Maryhill Archives &#8226; 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

The post Picnic & Play: CULTURE in GLASGOW appeared first on Licketyspit.

Picnic & Play: CULTURE in GLASGOW

lickspit — Tue, 05 May 2026 13:45:26 +0000

Discovering what’s free to do with your family in your city!

We are very lucky to have fantastic museums and cultural venues in our city and many of them are free!

Picnic & Play is all about taking Storyplay out in the world – we sometimes go to beaches, other times to lochs or parks but we also love to go to museums!

Magic Ball, Magic Ball

Takes us where we want to go!

Whooooooosh!

A Magic Ball Adventure recalled by Poppy, Jesé, Deon, Zara, Taz, Kim & Caroline

When Poppy opened the Magic Ball’s zipper she shouted – ‘ITS A FOREST!!!’.

The trees were big and beautiful but suddenly Sarah and Mateo got grabbed by tree branches! Sarah was trapped in a tree embrace, and Mateo was being dragged by his leg!

‘Quick! Let’s get out of here!’

So, we ran away and found a great big train, which nobody knew how to drive, until Kim said – ‘I got this’. So, we held on tight and off we went. Let me tell you…good try Kim but her driving was rather bumpy and quite fast!

As we stopped, a man with a problem appeared – ‘And what kind of problem do you have?’

‘A pizza problem! I need all this pizza, and I have no clue where to get any!’
What about MAKING some pizza?’ – a fabulous Italian Pizza Chef had the solution!

We told the Italian Pizza Chef that we were good helpers and off we went to her incredible Moving Kitchen – where the oven, the microwave and the fridge keep moving about making our Italian Pizza Chef rather confused and very lively!

We went to town with our ingredients – tomatoes, pepperoni, pineapple, cheese, onions, Indian flavours and even a wee bit of a potion that helps you see the sky closer!

And so with much freshly made pizza we had enough to feed the dinosaurs of the Man with a Pizza Problem and to have a right big slice for ourselves too – result!

After our pizza making, we took another train, this time the driver was Poppy and she was excellent! She took us to the beach in India and oh how we swam!

There we bumped into a group of teenagers who joined us on our travels by bus, this time to Africa! We took the subway to go to a big dancing party – we threw some cool shapes and enjoyed some funky moves, took some cool portraits, to remember our excellent adventure and then, actually quite hungry, we drove back to have a well-deserved Picnic.

All in all, a fantastic big adventure with great pals at the Riverside Museum!

See you all soon!

Andre, Sarah, Taz & fabulous Castlemilk & Whiteinch families

Licketyspit’s Art Gallery

‘Dad and Mateo and Mum’

Mateo

‘Dumplings’

Jese

‘The sun. My face. My Dad. My Mum. Playing in the sun.’

Samuel

‘That’s me. This is the magic ball, the train , the pizza and the dinosaur.’

Poppy

‘It’s two of my dumplings. My dumplings are eating the pizza. I liked the party.’

Zara

‘That’s Zara’s orange dumpling and that’s the blue dumpling. That’s just one of my friends trying to catch me. I was invisible and my friends were invisible.’

Deon

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

The post Picnic & Play: CULTURE in GLASGOW appeared first on Licketyspit.

Licketyspit’s Just-So-John Bookplay

lickspit — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:10:35 +0000

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 Bridgeton, Whiteinch and Maryhill Hub families…

Today our Bookplay session was outdoors in a spot Licketyspit families love to go to …the Children’s Wood!

The Children’s Wood is a brilliant green space in Glasgow – we are very lucky that we live in a city with so many big and wee green spaces for us all to enjoy and look after. Our pal Andrea from the Children’s Wood Team joined us too and of course we thought – what’s more exciting than to listen to a good story around Andrea’s campfire?

Excellent idea, my beloved!

Andrea knows everything about building fires we can enjoy safely and without damaging any nature around us – so we set up our Storyplay camp around the campfire, with a nice big picnic, and a wee shelter to make us all feel cozy and give us cover in case it rained – It didn’t! hurray!

And so, we sat round the fire and Ruby read the Rudyard Kipling Just So Story about ‘How The Whale Got His Throat’. You could have heard a pin drop! Everyone was so engrossed in the tale!

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

While we toasted some marshmallows we all chatted about the story –

How many characters were there?

Who would like to play what?

How could you be one character one minute and another the next?, just

like that?

And how could the Mariner (sailor)manage to create a giant grating for the Whale’s throat with only a wee knife?

Well…the Mariner, as we had heard, was ‘a man of infinite-resource-and-sagacity.’

Did you know that infinite’ means ‘never ending’ and ‘Sagacity’ means ‘clever and canny’ ?

It was time to get on our feet and JUMP INTO the Kipling story of ‘How The Whale Got His Throat’ and a great way in is to dress up!

Abackr got started as the Stute Fish and Malak was a crab, Waheed felt strongly that he wanted to be the Whale and Farah decided to be the Sea itself! Many doubled as fish and other sea creatures, and everyone embodied the Big Great Whale swimming across the sea…whoosh!

Then Sarah and Grace became the Mariners and got eaten up by the whale – and that was too much fun not to have a go at, so other people became Mariners and enjoyed getting gulped up too!

‘Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?’

Inside the Whale’s belly a riot ensued and we all ‘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!” until the Whale got the hiccups.

Getting out of the Whale’s belly was also very fun, so quite a few Mariners got ejected!

The grating created by the Mariners who cut up the raft with the cunning use of the wee Jack knife, which proved to be very effective – the Whale tried several times to eat up more mariners but with no success because the grating we had stuck across the Whale’s throat was most effective. From that moment on, no fish or humans could ever be eaten by the Whale. Which also meant that the Whale’s digestion was going to be much more comfortable – happy days!

We had our lovely Picnic sitting together beneath the trees in the Children’s Wood enjoying being outdoors in the fresh air – we even had time to chase about between the trees!

Isn’t it great how you can Bookplay absolutely anywhere you like? All you need is your favourite story, some friends and your fantastic imaginations! What other great story could you Bookplay with your family and friends? Maybe you could tell us about it?

Ruby, Sarah, Taz, Andrea & our pals at The Children’s Wood

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

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

How the Whale got his Throat

The post Licketyspit’s Just-So-John Bookplay appeared first on Licketyspit.

A fabulous Porridge & Play Maryhill Celebration!

lickspit — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:37:26 +0000

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!

In Partnership With

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

The post A fabulous Porridge & Play Maryhill Celebration! appeared first on Licketyspit.

Friends, witches & a Magic Ball adventure!

lickspit — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 16:41:39 +0000

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

A Magic Ball adventure with the Maryhill families! by Rita – age 9

First, we climbed into the Magic Ball and then we zipped it back up.

Then we crashed.

We jumped out to see that we were in a hot pan.

We were burning our feet.

We needed to jump out and one of us said-

‘Let’s jump in this giant sink full of nice cold water!.’

Then we splashed about and then a woman said –

‘Is that your ball?’

And then everybody panicked that if we lost our Magic Ball we would be stuck here forever!

So we ran to save the ball but a Witch ate it!

But it turned out that she tricked us and she didn’t eat it.

So we climbed back into the Magic Ball to go back home.

The End!

Maryhill Art Gallery!

Read the artists’ comments here!

‘Basically that’s my mum, that’s Rita, that’s me and that’s you and you are saying follow me and we are following. When we went to the pan in the Magic Ball. It was a wee bit hot! It’s the sink. That’s the sea when we went in it’

MAYA

‘The sky. A dolphin in the sky’

YULIA

‘A flower this is the balls that we can go in. My brother and Benny Lin, this is where we went into the ball and they didn’t go in!’

XIYA

‘This is Sunny my dog running around’

VIOLET

‘So that’s a tiger and that’s you and that’s me and this is a ball. The tiger went in when we were inside the magic ball. A tiger was in my bed. It’s in my house’

ZOE

‘This was when we were in the magic ball and we were at the jungle. So, this is me and this is a panther and this is cheetah and this is a lion! And these are the trees’

ZAC

‘Mum, me and this is Moda my sister in the garden, the rainbow’

MALI

‘I made a poison. You will die if you drink it! That’s me. I’m going in the Magic Ball with a zipper. And then I’m going to the forest. That’s blood. I’m running away from a witch – didn’t catch me.’

SALAAR

‘This is the magic ball, when we were going inside the magic ball we missed the bear giving us another magic ball! I found this magic ball in the sink!’

THRISHITHA

‘That’s me, that’s you. Magic ball – stars. Mad guys from Japan. They wanted money. Make a challenge – challenge us to a fight. We fight and we win. Friends in the end.’

SHRIYANSH

‘This is a giraffe, a butterfly, the sun and trees, flowers and grass, parrots. A garden. Your garden! A Giraffe called G R Affe.’

AARUSHI

‘That’s Taz, that’s me, that’s Maya and that’s my mum. I liked the Magic Ball.’

RITA

In Partnership With

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.