasted like bubblegum. 

Amira added strawberry sauce and Mariam rainbow lolly pops.

There was bubblegum, coconut, eggs and dragon fruit.

Then lettuce and pizza and Chef Samira’s cream.

We stirred them all in and it turned out a dream.

Burger with Nutella – we had to try it!

Chicken Nuggets? there’s never been a cake like it!

I wonder if vanilla will cover these up…

Chef Ouff’s smelly shoes and belly button fluff 

And Moira’s ear wax – would the Ogre like the cake?

Chef Alan had a brilliant idea! 

Let’s add sleepy leaves to put him to sleep!

The Ogre appeared with a terrible roar – we cut him some cake then gave him some more.

With a yawn and a stretch he began to nod off. 

“Phew!” we said, “That was strong stuff!”

The Ogre wasn’t the only beast at this feast.

Mr Wolf appeared with his gold rainbow watch

When we asked him the time, he tried to eat us!

We escaped and soon we were drawing in peace

Snacking on fruit and sweet potato soup

Madan’s jollof rice and Virginia’s cake too!

Thank you for bringing your joy and your cheer

We love P&P Bridgeton more every year!

Big thanks to Eoin Carey our photographer, who took photos at this final session.

Next time

Porridge & Play Bridgeton will be back next year.

In the meantime, look out for WhatsApp messages from us about other Storyplay activities around the city.

Use your playcards and resources on our website to support play at home.

Click on the playcards to play with us online. Scroll down for more links.

Reflective Drawing

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 some of our Reflective Drawings from this week:

 

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!

Read past blog posts about sessions at Bridgeton St Francis in the East and Picnic & Play trips. You can also read our stories in the Porridge & Play Bridgeton Zine!

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

Castlemilk Blog!

2nd October 2025

Do you know Porridge & Play Castlemilk?

What did you say?

Each week we meet to Storyplay!

Games and rhymes and songs and books

Click the links and have a look!

This week we played Let’s Bake a Cake with Bakers from all over the place.

• There was Baker Bella and Baker Beans.
• Baker Naughty Cookies and Baker Mushroom.
• 
Baker Silly Billy Shake Bake and Baker Pumpkin pie.
• And many other bakers besides!

What a cake these bakers made, with skeletons, worms and pancakes.

Strawberry donuts and chocolate too, bubblegum, pink rabbits and ducks and white paint.

Lava rocks gave the cake a crunch.

We cut a slice and had a munch!

What an imaginative cake indeed.

This week we also had time to read.

We read a book about a king who baked and cooked like anything!

Inside each book there’s a whole world to explore, you could go there in the Magic Ball!

Keep reading and Storyplaying while we’re gone.

But we’ll be back before too long!

Next time

Porridge & Play Castlemilk will be back next year.

In the meantime, look out for WhatsApp messages from us about other Storyplay activities around the city.

Use your playcards and resources on our website to support Storyplay at home.

Click on the playcards to play with us online. Scroll down for more links.

Big thanks to Eoin Carey our photographer, who took photos at this final session.

What a feast!

Lots of you brought food to share for our final session.

• We had delicious homemade blackcurrant jam and apples from Charlie, Ruby and Niki’s allotment.
• Homemade vegetable pakora from Sayeda & Abu.
• We had pizza and cake, biscuits and apple pie.
• Homemade canapés from Myroslava & Danylo and spicy pasta from Shabana.
• And Virginia’s Granny’s Ginger Cake!

Thank you all from bringing such delicious treats and being part of Porridge & Play Castlemilk 2025.

Lots of love from all of us at Licketyspit,

Ruby, Andre, Sarah and Virginia

Reflective Drawing

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 some of our Reflective Drawings from this week:

 

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!

Read past blog posts about sessions at the library and Picnic & Play trips. You can also read our stories in the Porridge & Play Castlemilk Zine!

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

Whiteinch Blog!

1st October 2025

Hey hey who goes there, I’m Big as a Bear and as Fast as a Hare!

