Healthy Schools – Healthy Minds
Healthy Living Manual
Árskóli
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Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3
Our lifestyle ......................................................................................................... 12
Our Comenius work ............................................................................................ 13
Healthrecipies ...................................................................................................... 15
Icelandic wrestling .............................................................................................. 19
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Introduction
Our school, Árskóli, is in an area named Skagafjörður (fjörður = fjord) in the
north of Iceland. The number of pupils in Árskóli is around from 6 to 16 years
old, 40 teachers and 35 other staff.
Árskóli in Freyjugata
Árskóli in Skagfirðingabraut
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Skagafjörður, which is sometimes referred to as the Mecca of horsemanship in
Iceland, is a wide valley surrounded by high mountains, reaching almost as far
south as the glacier Hofsjökull. When overlooking Skagafjörður from
Vatnsskarð it welcomes its visitors displaying its beauty. To the south the glacial
rivers Austari- Jökulsá and Vestari-Jökulsá have carved down magnificent
gorges. To the east, the mountain range proudly exposes its tallest part
Grasárdalshnjúkur (1268 m).
The view to southeast from Vatnsskarð
The islands Málmey and Drangey are found just off the coast. The main towns
and villages in Skagafjörður are Varmahlíð, Sauðárkrókur and Hofsós.
View to north overlooking Sauðárkókur with the mountain Tindastóll and Drangey
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Drangey
Skagafjörður has great historical significance. Parts of The Sturlungasaga took
place in Skagafjörður, events that ultimately led to the dissolution of the
Commonwealth in 1264. The manor farm of the Ásbirningar family was at
Víðimyri, where one of the most beautiful churches in Iceland dating back to
1834 exists.
Painting from The Sturlunga saga era
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On the eastern side of Skagafjörður are some of the main historic sites of The
Sturlunga saga. Hólar in Hjaltadalur, a Bishopric in 1106 -1798, is not to be
missed. Now there is a University at Hólar.
Hólar in Hjaltadalur
The area is rich of folk tales, such as stories of elfs, the hidden people, ghosts
and outlaws. Icelands most famous outlaw, Grettir Ásmundarson, spent his last
years in Drangey and was killed there in 1031.
Grettislaug, a warm spring named after Grettir the outlaw
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The Glaumbær Museum is housed in a turf farmhouse dating from 1750-1879.
In the northeast part of the Hegranes peninsula there is the ancient assembly for
the North of Iceland.
Glaumbær
The population of Skagajörður is around 4400. Of its inhibitants, 2600 live in
Sauðárkrókur which is the largest urban area in Skagafjörður. There you can
find our school, Árskóli, a hospital and a health centre and moreover a
highschool which serves the North Western part of Iceland. All the houses in
Sauðárkrókur are heated with geothermal hot water and the same goes for some
other parts of Skagafjörður. Skagafjörður is a well known agricultural area
where the farmers breed sheep, cows and of course horses.
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Autumn sunrise in Skagafjörður
There are many kinds of industry to be found in Sauðárkrókur, for example an
insulation manufacturing factory (Steinullarverksmiðjan), Atlantic Leather
specialises in the production of high-quality fishleather, a blossoming fishing
industry, a creamery which specializes in making cheese, a shrimp factory, a
slaughterhouse with meat processing, and in addition many small industrial
businesses. Furthermore the town has an airport and an important service role
for the surrounding countryside.
The cultural life of Sauðarkrókur is of high quality, for example a good drama
society, a music school and the regional archives of Skagafjörður - one of the
best archives in the country.
Krókurinn, as Sauðárkrókur is called in day-to-day conversation, is known as a
sports town and there is a splendid new sports house, a horse riding hall, a
swimming pool and skiing slopes in Tindastóll with 1150 metres long ski lift in
15 km distance from town. In Krókurinn you will find football fields, a golf
course, a hotel, guesthouses and all general services such as a post office, banks,
shops and restaurants.
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The swimming pool
The Center for Natural Research, Northwest Iceland was established in the year
2000 and is located in the town of Sauðárkrókur. The building is located just
opposite the town church. Tourists are most welcome to visit it to see the
stuffed polar bear and hear its remarkable story. It was one of two polar bears
(male and female) that drifted with sea ice to Iceland from Greenland in the
summer of 2008. They bears caused quite an uproar in our small community and
a media frenzy in the whole country. The decision to shoot the bears was heavily
debated and the Icelandic authorities received harsh criticism from abroad,
especially from environmental organizations. The male bear is kept on display
here at the research center, but the female bear is kept at the Sea Ice Exhibition
centre in the town of Blönduós.
