Tonnes of fun was had harvesting the kumara from the Māpua School kumara garden this year. The record weight was a single kumara that weighed more than 1.5kg!

Kumara harvest is such a fun time in the Middles. It's become some what of a tradition. For four years we have been growing kumara from scratch. Each year we eat and share a third of the harvest, save a third for seed stock, and this year for the first time, a third will go towards the Matariki Hangi!

Along the way we integrate the growing of kumara into many areas of the learning in the Middles, science, maths, art, and literacy. Each harvest team estimates their bounty and then carefully measures and weighs each kumara. Look out for our kumara maths posters in our classrooms at the Matariki Festival on 22 June.

We have also been growing a kumara bread sour dough starter - we plan to sell this at our Matariki Market!

Traditionally Māori grew kumara really successfully in Māpua, so it's great to be able to bring this special part of our New Zealand history and culture to life for the tamariki.