When you see what cool things people can make out of plain old plastic spoons, you might never throw out a spoon again. On one site, an artist used the scoop parts of 125 plastic spoons to make a lamp that looks like a pineapple. On another page, someone else glued together 250 spoon scoops to make an 18-inch-wide flower face around a clock. Now we can decorate our houses while saving some trash from the dump, too.
Wee ones: On the flower clock, which row uses more spoons, a circular ring near the middle or a ring near the outer edge?
Little kids: If the pineapple lamp uses 5 spoons in the top row and 1 more than that in the next, how many does it use in that 2nd row? Bonus: How many does it use in both rows together?
Big kids: If the flower clock uses 22 spoons in the center ring, and each new ring uses 3 more than the one inside it, can a ring have 34 spoons in it? Bonus: If the pineapple uses 100 spoons, with 8 spoons in as many rows as possible, how many full rows of 8 does it have?
Answers:
Wee ones: The ring near the outside.
Little kids: 6 spoons. Bonus: 11 spoons, since it’s 5 + 6.
Big kids: Yes! There will be 25, 28, 31, and 34 spoons in the next 4 rows. Bonus: 12 rows, which brings us to 96 spoons plus 4 left in the last row.