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In Hofsós, which is a small village in northeast of the area, is a museeum that
tells the story of the almost 20.000 Icelanders who travelled from Iceland to
North-America in 1870 – 1914 and settled there. Those times were very difficult
in Iceland, unusually cold weather, volcanic eruptions and great poverty. The
people who left were 20-25% of Iceland´s poulation at the time.
Hofsós
The surroundings of Sauðárkrókur offer a lot of possibilities when it comes to
outdoor activities. You can go swimming and many youngsters go horseriding.
In the winter you can go skiing and during spring and summer you can go
fishing in the sea, play golf and football or you can go birdwatching. From
middle of July to September you can also go and pick wild berries in less than
one minute walk from the nearest houses. There are plenty of options if you
want to go hiking too. To name a few you can walk by the sea on a long
sandbeach or you can walk by a little river in Litli-Skógur, an outdoor area. You
can also walk to the top of the mountains Tindastóll (989 m) and Molduxi (706
m) and enjoy the beautiful view. And every time you come to a stream you can
drink from it, the water is clean, cold and refreshing.
Mountain Tindastóll in the background
The water is sooooo good!
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Our lifestyle
Teenagers in Skagafjörður have various opportunities when it comes to leisure
activities. Sometimes you have to pay for it but lot of it is free. Like most
teenagers all over the world they love to get together and do something fun with
their friends to cheer up. They often meet at each others homes or in the leisure
center (Hús frítímans). Most of the time they do a lot of chatting, listen to music,
play cards- and computer games and stuff like that. In the leisure center they can
play ping-pong, watch TV, f.ex. interesting football games from The English
Premierleague or their favorite TV show. Many teenagers spend a lot of time on
the internet on programs like facebook.com. For those who want to have a quiet
moment they can go to the library which contains at least 500 books or more. It
is also popular to go to a pizza restaurant and share a pizza or go to the bakery to
have a cake and a chat. If you are lazy and want to have it cosy at home you can
rent a movie in one of the kiosks.
In Sauðárkrókur teenagers have opportunities to practise organised sports. They
practise f.ex. basketball, athletics, swimming, skiing, indoor football and horse
riding in the wintertime. During summer many kids practise f.ex. football, golf,
athletics, swimming, horse riding and motocross. It is also on offer to take part
in organised courses like sailing or being a member of a club like the scouts and
youth rescue team. The rescue team has f.ex. opportunities for wall climbing.
Many teenagers study at the music school during the winter.
For those who are not interested in organised sports and clubs there are lot of
things to do. You can go walking, biking or hiking in the neighbourhood of
Sauðárkrókur depending if you want to go to the mountains or to the beach, it is
all in walking distance from home. Litli-Skógur is an outdoor area just above the
town where people have oppurtunities to play, walk or have a picnic when the
weather is good! During the summer lot of the inhabitants go to the beach or the
harbour to chatch a trout for dinner and in the autumn the can go to the hills
above town to pick wild berries.
More costly activtities are also on offer things like river-rafting, paintball,
journey to Drangey and renting a horse for a daytrip.
As you can see there are lot of healthy activities to take part in in our area.
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Our Comenius work
In Árskóli we use the last week in November each year working on a special
theme. This year we dedicated this week to our Comenius project. All the pupils
and teachers took part and among the things we did was yoga, various kinds of
outdoor activities such as games and going for a walk. The older pupils did
some wall-climbing in the house of the local rescue team which was very
popular. We also made and tried out some health-recipies and brought in some
experts to give lectures on mental and physical health. But the most popular
activity was the Icelandic Glíma (Wrestling). Most of the pupils knew of it but
had never actually tried it themselves. It proved to be a great success, although
one pupil broke his hand when he fell awkardly. The final day we went in our
annual „peace-walk“ as usual. Then all the pupils, teachers and other staff form
a chain by holding hands from the church to a lighted cross on top of a hill
above town.
In March the 14 and 15 years old kept a diary for one week were they wrote
down what they did all day, what they ate and how many hours they slept. Then
we discussed what each and everyone could do to better their lifestyles.
Finally, many pupils helped making this manual. Because of your visit next
September we decided to put some information about Skagafjörður and
Sauðárkrókur in the manual to give you some idea of what to expect.
Here are some pictures from our Comenius week.
Glíma (Wrestling)
Wall-climbing
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Fun in the snow
Walking on ice
Making healthy food
The Peace-walk
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Healthrecipies
These are our health recipies from the Comenius-week:
Christmas assorted chocolates
Ingredients:
1 dl dates
1 dl raisins
1 dl figs
1dl dried apricots
¼ dl chopped dark chocolate
Decorated with coconut flour
Method:
1. Cut the fruits in small pices and soak in water for 10 min.
2. Strain the fruits and make small balls from the ingredients
3. Roll the balls in the coconut flour.
Refreshing melona´s drink
Ingredients:
Meat from ½ water melona (matured), seeds removed
100 ml pure ananasjuice
4 icecubes
Method:
Chrush the icecubes and put in food mixer with the melona and
ananasjuice. Serve immediately.
