We had lots of fun with a very clever bunch of witches too who had marvelous witchy cackles and some very exciting juices including purple poison and large amounts of seagull juice. Very tasty!

Talking of seagulls, we saw some very cheeky ones at the beach who liked sandwiches and muffins. One of them actually swallowed a muffin whole!

We all enjoyed a tasty picnic and some yummy ice-cream which was a real treat.

Then after all the delicious food we went to explore the beach and had so much fun together, paddling in the sea and finding treasure on the beach. We found pools of water in the sand,bright green seaweed, lots of different shells and even a crab skeleton.

It was such a lovely day and just before it was time to go home, we had a game of Olly Olly Octopus which was so much fun! Then it was time to say goodbye to the sand and the waves and the shells and the naughty seagulls and so we all got on the bus for the journey home.

Once we were all on the bus, we started to feel a bit sleepy after all the glorious fresh air, so some of us enjoyed a wee nap! Troon beach was just a brilliant day out!

Sarah, Ruby, Andre and our Cranhill Hub

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

A very sunny last Picnic & Play of the Summer in Troon Beach and our Whiteinch & Online Hub pals did not hold back…

The sun was shining, and our friends were well prepared for Picnic & Play on Troon beach – swimming costumes & goggles, big brothers and sisters, smiles and excitement – fantastic ingredients for a cool day taking Storyplay out and about!

We found a great spot on the beach, a big space that seemed to have a circle already drawn on the sand…coincidence?

Our circle was big and our warmup busy – we danced, we made ourselves as Big As A Bear and we had a good stretch while taking that beautiful salty sea air in.

Of course we played the all time favourite Funky Chicken and we had a Scary Tiger, a Galaxy Axalot, Jumping Starfish and Snapping crocodile amongst other funky animals!

‘Hello My Name Is Joe’ had us all pressing imaginary buttons vigorously and then we had a good round of Witches Fingers – cackling and running away!

Love was in the warm air with ‘Letter to my Love’ and after all that the excitement was growing and the hunger was too!…PICNIC TIME!

Everyone tucked in and got their energy up to get ready for seashore exploring and swimming! Shahla had brought cinnamon roles for everyone too which were delicious. Yum!

Let me tell you – our friends were ready to splash, dive, paddle, jump and explore stones and shells and even jellyfish!

Grown-ups also paddled and refreshed in the sea, it was actually not cold at all, and the sun was lovely and warming so if you ever got a wee bit cold in the water a few minutes out in the sun would warm you up again!

It felt even more like the perfect beach day as after our sea playing, we had delicious ice cream.

It’s funny how you can feel many things at the same time…we were a bit sad to leave the beach and at the same time we were so happy and grateful for a fabulous day on a beautiful beach with lovely weather and brilliant friends…

This was our last Picnic & Play of the Summer and the whole Licketyspit team felt very chuffed because it has been an absolute blast out there Storyplaying with our brilliant, creative and brave families! Huzzah for friends & play!

Sarah, Virginia, Taz, Nerea, Catherine & our Whiteinch & Online pals!

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

We all know how fast the weather in Scotland can change but our bold Govan & Online Hubs are always ready to adapt and enjoy whatever the weather.

We arrived in Balloch and saw some of the impact of a storm that had happened a couple of days before – branches scattered around and still some gusts of wind blowing now and again, whistling loud in our ears. We found a nice big clear space up the hill where we could make our circle and off, we started with Storyplay!

Have you tried dancing outdoors? We very much recommend it – you may even get some other passing people to be inspired to join you!

Funky Chicken was a lot of fun, and Hello My Name is Joe got us all panting and laughing in equal measure.

We met a few Witches & Wizards with long fingers and a flair for making different bottles of strange beverages – even a tiny wee Witch who chased us all!

As we were starting a game of ‘Letter To My Love’ the skies opened, and a summer shower descended upon us! But Licketyspit & friends are adaptable and determined so we quickly found cover under a canopy of trees where we not only played our game, but we also set up our camp so we could have our Picnic protected by the gorgeous big trees…it was rather magical!

We tucked into our picnic and drank hot chocolate, and then we were ready to set off and explore around beautiful Balloch Country Park at the Loch Lomond shores!

Loch Lomond is BIG and DEEP but oh so beautiful and inviting…

Swings and Swims!

Some of us had a blast at the brilliant play park – zip lining, pushing with our legs, learning about monkey bars, climbing and sliding, seesawing…

And some of us were immediately drawn to the water! – Aminata, Safa and Fatou were the first ones in. They didn’t hesitate and soon they were all swimming.

Azeem got inspired and after some discussion…in he went too!

Soon everyone else was exploring the shore: throwing stones, looking at pebbles and imagining finding some gold!

