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MathStart Level 1
Monster Musical Chairs: A MathStart Picture Book on Subtracting One for Kids
“Kids, young and old, fall in love with math when they see how real-life and effortless it becomes thanks to these books.” —Kimberly D. Mueller, Ed.D., First Grade Teacher, Ashbrook School, Lumberton NJ Monster Musical Chairs is perfect for teaching subtracting one to pre-K through kindergarteners. Every time the music stops, one more monster is OUT! Kids won't be able to sit still for this musical introduction to subtraction at its simplest. Kids will love the story and the funny illustrations by Scott Nash. Parents and other educators will love how the story and pictures make understanding comparisons a breeze—as well as the concrete examples of how math works! The book contains activities for adults to do with kids to extend math into their own lives! Math skills are life skills, and the MathStart series supports success! MathStart's unique combination of stories, illustrations, and visual models helps teachers and parents in the teaching of math and provides all children with the opportunity to succeed. The math concepts taught in MathStart books conform to state and national standards. Level 1 is Pre-K–Kindergarten; Level 2 is Grades 1–3; Level 3 is Grades 2–4. The series follows math topics across grades so there is a foundational path to learning that runs through the levels. Help kids with their math skills plus their reading skills with the engaging and fun MathStart series!
40 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 2000
93 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 - 30 of 35 reviews
July 19, 2012
This book would be excellent for students that are learning to subtract. The monsters in the story have to play musical chairs and one will always be out when the music stops. It would be a good example for students to take one away when the problem is presented. I would use this as word problems for my students.
April 15, 2021
Title: Monster Musical Chairs
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator: Scott Nash
Genre: Fiction
Theme(s): Monster & Subtraction
Opening line/Sentence: “Smash-bash, BOOM. Clang-bang, CRASH! The drums are pounding and the cymbals clash.”
Brief Book Summary: This book is about six monster friends who are playing musical chairs and each round a chair is taken away and one monster is out. The book is teaching simple subtraction to children by having one monster be out every time and the pictures depict how many monsters are still in the game after each round until only one monster is left. There are rhymes used in the story to make it more fun and each monster is very uniquely drawn with its own features.
Response to two professional reviews: One review talked about the fun rhyme of the words in the book and the colorful illustrations that appeal to young audiences. Children will be drawn to the rhyming nature of the story and the colorful fun monsters on every page. Some of the words used in the story like “snort, shake, shimmy, and shout” makes it more interactive and the children will want to join in and act out these actions as they are being read to them.
Tell Me Framework:
Like(s): I like that light and silly nature of the story of monsters, but it’s also teaching the children about subtraction at the same time.
Dislike(s): I wish that some of the monsters weren't wearing human clothes because it takes away from the fantasy of them.
Pattern(s): The last word in each sentence of every page rhymed with one another.
Puzzle(s): Why did the author decide to have the monsters play musical chairs over another game?
Consideration of Instruction Application: After reading this story to the preschoolers, teachers can have the children play musical chairs in the classroom and then count how many people are still in the game after every round. During the game of musical chairs the children can act like monsters if they want and make fun noises, so that the activity connects more to the book. Teachers can also have the children make their own monsters out of paper or art materials and they can act out the story using those as well because sometimes when children get out of a game they can get very upset or if they are counting who gets out that might make people feel upset or left out.
Author: Stuart J. Murphy
Illustrator: Scott Nash
Genre: Fiction
Theme(s): Monster & Subtraction
Opening line/Sentence: “Smash-bash, BOOM. Clang-bang, CRASH! The drums are pounding and the cymbals clash.”
Brief Book Summary: This book is about six monster friends who are playing musical chairs and each round a chair is taken away and one monster is out. The book is teaching simple subtraction to children by having one monster be out every time and the pictures depict how many monsters are still in the game after each round until only one monster is left. There are rhymes used in the story to make it more fun and each monster is very uniquely drawn with its own features.
Response to two professional reviews: One review talked about the fun rhyme of the words in the book and the colorful illustrations that appeal to young audiences. Children will be drawn to the rhyming nature of the story and the colorful fun monsters on every page. Some of the words used in the story like “snort, shake, shimmy, and shout” makes it more interactive and the children will want to join in and act out these actions as they are being read to them.
Tell Me Framework:
Like(s): I like that light and silly nature of the story of monsters, but it’s also teaching the children about subtraction at the same time.
Dislike(s): I wish that some of the monsters weren't wearing human clothes because it takes away from the fantasy of them.
Pattern(s): The last word in each sentence of every page rhymed with one another.
Puzzle(s): Why did the author decide to have the monsters play musical chairs over another game?
Consideration of Instruction Application: After reading this story to the preschoolers, teachers can have the children play musical chairs in the classroom and then count how many people are still in the game after every round. During the game of musical chairs the children can act like monsters if they want and make fun noises, so that the activity connects more to the book. Teachers can also have the children make their own monsters out of paper or art materials and they can act out the story using those as well because sometimes when children get out of a game they can get very upset or if they are counting who gets out that might make people feel upset or left out.