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Assorted chocolates
Ingredients:
1 banana, matured-aged
1 dl oat meal
1 dl coconut flour
¼ dl Carob powder (or good cocoa)
25g dates
25g figs
1tsp vanilla powder
50g chopped dark chocolate
1 tsp chinnamon
Coconot flour or grounded almonds to cover the chocolate
Method:
1. Put all the ingredients in a foodmixer.
2. Refrigerate the mix.
3. Make small balls and roll it in the coconut flour.
4. It is best to store the chocolate in a freezer or wrapped in plastic for 1-2
weeks.
Cheese-stikcs
Ingredients:
Diced cheese
Vegetables and fruits
Toothsticks
Fasten the diced cheese and the fruits/vegetables
together with toothsticks.
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Popcorn with cheese, salt and pepper
Ingredients:
1 bowl of popcorn
2 tbls butter
1 tbls olive oil
½ tsp Maldon salt
Freshly grounded pepper
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Method:
1. Put butter, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl and heat in
microwave oven for 10 sec.
2. Put the popcorn in ovenproof mould and pour the butter mix,
3. Spread the parmesan over the popcorn
4. Bake in a 175°C warm oven for 15 min. and stir the mix twice while
baking.
And three more recipies from pupil´s homes:
Fresh and atempted berryboozt
Ingredients:
1 small bowl of Bláberjaskyr.is
½ banana
Strawberries
Method:
Put all the ingredients in a foodmixer and serve immediately. It is nice to
put icecubes in the boozt, it makes it colder and fresher.
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Traditional Icelandic meat-soup
Ingredients:
1 kg of lamb with bones
1,8 dl water
1 onion (average size)
1 tbls salt
500 g yellow tumip
500 g carrots
2 tbls rice
2 tbls dried soupherbs
Method:
It is best to use the front of the lamb. The meat is washed and put in a pot
with cold water and one tbls of salt. Put the pot on the kitchenstove and
wait until the water starts boiling. Lower the heat and skim the foam off.
Cook the meat for apr. 50 min. Peel yellow tumip, carrots and onion both
dices and slices. Add the vegetables and rice in the pot when the meat is
half cooked. If wanted it is possible to use fresh cabbage instead of dried
soupherbs. The meat can be served in the soup or separatly depending on
taste.
Skyrdrink
Ingredients:
Berries, f.ex. bluberries or strawberries (frosen)
1 pear, peeled and diced
Vanilla-skyr
Method:
Defrost the berries to soften them a little. Mix everthing together in a
foodblender.
If you want the drink to be more runny it is ok. to put milk into the drink
as well as if you want an extra flavor you can put another kind of fruits in
it – just try something out.
Some people also like to put Weetabix in it.
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Icelandic wrestling
Glima is the Icelandic national style of amateur Folkwrestling. Glima translates
literally as "The Game of Joy", and is an art roughly 1100 years old. It was
brought to Iceland by Viking settlers, and has been practiced as a folk art and
sport ever since. The winning condition in this type of Glima is to make the
opponent touch the ground with an area of the body between the elbow and the
knee. The game was further formalized when the Icelandic Sports Federation
published official rules for competition in 1916. Each Glima takes two minutes
at most and the size of the wrestling area is 8-10 squaremetres. In the modern
day, Formal Glima is characterized by 4 key points and 8 basic tricks , using the
legs, hips, and feet to throw with. Each of the two wrestlers wears a special belt
around the waist and separate, additional belts on the lower thighs of each leg,
which connect to the main belt with vertical straps. A fixed grip is then taken
with one hand in the belt and the other in the trousers at thigh height. From this
position the glima-wrestler attempts to trip and throw his opponent.
There are four points that differentiate it from other forms of wrestling:




The opponents must always stand erect.
The opponents step clockwise around each other (looks similar to a waltz)
It is not permitted to fall down on your opponent or to push him down in a
forceful manner, as it is not considered sportsman-like.
The opponents are supposed to look across each other's shoulders as much
as possible because it is considered proper to wrestle by touch and feel
rather than sight.
Eight Basic Tricks, each of course has variations:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The Outside Stroke
The inside-click, the cross-click & back-heel
The twist over the knee, the outside hipe
The hook
The cross buttock
The inside-hipe
The cross-buttock aloft
The full or half buttock
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