Then trousers got rolled up and many of our pals were paddling in the water and taking in the beautiful view and enjoying the great outdoors.

Many grown-ups and children said what a beautiful place Balloch is – for fun and games, adventure but also for peace and quiet and to relax in nature.

We all felt lucky and grateful for being outside, playing and happy with such a great group of pals – it was hard to leave as we were having such a great time but, you know what? Balloch and other wonderful spots in Scotland are there for all to visit and take care of so we can continue to enjoy our beautiful country!

A fantastic day all round with a fantastic bunch of families!

Taz, Sarah, Andre, Taiwo, Zainab & our Govan & Online pals

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

What’s the saying? If life gives you lemons…make lemonade. And if the Picnic cannot happen outdoors…have it indoors! Our fabulous Bridgeton Hub wasn’t fazed by the change of plan because the truth is, ALL we need for a brilliant Storyplay is our imaginations and each other! And that we had!

That’s the great thing about Storyplay, we can be anyone, do anything, go anywhere with our imaginations and so today although we were indoors in a fantastic big hall at the CCH in Maryhill, we had a sea adventure as The Ugliest Pirate Crew ever known to Scotland! Amongst other things actually…

As we always like to do, we had a nice big warm up – we first had a nice boogie and then we stretched to our Big As A Bear rhyme!

We also met some cool animals playing Funky Chicken – Emilia showed us the Jumping Snake, Alan the Flying Fly. Tanisk came up with a Flying Car and Moira created the Angry Crocodile. Lexi was a Crazy Giraffe and Leeanne was Purring Cat. Lin created a Fast Dog and Suleman an Angry Cat.

After that we all became Cackling Witches with long witchy fingers coming up with all sorts of weird concoctions to drink!

‘I’m going to drink a bottle of…Snake Juice!’

 The big Reid Hall at the CCH is a great space to run around and the Witches had it tough to get to catch people after saying ‘I’m going to drink a bottle of…POISON!’ – but they still managed!

Dressing up was deliciously UGLY! Ugly? Well, aye, aye! And you know why? Because the challenge was to become the Ugliest Pirate Crew Ever Known to Scotland!

Captain Tatty Scone – who looked a bit like Taz – was recruiting for ugly pirates and our Bridgeton Hub raised to the occasion and became as ugly as ugly can be! Once the level of ugliness of these crazy pirates was established Captain Tatty Scone started shouting orders about –

 SCRUB THE DECK!

            CLIMB THE RIGGING!

                     and….. WALK THE PLANK!

The Ugly Pirates were very good at following orders so the Captain decided to do some Captain try-outs and let some of the crew be in charge…

We had Captain Ridhi who was mean and Captain Lin who was very interested in keeping the ship clean! Some of the other pirates didn’t enter the try-outs but started calling themselves Captain none the less! At some point the whole crew was made of Captains which doesn’t happen often but we seemed to be getting along fine, so all the Captains decided it was time to cross the Seven Seas…underwater! We took a big breath in and underwater we went – there was a shark that looked scary but Alan using his Shark language knowledge managed to persuade it not to eat us up!

– Who has the treasure map? – said a Captain

– I have the map! – said Captain Salah

– Right, let’s take a look – said another Captain

We quickly worked out that we had to swim to a desert island if we wanted to dig out the treasure and so off we swam until we got there.

-I found the spot!

-Everyone DIG!

There were coins and jewels and all sorts of fabulous treasure to share and also we found…A LOVE LETTER! Naturally we decided to play I Sent a Letter to My Love and it was great fun! We had our lovely picnic sitting on picnic blankets, and we even had some ice cream with sweeties as toppings Tarika brought for everyone.

We also had time to do a Reflective Drawing and to visit the Licketyspit Art Gallery and after that we even had a game of Tunnel Tig and the very best Hide & Seek game ever known to Scotland! Bad weather? Who cares! What an absolute hoot this Indoors Picnic turned out to be!

Taz, Sarah, Andre & our adventurous Bridgeton Hub

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

Picnic & Play is here and Licketyspit is delighted to go on trips with friends from all our Porridge & Play Hubs across Glasgow. Picnic & Play is an opportunity to Storyplay away from our Glasgow neighbourhoods – visiting public spaces in our city – like museums, parks or galleries or visiting outdoor places outside Glasgow, like Troon Beach or Balloch Country Park and bringing Storyplay to all of them!

The sky above Troon Beach looked dramatic – a combination of greys with occasional rays of light braking through the clouds. The wind was blowing and there were seagulls screeching loudly while circling in the air through a drizzle of rain. Sound dramatic, right?

Well, no drama for our Maryhill Hub friends! – they were full of beans and so very excited about their day out that they almost didn’t feel how fresh it was – one certainly needed a couple of layers on!

