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MathStart Level 2
Super Sand Castle Saturday
The author writes about three friends they compete in a sand castle contest to build the tallest tower, the deepest moat, and the longest wall. Under the watchful eyes of Larry the lifeguard, they build supper sand castles and learn about measurement , too.
40 pages, Paperback
First published December 9, 1998
1 person is currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Stuart J. Murphy
162 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 2, 2021
Title: Super Sand Castle Saturday
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator: Julia Gorton
Genre: Fiction
Theme(s): Problem solving, teamwork, creativity.
Opening line/sentence:
“It was a hot and sunny Saturday – a super day for a sand castle contest.”
Brief Book Summary:
Children spend the day on the beach participating in a sand castle building contest. Throughout the contest, the children judge each other castles and measure each other's by comparing them to materials they’re using.
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
Kristin Harris and Kirkus Reviews both shared in their reviews how in the story, one of the children who was building a sandcastle, used her shovel as a way to measure her sandcastle. In both reviews they shared that this book shares various ways of doing something such as measuring with different objects.
Tell Me Framework:
Like(s): In the story, the children are measuring their castles by using the materials near them.
Dislike(s): All of the children should have been rewarded for their participation and creativity.
Patterns(s): The children build and compare each other's castles to one another.
Puzzle(s): Why was the beach so empty?
Consideration of Instructional Application:
In the classroom, the teacher can read this story to the children when discussing math concepts such as measuring. For an activity, the teacher can have the children walk a certain length and have them count their steps and explain that their steps are a way of measuring.
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator: Julia Gorton
Genre: Fiction
Theme(s): Problem solving, teamwork, creativity.
Opening line/sentence:
“It was a hot and sunny Saturday – a super day for a sand castle contest.”
Brief Book Summary:
Children spend the day on the beach participating in a sand castle building contest. Throughout the contest, the children judge each other castles and measure each other's by comparing them to materials they’re using.
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
Kristin Harris and Kirkus Reviews both shared in their reviews how in the story, one of the children who was building a sandcastle, used her shovel as a way to measure her sandcastle. In both reviews they shared that this book shares various ways of doing something such as measuring with different objects.
Tell Me Framework:
Like(s): In the story, the children are measuring their castles by using the materials near them.
Dislike(s): All of the children should have been rewarded for their participation and creativity.
Patterns(s): The children build and compare each other's castles to one another.
Puzzle(s): Why was the beach so empty?
Consideration of Instructional Application:
In the classroom, the teacher can read this story to the children when discussing math concepts such as measuring. For an activity, the teacher can have the children walk a certain length and have them count their steps and explain that their steps are a way of measuring.
August 17, 2020
A pretty good book about the importance of standard measurements in math - kids in a sand castle building contest can't agree on the winners in height, depth, and length when they're using different sizes of units to measure!
April 21, 2025
A fun book about 3 kids at the beach who compete in a sand castle contest and learn about standardized measurements. My nanny baby LOVES the beach so she was very mesmerized by this book. The math/educational content was integrated very clearly into the story.
November 27, 2017
A cute look at measuring things involving building a sand castle at the beach. Are all measuring tools accurate? Preschool and up for concept
Want to read
September 3, 20191
February 14, 2024
Fund way to show the kids why we use measurements
February 28, 2012
Super Sand Castle Saturday is a great book to read when your students are learning about measurement. The books talks about a couple of kids who enter this sand castle contest. While they are building their castles they measure their castles using non standard measuring units. For my first grade class we read this book and throughout the story we compared the castles of the characters based off length. I then had the children work in groups and construct their own sand castles using construction paper. We then talked about whose castle was longer and shorter than the other groups.
November 22, 2012
This book was interesting because it show how teachers should teach measurement. In class, we mentioned that students should use objects to measure first before they use the ruler in order to understand what measurement means. Students will work in pairs to measure each other using straws and snapping cubes. They will write the data down to show the different units of measurement. They will then measure each other using a measuring stick. This will show them the standard and nonstandard way of measurement.
November 16, 2011
Three children, Juan, Sarah, and Laura, are playing at the beach when Larry, the lifeguard, announces that there will be a sand castle contest and giving prizes for the tallest tower, deepest moat, and longest wall. Juan, Sarah, and Laura get to work on their sand castles and are surprised when Larry announces the winners! A good book for teaching about measuring and why it's important to have a standard measuring system. This book is good for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade.
February 15, 2012
I used this book as the opening to my math literature lesson. The children loved it. It was something they could relate to and the fact that the children in the book used objects to measure instead of actual units of measurement fascinated the children. The students had many questions and I asked them questions as well! Would suggest to use on any opener to measurement! Easy to comprehend and the children can follow along.
February 19, 2013
This book discusses measuring. This book talks about how measuring is important to students and why we need measuring in our daily lives. The story takes place on a beach during a sand castle contest. The children are on the beach learning about the increments of measurement. The judge comes around to see which castle is the widest and the tallest. The book talks about how an inch is an inch whereas a person's foot may vary in size.
May 5, 2013
I like this math based book.
May 7, 2014
Simple way to describe Standard Units of Measure.
August 5, 2016
Super Sand Castle Saturday is a great introduction/support text for young children thinking about measurement -- both non-standard and standard. It's lighthearted and practical, and fun.
December 8, 2014
Sandcastle building contest. An inch is always an inch.
Want to read
August 25, 2011length
Read
April 2, 2019Picture Book. Great to teach about the concept of length.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews