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!

29th May 2019

With the rain tumbling down and the wind blowing, we couldn’t have our planned Picnic & Play in Victoria park, but we stayed and had a brilliant session in the Library instead, with a dressing up parade, another Balloon adventure and lots of songs.

Jack read us a Letter to his Love – his lovely love that he loves, loves, loves! On his way to send the letter, he dropped it, only to find that someone else had picked it up and put it in their pocket. But who was it…? This game was greatly enjoyed by all, with as much fun being had by those who didn’t have the letter as those who did!

We also created our own story in this session. As you know, every Porridge & Play game can be like a trampoline bounce into making up characters and stories, whether it’s Grandma with her creeping forest of Monster Trees, Mr Wolf and his various watches and different activities every hour, Flying Balloons high over Glasgow together or Magic Ball. These games all fill our heads with ideas, stories and adventures where we can be anyone, go anywhere and do anything – and we do! All we need to play is each other!

This week we thought we’d have a go at making up a completely new story, starting with a character and getting ideas from across the circle to tell the tale of Kitty the Clown and the Naughty Seagull. Click here to read the story!

After our dressing up parade and a quick round of Jelly on His Head, we laid out the Lickety picnic blankets in the Library – surrounded by books full of stories! -and enjoyed peeking our delicious boiled eggs and munching our crunchy vegetables, humus and fruit, for an inside Picnic!

The librarians also looked out some sea-themed books after our trip to the Tall last week – so don’t forget to take one out to take home with you next week.  Every book is a new play world where we can imagine a new adventure!

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!

22nd May 2019

Licketyspit travelled from the Whiteinch Library to The Tall Ship at Riverside for a brilliant outreach Picnic & Play session!

We began our journey with delighting fellow bus travellers with an excellent rendition of Jelly on His Head! We wanted to share the Lickety songbook with the rest of Glasgow!

Once we boarded the Tall Ship, the group met our friends Old Rodger and the Old Woman! We planted apple trees, watched them tumble down and collected them in our baskets! Old Rodger gave us a big fright which made us all go Hippity Hop!

We then went on an adventure on the Magic Ship travelling to a beautiful and exotic Island! We first did some exploring – finding crabs, beautiful sea shells and a wild unicorn! We then found a tiny cave which we all bravely crawled into and we were rewarded with an amazing white sandy beach with warm turquoise water. We all went for a swim meeting along the way a mermaid! This was a very hungry mermaid who loved eating cake and lots of it! As we swam back to shore two sharks gave us a terrible fright! Luckily, they were very friendly and all they wanted to do was play with us! What an incredible journey we went on today!

The Tall Ship, also known as the Glenlee, is one of only five Clyde built ships still afloat in the world today. It first took to the water in 1896 and circumnavigated the globe four times!

It’s a great free attraction for families and you can find more about its history and programme of events on their website.

what you said… 

“Exploring a new place we had never been before. The boat gave the games more excitement as it was easier to imagine ” (Mum)

“I think my kids really enjoyed the space and the excitement of being on the ship” (Mum)

“I luft it in my hol hart” (Child, 5)

“It was good and the singing along the way was great” (Mum)

“My daughter was very excited about today and has had a great time!” (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!

15th May 2019

Our third BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow at Whiteinch Library was brilliant – a great atmosphere and lots of great game playing! Jack and Ruby were joined by Iona and Asem, Lickety volunteer!

We had over 40 participants attending the session as we all took shelter from a very hot and sunny Wednesday afternoon. We played lots of Lickety Playcard games including some new ones that we have never done before!

We met the hardworking, never stopping Joe who works in a button factory and after meeting him we all felt like we had been working in the factory with him!

We flew high above Whiteinch and high above Glasgow seeing all sorts of wonderful things! We saw a unicorn meeting up with her friend the dragon! A tower so high that it nearly reached us in our balloons and a flying dinosaur! What adventures we had!

We also all baked a cake together – from stirring in our ingredients, adding some delicious PICKLES to opening the oven, to putting on our oven gloves to retrieve our baked cake. It was very very tasty! Don’t forget you can read all about the Licketyspit food on our website!

We’re very excited to be heading out of the library and on to the Tall Ship at our next session!

