{"id":14016,"date":"2023-11-23T11:32:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T11:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hac.is\/?p=14016"},"modified":"2026-02-10T14:30:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:30:56","slug":"ord-eru-til-alls-fyrst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/2023\/11\/23\/ord-eru-til-alls-fyrst\/","title":{"rendered":"Words come first"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inda Bj\u00f6rk Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir, head teacher of the Ki\u00f0agil nursery school in Akureyri. Photo: Akureyrarb\u00e6r\/Dan\u00edel Starrason.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201eKrist\u00edn Helga's lectures have certainly made us think about the harmful effects of plastic and what it is made of. Following on from this, we have discussed aiming for Ki\u00f0agil to become the first chemical-free nursery school in Akureyri. This is a big step to take, but to reach a set goal, it is better to take many small steps. The first step was to have Krist\u00edn, last year, start this discussion with the parents of the children at our nursery school. Part of the nursery staff then attended a similar webinar, which Krist\u00edn ran on behalf of S\u00cdMEY and the \u00deingeyja Knowledge Network a few weeks ago, and I aim for all our staff to be able to benefit from this training by Krist\u00edn Helga, as it makes us all reflect on so many aspects of our daily lives," says Inda Bj\u00f6rk Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir, head teacher at the Ki\u00f0agil nursery in Akureyri.so much in our daily lives," says Inda Bj\u00f6rk Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir, head teacher at the Ki\u00f0agili nursery school in Akureyri.<\/p>\n

It is important to have the discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201e"I think it's very important that we all take part in this discussion and think things through, because so much has changed in our daily lives in recent years," says Inda Bj\u00f6rk.
\n\u201eHere at the nursery, Ki\u00f0agili, we started by clearing out things that aren't meant for children, such as old phones and keyboards that we had been given as gifts and used in various role-play activities. We have used plastic beads, which have been very useful for practising fine motor skills with the children. We haven't decided to get rid of them, but we have decided to iron them less and reuse them more."\u201c
\nInda Bj\u00f6rk generally believes that there is a growing need to look to the reuse of items in nurseries, just as in homes, and to carefully examine the material content of what is bought new for the nurseries. Manufacturers are awarded the Swan certification for their production, and there is a growing reason to look to these certified products.
\nInda Bj\u00f6rk says it is not enough for nursery school staff to get the children used to certain things concerning environmental issues; it is just as important to reach the parents. That is why she has had Krist\u00edn Helga Schi\u00f6th give a lecture for the parents of the children at Ki\u00f0agil. Various points she made prompted parents to think, for example, about undesirable additives in soft plastics and the advisability of heating food in plastic packaging, as this causes certain chemical changes in the plastic.
\n\u201eIn our kitchen and dining hall, we use and have always used glass plates, and we put the food in glass containers. We also use glass and aluminium bowls for soups. And we make sure that trays, ladles, spatulas and other utensils are made from approved plastic for handling food.
\nOur next steps in this project are to go through the daily work in all four of the nursery's departments and take a close look at what materials we are using and what we can change in that regard. Environmental issues are and will be one of the major issues of the future, and they affect all our daily lives. In this, as in everything else, communication comes first," says Inda Bj\u00f6rk Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir.<\/p>\n

The LOFTUM Environment and Climate Project<\/b><\/p>\n

As has been mentioned, the LOFTUM environment and climate project, which S\u00cdMEY and the Thingeyrar Knowledge Network have been working on since last year, is a priority project within SSNE \u2013 the organisation for municipalities and economic development in North East Iceland. This project includes a plan for education in environmental and climate matters for the staff and elected representatives of local authorities in North East Iceland. Last September, the residential course was held. Green leaders<\/i> In S\u00cdMEY, and at the end of October and the beginning of November, Krist\u00edn Helga Schi\u00f6th, a project manager for environmental and climate issues at SSNE, held three webinars for staff of nurseries and primary schools in the region under the heading Materials in children's environments.<\/i> The course was based to a considerable extent on environmental recommendations and guidelines in Sweden and Denmark for educational institutions and the general public. Krist\u00edn Helga raised the question of why it is important to be vigilant about the substances in the environment, with the well-being and health of our children as our guiding principle. The questions she posed included, for example, where harmful substances lurk in children's environments, how best to reduce children's chemical exposure, and how we can enhance our so-called 'chemical literacy'.<\/p>\n

News produced by \u00d3skar \u00de\u00f3r Halld\u00f3rsson for the LOFTUM project<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inda Bj\u00f6rk Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir, sk\u00f3lastj\u00f3ri leiksk\u00f3lans Ki\u00f0agils \u00e1 Akureyri. Mynd: Akureyrarb\u00e6r\/Dan\u00edel Starrason. \u201eFyrirlestrar Krist\u00ednar Helgu hafa svo sannarlega vaki\u00f0 okkur til umhugsunar um ska\u00f0semi plasts og hva\u00f0a efni s\u00e9u \u00ed \u00fev\u00ed. \u00cd framhaldinu h\u00f6fum vi\u00f0 r\u00e6tt um a\u00f0 stefna a\u00f0 \u00fev\u00ed a\u00f0 Ki\u00f0agil ver\u00f0i fyrsti eiturefnalausi leiksk\u00f3linn \u00e1 Akureyri. \u00deetta er st\u00f3rt skref a\u00f0 taka en […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-frettir"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22176,"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14016\/revisions\/22176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hac.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14016"}],"curies":[{"name":"WordPress","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}