Hey hey what do you see? The Funky Chicken and he loves to read!

The Sleeping Cat and the Tired Pig who went for a nap instead of a jig.

The Happy Pink Bunny and the one that Jumped all came to play in the circle with us.

Hip hop let’s DRESS UP! Scarves become tails become snakes for fun!

Hip hop let’s DRESS UP! Skirts become capes become aprons for fun!

Giovanna the Chef needs our help to make a cake.

What ingredients will we need…poisonous EYES were suggested by Nina!

Custard and jelly and creme caramel, so yummy and sweet from Aaliyah, Mihije and Christell.

Sweet popcorn and golden mushrooms that tasted like popcorn, and blueberry gaming ones from Deon.

Gaia’s lasagne and Zofia’s raw fish, made for a most unusual dish.

Andzelika’s Jellyfish brought more of the sea.

There was Menna’s grated carrot and Ibraheem’s broccoli and cheese.

Flour, water and egg were provided by Virginia, Ruby and Jie Jie Lin.

Sprinkles from Kiran that we could throw and not to forget the potato and potato and potato!

Franky, Lara and Lina knew that potatoes make for a marvellous cake!

We ate it together and laughed with delight at the flavours and textures – it tasted all right!

But not as good as the food we had next…

Menna’s mince pie, Kiran’s brownies and Andzelika and Zofia’s biscuits and chocolates!

What a treat to celebrate Porridge & Play Whiteinch

We can’t wait to be back in the library next year.

Until then, keep on storyplaying my dears!

In Storyplay, you can be anyone, go anywhere, do anything!

On you go!

With lots of love from,

Ruby, Sarah, Andre and Virginia at Licketyspit

Next time

Porridge & Play Whiteinch will be back next year.

In the meantime, look out for WhatsApp messages from us about other Storyplay activities around the city.

Use your playcards and resources on our website to support play at home.

Click on the playcards to play with us online. Scroll down for more links.

Reflective Drawing

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 some of our Reflective Drawings from this week:

 

Read some of the artists’ 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!

Read past blog posts and the P&P Whiteinch Zine!

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

Castlemilk Blog!

25th September 2025

We’re off, we’re off to play outside!

Behind a great big tree we’ll hide

From sharks that move beneath the waves

Under the trees we’ll laugh and play!

Out the library, past a bus, over the crossing, cars wait for us

Up the hill and into the woods

Where looking down from our balloons…

We saw a giant marshmallow!

A birthday cake – let’s have a slice!

Does it taste yucky or does it taste nice?

Nice like Granny’s cotton candy!

Some Grannies like to make lasagne.

Granny Soup is really kind and Granny Cloud she pays no mind

To those pesky trees that seem to move

A little closer through the woods.

But one Granny makes poison soup

So watch out Trees, don’t get too close!

Back to the library to snack and draw

We love the woods, let’s go there more!

The Storyplay Games

All our games are on the Lickety Playcards. You will get your very own pack in week 5 to help you Storyplay at home!

Book Reviews

Each week the librarians get out some books for us to take home to inspire our Storyplay.

This week Anusha told us about Alice in Wonderland – Down The rabbit Hole

“It’s about the girl and the bunny. The girl saw the bunny running! She called the adult and the bunny got away.”

Anusha recommended this book and with help from Ruby, she read first the first two pages to us.

Charlie shared his book about dinosaurs –

“A long time ago there was dinosaurs! They died once the snow’s coming, they turned into skeletons. A dinosaur’s real, it actually moved and they end up in the museum and turn into skeltons. I saw a Teredactor it was up above me in the museum!”
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Reflective Drawing

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 some of our Reflective Drawings from this week:

 

Read some of the artist’s reflections from the Lickety Art Gallery: 

Can’t wait to Storyplay with you again soon!

Sarah, Andre & Ruby

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!

Read past blog posts about sessions at the library and Picnic & Play trips. You can also read our stories in the Porridge & Play Castlemilk Zine!

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