Find out all about our Picnic & Plays with the Bridgeton, Castlemilk and Cranhill Hubs!
These Blog posts show what we got up to and all the Storyplay-ing we did!

Porridge & Play Hubs is running throughout 2022 with this block being the 2nd of our exciting New Scots Integration Project!
Thank you to everyone who has partnered with us to provide such amazing experiences for our children & families, and to all our Storyplay Champions!

We went back to one of our favourite places to Storyplay, which is the Riverside Museum! The Riverside Museum is the first purpose-built museum created by Glasgow Life in the 21st century. Located at the junction of the Rivers Kelvin and Clyde, it houses the city’s fabulous transport and technology collections, which have been gathered over the centuries and which reflect the important part Glasgow has played in the world through its contributions to heavy industries like shipbuilding, train manufacturing and engineering.

The museum was designed by internationally renowned architect, Dame Zaha Hadid. It opened in 2011 after a four-year build, with over 3,000 objects from the city’s world-famous collections displayed inside.

Check out our other adventures at the Riverside Museum!

Porridge & Play Cranhill at the Riverside Museum!

Saturday 11th June

‘It’s a paradise when we went on an adventure. I liked seeing cars and the adventures were good. I liked taking pictures!’ – Presley  

We had an incredible adventure through time at the Riverside Museum with the fabulous Porridge & Play Cranhill Hub!

The families arrived at the museum and we got stuck in on our great adventure! We warmed up, met some Funky Chicken animals, sang Hello, My Name is Joe the loudest I’ve ever heard! I swear you could hear Joe in his Button Factory all the way through the old Street! We got all dressed up and jumped into the Magic Ball and went off exploring!

When we first stepped out of the Magic Ball our steps were so light it felt like we were floating as we moved around. In the distance we spotted a strange old car…. A bicycle and then… A STEAM TRAIN! We quickly climbed aboard where we met the train driver who was having a very hard time. He asked us if we could help and of course, we all said yes! We split into two groups – the first group was shovelling coal into the fire and the second group was helping to steer the train and make sure we stayed on the tracks. We brought the train to a stop, swapped over, and then we were off again! It was really hard work shovelling the coal but luckily Shiva & Zamn had brought some juice. We all had a drink to help cool us down as we were working. Eventually we reached our destination and stopped the train. We asked the train conductor if he wanted to come with us and he said ‘YES!’ 

Funky Chicken Fact: One of the world’s fastest steam locomotives (also known as a steam train) was called The Flying Scotsman. It was built in Britain and went non-stop between London & Edinburgh. In 1934 it become the first locomotive to travel faster than 100 mph. And it still runs today!

We were back floating through time – we saw a really old bus and a huge ship and then we saw two horses – they seemed to be pulling a tram! We stopped and petted the horses and said hello. Their names were Princess & King and they were super friendly. Just behind the horses there was a strange person standing outside a shop. She didn’t seem to speak the same language as us but she seemed very nice. We worked as a team to work out what she was saying….. She was asking if we wanted to come into her photography shop and take some photos! There was a very old camera with a big black cloth over it that you could hide inside to take some photos. We posed, we danced, we laughed and eventually it was time to say goodbye. As we were leaving the train driver sang some songs with us. He knew Jelly On His Head & Miss Mary Mac so we sang them as loudly as we could but we heard something else even louder ‘ICE-CREAM, ICE-CREAM, COME AND GET YOUR ICE-CREAM’

As we looked across the street we saw a cafe owner standing outside inviting us over to have some ice-cream. The cafe had 93 different flavours of ice-cream with unlimited scoops! We tried chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, banana, bubblegum, orange, mint choc chip and even chicken flavour. It was delicious!

By this time we were getting really hungry so we had to go and get the train back to the Magic Ball. Everything was going well until…. A DINOSAURE CAME ON THE TRAIN! He started roaring at us and it was too scary – we had to jump off the train and run all the way back to the magic ball to get us back to the museum where we could have our picnic in safety!

It was such a brilliant adventure and I can’t wait to have another one next time!

Blog by Effie, Andre, Ruby, Rhianne & Porridge & Play Cranhill!!

Porridge & Play Castlemilk at the Riverside Museum!

Saturday 18th June

‘I enjoyed the old train, the old car and the shops.’ – Kinga

Well! What a wonderful trip we had to the Riverside Museum with the Castlemilk Hub!

Everybody was very excited to see the exhibits and play. We all dressed up in spectacular costumes and decided to go on an adventure in the Magic Ball! Sarah had forgotten hers, but fortunately the children were prepared and saved the day! We ended up on a big old train where we needed to work hard putting in the coal for fuel, so the driver, Areeb, could actually drive the train. We ended up in the jungles of Africa where we needed to push our way through the jungle vines and then suddenly, we found ourselves beside two big horses! Abu was in front, leading the way. At the photography shop, we all did some fancy poses for the camera and then we found a cafe where Ayra and Eshal gave everyone ice-cream.

Ruby wanted a mushroom one, which they didn’t have, but the girls just made it, on the spot! We were so impressed, especially as Ruby got a double cone! Outside we found ourselves in a snowy place where we built an igloo and went inside to keep warm. Suddenly we heard music – it was actually the famous piano player Jared and we all crowded round to listen!

Then we waved goodbye and went on a lovely bus ride with Azaan & Eshal driving. We had so much fun singing The Wheel’s On The Bus! Levi and Jared enjoyed becoming statues as if they were museum exhibits and Emma saw invisible ladies in dresses! On the way back we went a wee bit in the wrong direction, but luckily we had our motorbikes to get home, which went pretty fast!

Funky Chicken Fact: Before we had milk-based ice creams, ice creams were introduced in the 10th century and were made of pure ice. Way before that, during the 5th century in Ancient Greece, people ate ice mixed with honey and fruits.

We were all hungry when we got back to the circle room, so we had a lovely picnic and an extra treat of chocolate cake because it was Levi’s birthday. It was great fun singing Happy Birthday! The gallery pictures were brilliant and really told the story of all the things we explored. Our new volunteer Desire had his first day with us and said it was ‘just amazing!’ Because it was!

What adventures will we go on next?! We’ll find out back in Castlemilk for Block 3!

Blog by Ruby, Shona, Sarah, Desire & the Castlemilk Pals!

Thanks to our Hub partners, funders and Picnic & Play partners!

Porridge & Play Hubs Castlemilk, Cranhill & Bridgeton is a New Scots Integration Project by Licketyspit, in collaboration with the Indigo Group, Cranhill Development Trust & Church House.

For Picnic & Play we have partnered with Castlemilk Park, Tollcross Park, The Hunterian Museum, The Science Centre, Glasgow Green, Glasgow Women’s Library, Forth & Clyde Canal Boat Society, the Riverside Museum, the Tallship, Balloch Castle Country Park and Dream Machine! We’d like to say a big THANK YOU to all our partners for helping us provide such an amazing programme for all our families.

There is still plenty more to come for Porridge & Play Castlemilk, Cranhill & Bridgeton! After such exciting trips out we are venturing back to our hub and will be coming together to create our new AllScot Playcards! These Playcards will already be like the existing Licketyspit ones but now we will be taking the games you play/played and creating new ones! These will be on display at our Storyplay Festival happening in September!