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MathStart Level 1
Bug Dance
Crisp, clean cover and pages.
Paperback
First published December 1, 2001
1 person is currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Stuart J. Murphy
160 books60 followersPICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com
I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.
I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.
I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.
MATHSTART
The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.
The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.
Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )
THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL
Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”
STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN
My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.
I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.
Each book is reviewed by a tea
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com
I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.
I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.
I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.
MATHSTART
The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.
The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.
Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )
THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL
Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”
STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN
My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.
I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.
Each book is reviewed by a tea
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 17, 2018
Perfect for a group readaloud -- you can dance along.
January 23, 2024
The Bug Dance was a book about a centipede who had a hard time dancing but he loved gym class. He worked hard and got good at the dance and got to show off to the inchworm who was bullying him for his lack of gracefulness. I thought that this book was really good in the sense that we should not be picking on each other for not being amazing at it but instead, encourage them to work and get better at it. I also loved that you can do the actual dance with students which I think will make them want to read this book even more and as a brain break you can say let's do the bug dance and the students will know what you are talking about. This would make for a great read-aloud.
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrated: Christopher Santoro
Publisher: HarperCollins December 18, 2001
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrated: Christopher Santoro
Publisher: HarperCollins December 18, 2001
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February 22, 2022This story would be really fun to have students participate in! While reading, students could do what the story is telling them to do. The book would help learn directions like right, left, forward, backward etc!
January 23, 2024
This book was SO much fun! I would love to do this with my own kiddos in class. Doing the dance together could be so much fun, and there are even ways to implement it into a class as well as ways to change it up. It is awesome, helpful for math too!!!
January 30, 2024
Absoultely favorite children’s book! This is a book that gets the students laughing moving and it has a math cconcept in the back of the book to get the students thinking. Get your piano ready it has a music note page to learn how to play the song.
October 28, 2020
Fun clever book
April 10, 2024
A cute buggy story that incorporates math vocabulary.
October 24, 2011
This is another fun story in the MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy. We like these books; they incorporate math principles into the story and show how math is fun and necessary for everyday life.
This is a fun little book about learning a new dance, counting steps and practicing until you can do it correctly. It also shows that in many line dances, you keep repeating a series of steps, then turning ninety degrees until you end up right where you started. The book has lively, colorful illustrations and a narrative that is fun to read aloud. We enjoyed reading this story together.
This is a fun little book about learning a new dance, counting steps and practicing until you can do it correctly. It also shows that in many line dances, you keep repeating a series of steps, then turning ninety degrees until you end up right where you started. The book has lively, colorful illustrations and a narrative that is fun to read aloud. We enjoyed reading this story together.
July 28, 2011
The bug dance was my favourite part. I love it because you can do it in your favourite room, but not just any ordinary room. Okay, follow the steps to do the dance. Here it is. Two steps to the left, two steps to the right, hop forward once, hop backwards once and now turn right. There are more things that you have to do but it's fun. The ants were the cutest bugs.
Rated and reviewed by Dylan, age 8.
Rated and reviewed by Dylan, age 8.
August 7, 2008
Direction skills - since the book introduces a dance, should be fun to do with preschoolers, including the suggested follow-up activities.
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May 14, 2009JEAR1-Mur
November 29, 2011
This is a great book to do in class as an activity.
July 10, 2012
We LOVED doing the bug dance and working on our left and right.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews