Since the fall of 2023, Heiðrún Kristín Guðvarðardóttir has welcomed immigrant children to the Gerðuberg library and read Icelandic children’s literature with them. This initiative helps improve reading comprehension and Icelandic skills.
This initiative is a pilot project in partnership with the municipality run service center Suðurmiðstöð Reykjavíkur, titled Heiðrún’s Vinalestur – Lesþjálfun til framtíðar (Heiðrún´s Reading Friends – Reading Training for the Future). The children are met at the City Library in Gerðuberg. Heiðrún explains: “One child approaches me individually, and I start reading with them. Immediately after, I encourage them to illustrate a scene from the story they just read. They have the opportunity to select from a variety of books, and we take turns reading them, allowing everyone to hear the correct pronunciation in Icelandic. Since the end of winter, I have encouraged them also to create larger pictures together, allowing each child to illustrate a scene from one of the stories they have read. In the end, I ask each child to compose a story in Icelandic inspired by the scene they illustrated on the large pictures. This process involves discussing essential elements required for a story and then writing down their responses”, explains Heiðrún.
At the end of each semester, an exhibition featuring the children’s drawings takes place, an important event that reinforces pride in their work. In the spring semester, the stories will also be part of the exhibition. Heiðrún also organizes cultural excursions for the children around the capital area twice each semester. They have since visited Harpa to attend a performance of Maximús Músíkus. They also took part in mask making at the library, watched the play Fíasól at the Borgarleikhúsið theatre, and visited the Árbaejarsafn Museum on the first day of summer. There have been other cultural visits, such as a Halloween party at the Whale Museum, the Symphony Orchestra’s pajama party at Harpa, a Christmas craft event in Gerðuberg, and most recently a visit to the House of Collections on Hverfisgata, where the National Gallery of Iceland hosts a kids’ club called Krumma.
More information can be found here (in Icelandic).