Graeme and Andy, our drivers dropped us near the promenade so carrying all our bits and bobs for our picnic wasn’t a huge effort and everyone helped so it was even easier.

We settled and quickly many of our friends were already running around, digging in the sand or checking out the shore!

DANCING ON THE BEACH!

Our dance warm up got the attention of folk who were there also enjoying a day out and many passersby were smiling at us and admiring our moves! Ruby got us all started, and we threw some cool shapes.

Funky Chicken with Andre was hilarious, and seaside infused! We had a Pinching Crab and an Angry Sea-turtle as well as of course, a Naughty Seagull!

We had to make our voices loud for Hello My Name is Joe and after that, running away in Witches Fingers was particularly satisfying running in the sand!

Letter to my Love is a great game to play outdoors! You can make a massive, big circle and friends get turns very quickly – it is also a funny game with everyone trying to pull the least suspicious face they can possibly master!

We also had a couple of rounds of Monsters Footsteps with some really scary looking Monster Trees…

TIME FOR A PICNIC!

We put down some tarps and big cloths to sit down on the sand and have our tasty picnic which it was so delicious that of course it got the seagulls attention. However, we managed to eat peacefully, and we even had some ice cream before heading to the shore to explore, paddle and…SWIM!

Yeah, you read it right.

Some of our wee pals were determined and in they went for a full swim!

Moman made up a game about jumping waves and Shiva said she got a wee bit nervous when something in the water brushed one of her legs…it was just some seaweed! Dan also swam like a fish and Yasna, Amira and Gabbie loved collecting seashells on the seashore.

Shaylin and Gabriella couldn’t make up their minds. One minute they were jumping waves and the next running away from them! Maha decided after a while that she was going to get in the sea too, but Adam was not convinced, and he just decided to look at all the dogs playing around on the beach and feed muffins to the seagulls!

Did I mention that most of the grown-ups also went for a wee dip …..of their toes?

It was a fantastic and action-pack day at the beach so some of our pals had a wee nap on the bus on our way home but others, like Yasna and Amira, decided to make up games to play while travelling. Clever, eh?

The Picnic & Play season is officially open!!

Andre, Ruby & Taz and our Maryhill Hub

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

Our cheery Bridgeton hub had a blooming good time at The Children’s Wood. They arrived nice and early and there were many smiles and hugs because we were all together again!

Sarah taught us The Children’s Wood Rhyme and Andre helped us all to make ourselves as Big AS A Bear to warm up. We flew high above the Wood in our Flying Ballo0ns and then we met exquisite creatures with the Funky Chicken – crocodiles, sharks, a happy cat, a naughty elephant, even a Dancing Cricket!

Dressing up was inspiring and inspired – our Bridgeton pals are particularly skilled at using old clothes to turn themselves into the most fabulous characters. They imagined the most colourful animals and creatures that lived in this Forest – a crocodile and a princess cat unicorn, a tiger, a flamingo, a flying squirrel, a giraffe, a chicken and a baby mouse! Did you know that in this forest only one animal has a watch? And when the forest creatures need to know the time there’s no other option but to ask, ‘What’s The Time Mr. Wolf’?

We had Wolfie Rasha who lived in the same tunnel she found her watch in & Wolfie Maab who live in a tree and found her watch in the sky!

Wolfie Emilia had a purple watch that matched her purple house!

Wolfie Alan found his golden watch in an abandoned building!

 Wolfie Abackar had a green watch and at 2 o’clock Wolfie Mariam made all the creatures dance!

Being forest animals and wolves does make one rather hungry, so we had a delicious picnic sitting in the meadow. After that Andrea from The Children’s Wood got us all in a lovely circle to show us how to start a fire and how to cook bread in it!

We learnt how to use flints that create sparks to start the fire, and we learnt how to wrap some bread dough over a stick to cook yummy Stick Bread!

All our Bridgeton pals were exceptional at all these new things, and they were even better at melting marshmallows on a stick over the fire!

There was time for some running around, climbing, jumping and swinging too and although it was a bit cloudy the rain stayed away all day. Maybe that’s because on their way from Bridgeton to the Children’s Wood we had all sung –

Rain, rain go away,

Come again another day!”

It was a beautiful day with beautiful friends in a beautiful green space in Glasgow. Aren’t we lucky?!

Taz, Andre, Sarah, Taiwo & our Govan & Online friends

 

 

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

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

and many more!

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

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

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

Find out what we did at The Hidden Gardens!

Saturday 22nd June 2024

Storyplay, a Potato Parade & delicious food

A big thank you to everyone who came! We had so much fun. An extra big thank you to our collaborators Kin Kitchen & The Hidden Gardens as well as the Scottish Refugee Council!