June 8, 2020
This is a fun story that follows a group of monsters playing musical chairs. I would recommend using this for preschool or kindergarten lessons. Throughout the story, we see a countdown from six as one monster slowly loses their chair. I liked how on the side of the page there is a sidebar with the faces of the monsters who are playing and which ones are out, this can help children count how many monsters are left playing musical chairs.
October 10, 2022
Age group: pre k - k
Genre: poetry
This book is just a easy funny read. The book is simple and doesn’t have a lesson. But it shows a game all kids should play once in there life. It shows kids respectful way of being competitive. The rhyming of the story makes it fun and more interesting to read.
Genre: poetry
This book is just a easy funny read. The book is simple and doesn’t have a lesson. But it shows a game all kids should play once in there life. It shows kids respectful way of being competitive. The rhyming of the story makes it fun and more interesting to read.
October 13, 2017
Good book for preschool and kindergarten to use for introducing subtraction and for counting.
March 2, 2018
another cute subtraction story the littles will be sure to relate to! Love how the last 2 musical chair players are staring at each other on the margin art on the last few pages!
September 28, 2018
I like this book because a game is everyone's favorite thing to do because a chair you sit on is fun to sit on, but when someone's out of this game they don't come back in, they just stay out.
February 28, 2019
Subtract by one (or count backwards) as furry lovable monsters play musical chairs.
April 16, 2019
Picture Book-Monsters playing musical chairs. Fun way to teach subtraction and you can even play a game with the kids.
March 16, 2021
This is a delightful and fun way to introduce the concept of subtraction, especially to preschoolers. The illustrations are great, and it is a rhyming book as well.
May 17, 2022
A fun book with basic single-digit subtraction. I like how the characters are dismayed at losing but turn around and have fun supporting and watching the others play. The end mentions that losing is okay because you might win next time. Good sportsmanship is encouraged in this book along with the math.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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June 22, 2010There’s nothing scary about Monster Musical Chairs, but it is a blast to read aloud! The plot is pretty simple. Five monsters are playing a crazy game of musical chairs, and when the music stops, one monster is “out.” Of course, then you take a chair away and the bouncy, repetitive rhymes start up again. By the end of the game(and the book), your child will be saying the words with you! These monsters aren’t sore losers, either- they just pick themselves back up and start another friendly game.
Monster Musical Chairs is part of the MathStart series, which is intended to get kids to see the fun in math, and the focus of this particular book is subtraction, targeted to ages 3 and older. In the back of the book, there are suggestions for activities and additional books for parents who want to use the book for direct instruction and to extend mathematical exploration. Even if you never look at that back page, though, you and your child can still rock to the imaginary music of five whimsical monsters racing around a bunch of chairs. The pastel-y, cartoony monsters aren’t going to scare anyone, but they are perfect for a fun, simple read-aloud that a parent and young child can share. And who knows, maybe along the way, the kid will learn a little math.
Review by Kirsten Kowalewski
Monster Musical Chairs is part of the MathStart series, which is intended to get kids to see the fun in math, and the focus of this particular book is subtraction, targeted to ages 3 and older. In the back of the book, there are suggestions for activities and additional books for parents who want to use the book for direct instruction and to extend mathematical exploration. Even if you never look at that back page, though, you and your child can still rock to the imaginary music of five whimsical monsters racing around a bunch of chairs. The pastel-y, cartoony monsters aren’t going to scare anyone, but they are perfect for a fun, simple read-aloud that a parent and young child can share. And who knows, maybe along the way, the kid will learn a little math.
Review by Kirsten Kowalewski
February 11, 2012
This is a really cute book that focuses on subtraction. I never thought of a game of musical chairs to be considered math! I would love to read this book aloud, then have the students play a game of musical chairs while counting the number of people and number of chairs each time the music stops. How many people and chairs will be left the next time the music stops?
I love books by Murphy because they have so many game ideas in the back. This book features games for adults and kids to do together as well as activities that extend the concept presented in this book.
I love books by Murphy because they have so many game ideas in the back. This book features games for adults and kids to do together as well as activities that extend the concept presented in this book.
April 19, 2012
This is s great book for introducing subtraction! It allows for students to visually see and do subtraction. By using the fun game of musical chairs, this book and game can really encourage students to have a positive attitude about math!
I would use this book with my class as an activating strategy to get them to interested in subtraction. Once we have read the book, I would take my class outside and have them actually play the same game that the characters in the story did. This way, they can learn and move all at the same time!
I would use this book with my class as an activating strategy to get them to interested in subtraction. Once we have read the book, I would take my class outside and have them actually play the same game that the characters in the story did. This way, they can learn and move all at the same time!
October 8, 2012
This is a very cute book about monsters playing a game of musical chairs. I like this book because it connects something in real life with a math skill. Most students know how to play musical chairs so making the connection should not be too difficult. Students are subtracting one everytime they play musical chairs and they do not even realize it. After reading this book, you could let your class play musical chairs and write down their subtracting one problems.
March 5, 2013
If you want to teach early elementary students how to count back from five, this is a good book to reference. The monsters are playing musical chairs starting with five chairs and ending with one. Six monsters need a seat, but there are only five, so one is bumped out of the game. It continues on until one is left standing and one is sitting. This could also be acted out in class for emphasis.
August 10, 2016
Math, music, and monsters, what more could you ask for? