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!

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!

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!

12th June 2019

The last Big Porridge & Play 2019 at the Whiteinch library was the biggest yet – with nearly 60 of us singing, playing and dressing up together, before sitting down for a meal. It was very characteristic of the project as a whole, with a lot going on but a wonderful, vibrant energy – just like a big family party!

It was great to introduce our guests to Jelly on his Head and Grandma Grandma. With loud enthusiastic singing across the circle, encouraging grandparents, neighbours and friends to join in.

Lots of people took the floor to lead us in different Funky Chicken animals – like Rhiannon’s Naughty Unicorn, Yu’s Silly Dinosaur and Ava’s Cheeky Snake. We had fun remembering the body-part names in Ickerickeroo,with even the youngest in the group joining in and concentrating intently from our Toe Pointers to our Brainboxers!

Letter to my Love was really fun, with those dropping the letter taking great delight in guessing who had picked it up. Everyone really went to town with their Dressing Up – the best yet – gathering into a huddle for a quick group photo before we played our final game, Monsters’ Footsteps. Here, we met Granny Carson and Granny Jennifer, and Granny Frankey and Granny Sofia, before everyone else turned into brilliant Monster Trees, dancing and creeping their way towards them.

We were so thrilled that so many people wanted to bring something to share at the meal – we were certainly not short of food! From Anzelika, Frankey and Zofia’s Chocolate Butterfly Cakes to Christine and Corey’s Top Hats, Lily and Lisa’s Vegan Raspberry Cake to Anne’s Cheese & Onion rolls and Sausage Rolls, Yue’s Shrimp Noodles to Hanna’s Prawn Crackers, Zhenlan’s Seaweed and Carrot Rolls and Yu’s Spring Rolls, Suzy’s Brownies to Donna’s Strawberry Gateau, not to mention Asim’s Sudanese Lentil Soup! It was a feast. Look out for recipes in the Lickety Kitchen – and if you made something, please send us a recipe so we can add it!

It’s been a great 7 weeks, from our Tall Ship adventure with the mermaid and the sharks, to our first Magic Ball with the amazing dragon, we have seen and done some amazing things in our imaginary play. The story of Kitty the Clown and the Naughty Seagull is a brilliant creation and a testimony to everyone’s commitment to Porridge & Play and belief in your own limitless imaginations and each other. We missed everyone this Wednesday and hope we’ll be able to do more Porridge & Play in Whiteinch and other parts of Glasgow where we might see you soon.

Stay in touch and let us know if you’ve been playing the Lickety-Playcard games. We’d also love to add any new drawings to the Lickety Gallery, and if you write to us, we’ll always write back.

What you said…

“Thank you so much, we will really miss this” (Mum)

“Having R’s grandparents join in and seeing her’s excitement to be teaching them the songs and games.” (Mum)

“She’s had the cards out every day, she’s obsessed with them! We’re off to do our shopping later so we can buy the ingredients to make the soup.” (Mum)

“I love Porridge & Play” (Child)

“Encouraging imaginative play, giving children confidence & validating their ideas” (Parent)

“Both me and A have enjoyed every minute of it and learned so many new games and songs” (Mum)

Other blog posts…

BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow is a 7-week block of Licketyspit Playcard Play & food sessions for local families with children under 12. This year for the very first time we will be going out for sessions 4 and 5 to have Picnic & Play sessions in cultural centres around Glasgow. Find out more by clicking here!

5th June 2019

With our sessions drawing to a close we want to make sure our last Big Porridge & Play afternoons together are fantastic! On Wednesday at Whiteinch Library we had exactly that! We had such an enjoyable afternoon of play together!

Ruby and Jack were joined by Iona as again everyone braved the horrible weather outside to make it to the library.

We had the best Big as a Bear in Whiteinch yet. As soon as we started our warm-up, everyone was joining in with some brilliant actions too! We were so happy to see how well you have all learned this, as well as all the other songs and games! This is a great one to teach your family and friends at home and school!
After last week’s brilliant story creation with Ruby we absolutely loved hearing your story again this week – Kitty the Clown & the Naughty Seagull. Taking it in turns to read brilliantly, there was a great deal of respect shown by the rest of the group as everyone listened so well! We were so impressed by this and we can’t wait for you to show your invited guests how hard you all worked on this!

The story of Kitty the Clown was our inspiration this week, as we took turns in showing off our best and most exciting circus skills! With Ruby leading us all along the tight rope, Ava and Frankey’s high jumping, Lily’s spectacular cartwheeling and Ryder’s spinning top, we treated to some brilliant skills! Can you think of some other circus skills to try?

With the session coming up this week our last, we are super-duper excited for our Celebration afternoon! We are can’t wait to meet your invited guests and show them all the songs and games we have all played together.

What you said…

“I love porridge & play.” (Child, 4)

“A picture of R, purple, red and green colours for her hair and witches fingers on the back.” (Child, 4)

“I drew Kitty the Clown from the story and lots of Naughty Seagulls.” (Mum)

“I drew myself doing a cartwheel in the circus – my favourite part of today – it’s me standing on my hands.” (Child, 5)

Other blog posts…

BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow is a 7-week block of Licketyspit Playcard Play & food sessions for local families with children under 12. This year for the very first time we will be going out for sessions 4 and 5 to have Picnic & Play sessions in cultural centres around Glasgow. Find out more by clicking here!