Other blogs…

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!

8th May 2019

We had our second BIG Porridge & Play Glasgow session in Whiteinch and what a session it was, with 14 families and 43 people attending altogether! We travelled around the world to the coasts of Portugal in the magic ball, we danced the Ickerickeroo and met some very scary witches!

We played Witches Fingers for the first time and the group really loved this game! We had some very convincing and scary witches who all drank the same bottle of poison! Witches Fraser, Suzy and Frankey were fantastic and really got into their witch characters! We met some of the Funky Chicken’s funny friends including the Slippery Snake, the Creepy Spider, the Black Dinosaur and the Silly Cat! We wonder if we’ll meet any more of his band of merry animals over the next few weeks?

Ruby asked us to name all of our different body parts, but we couldn’t name any of them correctly! She had some very different names for hers, telling us all about the old Scots words for our body parts as we danced and sang the Ickerickeroo. The group now knows all about our brainboxer, our e-peepers and our bread basket!

We also took a trip in the Magic Ball for the first time. We travelled to the windy coastline of Portugal where we looked over the edge of a very high cliff! Luckily, we were blown away from the edge into a secret tunnel! Rhiannon spotted a mermaid in the tunnel, so we slowly crept in to find her and find her we did! She was very welcoming, and she fed us with fresh sea-apples and sea-weed! We danced the wolf-dance to protect us from the scary wolves Ava warned us about making our way out to a beautiful beach. We went swimming deep in the ocean and Corey spotted Jaws. Corey made sure the shark was friendly, bravely jumping in to make friends with him so the shark didn’t eat us all! We built a fire to dry off and we cooked some delicious fish with Lilly’s tasting like mermaid tail!

We then all ate together a delicious sweet potato, carrot and lentil soup which filled us up before we ended our session with the Licketyspit Art Gallery! You can find out more about the Lickety food in the Lickety Kitchen and find the artworks below…

What you said…

“It was so much fun!” (Mum)

“I drew the tunnel and loads of different people who are all smiling and happy!” (Child, 7)

“I drew lots of lovely colours form the magic ball when we were swimming in the ocean!” (Child, 3.5)

“I want to go up in the magic balloon again!” (Child, 3)

“I drew the beach and the water! I also drew myself swimming in the sea! My favourite thing today was meeting the mermaid! She gave us sea weed and sea shells to listen to!” (Child, 4)

“I drew a rainbow star. My favourite moment was when we sang twinkle twinkle little star. It made my feel free and nice!” (Child, 3)

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!

1st May 2019

Our first Big Porridge & Play session in Whiteinch this year was absolutely packed – with 14 families and 50 people in total!

It was great to see some families from last year, as well as a few families we had met at the Whiteinch Nursery Spring Tea the week before – and lots more new local families.

Virginia, Ruby, Jack and Hilde were joined by our new Lickety Volunteer Saliha, and our Children & Families Network Producer Rita was there to meet everyone too.

We had a vivacious and energetic play session in the Children’s Library at Whiteinch – meeting the Funky Chicken and his friends, flying off in our Balloons and seeing dragons, dinosaurs and a volcano, and turning into marvellous creeping trees in Monsters’ Footsteps!

There was some fantastic dressing up, especially from the parents and grandparents. This was a moment that really helped everyone relax and set their imaginations free, as we saw in the hilarious and highly expressive Monster faces!

We had a delicious lentil, carrot and leek soup made by Saliha, delicious fruit and crusty bread, and ended the session with Reflective Drawing and the Licketyspit Gallery, with great listening and appreciation of all the artists, despite some of the younger children losing concentration a little.

You can find out more about our food in the Lickety Kitchen and find the artworks below…

What you said…

“It was lovely today, I really enjoyed being part of it and playing with lots of the other families” (Mum)

“It’s really good for their confidence” (Mum)

“I liked the funky chicken game was my favourite” (Child, 5)

“C enjoyed the food and D enjoyed visiting the library” (Mum)

“I hope coming again” (Mum)

“Children nagged to come again this year – enjoyed the sessions last year and still playing the games” (Gran)

“What would be so good for me would be to see him join in from the start to the end.” (Mum)

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!