We’re very excited that Big Porridge & Play is BACK from 2020-2022!

Big Porridge & Play Glasgow (BPPG) was first launched in 2017, bringing diverse groups of families together in Ruchill, the Gorbals and Whiteinch for intergenerational imaginary play, food and connection. Licketyspit’s play is based on the Lickety Playcard repertoire and grounded in children’s rights, equality and the belief that everyone is creative and everyone wants to play! Thanks to the National Lottery, BPPG will continue until 2022, with the three existing community groups and three new ones…

In 2020 & 2021 we have been delivering Big Porridge & Play online. See below to find out more!

Big Porridge & Play ONLINE 2020

Licketyspit worked hard to adapt our projects to support families to keep playing during the pandemic.

We were very excited to deliver BPPG as an ONLINE project in 2020 via Zoom, with closed community sessions on weekdays as well as open sessions for families across Glasgow every Saturday.

Groups of up to 30 families meet for 90 minute sessions of imaginary play adventures in the Magic Ball, Funky Chicken animal invention, Flying Balloon journeys and lots more singing, dressing up and general hilarity!

The project was extended throughout 2020 thanks to additional funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and recommenced in April 2021.

Find out more about how the project was adapted online here.

What is Big Porridge & Play?

BIG PORRIDGE & PLAY GLASGOW is a unique project that originally ran for three years (2017-19), for families with children under 12 in Ruchill, Whiteinch, and the Gorbals. BIG Porridge & Play 2017-19 was funded by the BIG Lottery (now called The National Lottery Community Fund) and took place for 7/8-week blocks in April-June. Families met in large groups for Porridge & Play sessions of imaginary play and food.

What is Porridge & Play? 

Porridge & Play was developed in response to parents and carers in north Glasgow whose children participated in LicketyLeap. They were astonished and delighted at their children’s confidence and creativity. They asked us, ‘how can we do more of this?!’

Porridge & Play was our response.

Porridge & Play is based on the Licketyspit repertoire of 38 games, rhymes, songs, traditional streetplay and imaginary play. It is designed for children and adults, to encourage continuing intergenerational play.

Each Porridge & Play session begins with a group meal including lots of delicious fruit, porridge for breakfast or homemade soup for lunch. Licketyspit actor-pedagogues then lead a fun and relaxed play session full of fantastic games, songs and imaginary play. The sessions are carefully crafted to develop children’s creativity, social skills, confidence and relationships. We regularly consult children and their adults about how we can improve and develop the sessions.

The games are illustrated in the Lickety Playcards, a set of 32 cards with song words, game instructions and colourful illustrations.

BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow brings families together in their local community centre for an 7-week block of Porridge & Play culminating in a Celebration Sharing Event.

BPPG 2017-19

We had such a fantastic time delivering BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow 2017-2019 with
wonderful families in Ruchill, the Gorbals and Whiteinch. A BIG thanks to all of our
Actor-Pedagogues, staff, our main funder, the National Lottery Community Fund, and
support from Esmee Fairbairn and the Robertson Trust, our partners, The Tall Ship and
The Dream Machine where we had BPPG Trips, photographer Eoin Carey and
filmmaker Jonathan Ley & Jacek Hubner, our volunteers & translators, and of course,
to all our participants!

Watch a short video about BPPG 2019!

BPPG Activity Films (2020)

While we’re all at home, tapping into our rich imaginations and playing together with our families is more important than ever. Families at BPPG can find all sorts of other useful & fun content on our website, from videos, games, imaginary play activities in Come & Play to child-friendly explainers about Coronavirus.

We also created an accessible, fun & educational Cooking, Making and Exploring video series with our actor pedagogues Taz, Jack and Iona.

There are 21 videos to watch, find them all on our Youtube and Facebook pages, or watch them here.

Big Porridge & Play Blog!

Read about each week’s session, see photos and find your drawings from the Lickety Art Gallery – Don’t forget to show your family and friends!

Please stay in touch, send us a picture to put in the Licketyspit Art Gallery, or see what activities you can do in Come & Play!

You can email us at CFN@licketyspit.com or Tweet us at @LicketyTweet. Follow us on facebook and twitter to see photos of BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow and get our latest news.