We arrived at the Hidden Gardens and it was a beautiful, sunny day. I don’t know about you but the sun puts a spring my step! Anyway, when we arrived, we met with our friends at the Hidden Gardens – it was amazing. It’s lovely being surrounded by nature. I dare say – it put a second spring my step!!

After that, we met our friends at Kin Kitchen and we were immediately hypnotised by the wonderful smell of the food they were cooking – a sign of good things to come! As much as we loved those smells, we couldn’t stay for long because we had a session!

We welcomed 38 children and their grownups from 11 families to a secret space within the gardens. It was such a great place to play – and dance! After our exhilarating dancing warm-up we met some very funky animals – scary tigers, crazy monkeys, big elephants, a hungry squirrel and even a mother otter – along with the Funky Chicken of course!

We blew up our magic ball together and we were transported to Cake Land – where everything is made of cake!! And what do you do when everything is made of cake? You eat it all!! We ate so much but suddenly we started to feel strange… One of the cakes made us all tiny! Oh no! We panicked a little… Suddenly an Old Butterfly appeared! She said we should make the most of the situation and turn ourselves into butterflies! She showed us how to roll in our cocoons and burst out as beautiful butterflies! We all flew around Cake Land having the time of our lives!

We flew and flew until we were exhausted! How could we stop being Butterflies and be people again? Luckily our friend told us we just needed to eat some vegetables! So we found some carrots, tomatoes, and cucumber and she was right – they made us people again! Once we were our normal size, we got back into the Magic Ball and travelled back to the Hidden Gardens to enjoy the rest of the party

We were so hungry when we got back and luckily we were just in time for Kin Kitchen’s beautiful food! They had pasta salad, potato salad, hummus, a sun-dried tomato & red pepper dip, carrots, cucumbers and for dessert they made these strawberry & banana skewers with a vanilla sauce – yum!!!

After filling up on food, there was still lots to do – an arts & crafts station to make Butterfly finger puppets and a place to decorate potatoes! Why decorate the potatoes? For the Potato Parade of course!!

Andre used his loudest voice announced that The Potato Parade was about to begin! We all grabbed our decorated potatoes, decided some fancy moves and off we went! A huge parade of people and potatoes all going around the Gardens to the beat of a drummer! It was so much fun and we all loved sharing our potatoes with everyone

After the parade, we had a request to play a game of What’s The Time Mr. Wolf? – how could we say no?! We played and met some very interesting wolves with some very fancy watches. They were kind of scary but also a lot of fun… Well, until dinner time that is!

It was are really lovely day. The sun shone and everyone was so friendly & fun! It really was a pleasure to co-host with Kin Kitchen and Hidden Gardens and everyone had a lovely time

Thanks again to everyone who came

Lots of love,

Steven, Taz & Andre

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

Have Your Say Through Play is a children’s human rights-based, fun way to support children under-twelve to explore and share their thoughts, feelings and ideas through Lickety Playcard Play.

This project was first developed with our Children & Families Network in September 2020, as a way to consult children about the Covid-19 pandemic. Everyone’s Children invited us to join them and have our Storyplay Champions show just how have Have Your Say Through Play works!

Tuesday 21st June

Welcome to the Storyplay For The Planet blog, where we share the stories of all the adventures
we’ve had! Get in touch to find out how to join.

Read the Zine

This Zine was produced as part of the project with Lead Actor-Pedagogue Effie editing together the children’s stories, ideas and reflective drawings.

It is both a record of the sessions and an invitation to use your imagination and creativity to explore ways to protect our planet!

You can pick up a physical copy at Cranhill Development Trust, Barlanark Community Centre and the schools and nurseries around the ward.

You can download a text-only version of the report for use with E-readers or Google translate here.

The Lickety Gallery!

What’s next?

Ways to keep playing and imagining through Storyplay!

Our Glasgow Life residency may be over but there are lots of other Licketyspit projects you can get involved with.

From May we’ll be running more online sessions as part of Big Porridge & Play Glasgow. These will take place from 4.30-6pm on Fridays – contact us to register your interest.

Then in September we’ll be holding the first ever STORYPLAY FESTIVAL! Watch this space.

We always love to hear from you and see any stories or drawings you have done while storyplaying at home. So stay in touch

About the Project

Storyplay for the Planet was a series of Storyplay & Have Your Say Through Play sessions for families with 3-12 year olds in East Centre Ward.

Licketyspit delivered sessions in schools, nurseries, online and in community settings, for families across the East Centre Ward.

These sessions were a chance for families to explore the issue of climate change and share their feelings about it creatively, elevating children’s voices and demonstrating the power of imagination to find solutions to the greatest collective challenge of our time!

Read more about the project and find all the blogs here.