Eye-Popping Pancakes

by Laura Overdeck

Do you love pancakes? Those stacks of fluffy, syrupy circles are the best breakfast ever. Artist Nathan Shields loves pancakes, too: his pancakes are pictures. By squirting 2 colors of batter on the pan to draw, he cooks it into a design that shows up once the pancake flips over. He draws animals, flowers, and faces from the Harry Potter movies. He also invented Spirocakes, which are loopy, spirally, math-y flapjack. Now we can wolf down storks, swans and turtles with our syrup.

Wee ones: If the pancake man uses white batter, wheat batter and cocoa-powder batter, how many colors can he cook into his pancake?

Little kids: If Nathan serves you 10 pancakes and the penguin and duck are the only birds, how many pancakes aren’t birds?  Bonus: If 1/2 the remaining pancakes are animals, how many pancakes are not animals?

Big kids: If the photo shows 5 rows of 4 pancakes each, how many pancakes do you see? Try to figure it out without counting one by one!  Bonus: If Nathan can make 11 pancakes from 6 cups of batter, how many can he make from 12 cups?

 

 

 

Answers:
Wee ones: 3 colors.

Little kids: 8 pancakes.  Bonus: 4 pancakes.

Big kids: 20 pancakes.  Bonus: 22 pancakes, since he has doubled the batter.

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