The children create and have fun at the Book and Film Festival

Schools in Hafnarfjörður are taking different and creative approaches to carrying out projects in connection with The Children's Book and Film Festival this year, as the festival took place during the final week in the municipality's nursery and primary schools. This year's festival is characterised in no small part by creative thinking and alternative entertainment themes, which has in turn called for increased collaboration between classes and after-school clubs at many schools. Some schools have been working with reading webs (book worms or spider webs) in collaboration with pupils' homes, and so the webs have grown in line with the increasing number of books read in homes across Hafnarfjörður. It is safe to say that book and film-related project work, adventures, reading, work with letters and words, and fun films have characterised the school work in Hafnarfjörður over the past week. 

Each class and each school organised their participation. 

For example, Year 5 at Engidalsskóli worked with a Harry Potter theme this week, making bookmarks and sorting hats, writing spells and potion recipes, as well as choosing their house and creating their own character who lives at Hogwarts. Year 3 at Skarðshlíðarskóli read the book An incredible story ...about a giant pear during snack time from Monday to Thursday. On Friday, we had a cinema session with a proper cinema atmosphere; chairs arranged in rows like cinema seats, popcorn and juice, and a film strip on the screen.  

A collaboration between leisure centres results in a film composed of many short films.

The group of Hafnarfjörður's leisure centres, in collaboration with the Hafnarfjörður Library, decided to take an active part in this year's festival by creating a film made up of several short films. The book The Teacher Who Disappeared by Bergrún Íris Sævarsdóttir, writer and 2020 Artist in Residence for Hafnarfjörður, was chosen. She was due to visit all of Hafnarfjörður's primary schools this week, but in light of the current situation, the visits have been postponed until November. During these visits, she was going to read a selected chapter from this exciting book for the Year 3-4 classes of the primary schools. This age group has now, over the past week, had the opportunity to take part in the film-making. The after-school clubs that took part were Tröllaheimar, Hraunkot, Álfakot, Skarðssel, Selið and Lækjarsel, but participation in the project was, of course, voluntary, and some clubs had already arranged their participation for the year in other ways. These after-school clubs were given a specific chapter from the book to work with, which was read together by the group before creativity took over.

The children took care of the process from start to finish…with a little help from the staff.

The children from the after-school clubs worked together on the film production from start to finish. They got to develop the script, design and source costumes, handle the props, act, and thus take care of all the aspects that need to be considered when making a film. Some worked behind the scenes, as that work is no less important, and thus took care of things like designing costumes and props, such as a police car and police hats. The project was a great success and a source of great joy, and it has been heard that the groups now want to make a short film every week. The film is now ready for screening, and the after-school clubs are preparing to host its premiere. Who knows, perhaps Bergrún Íris herself will send them some encouragement and a mark for their performance. The film is scheduled to be shown at Hafnarfjörður Library once the environment and circumstances allow such gatherings once again.