Bananas and penguins don’t have a lot in common. But someone at the Momma Told Me blog decorated some bananas to look like penguins. As explained on their website, you dip a banana into melted chocolate, stick on orange M&Ms for the beak and feet, and finally press on googly candy eyes. We love any snack that’s tasty, healthy, or just plain cute. This snack is all three — that’s our kind of math!
Wee ones: How many banana penguins can you count in the picture?
Little kids: If each of 3 banana penguins has 2 googly eyes, how many do they have all together? Bonus: If there are 3 banana penguins and you nibble off 3 of the eyes, at most how many penguins might still have both eyes left?
Big kids: If each penguin needs 2 orange M&M feet and 1 M&M beak, how many orange M&Ms do you need to make 8 penguins? Bonus: If you bought a bag of 100 M&Ms and 25 bananas, and use 3 M&Ms to make each banana penguin, will you run out of M&Ms or bananas first?
Answers:
Wee ones: 3 banana penguins.
Little kids: 6 googly eyes. Bonus: At most 1 penguin. You’ll have only 3 candy eyes left, which is enough to leave 2 eyes on only 1 penguin.
Big kids: 24 M&Ms, since you need 3 per penguin. Bonus: You’ll run out of bananas first, because 100 M&Ms is enough for 33 banana penguins, with 1 M&M left over.
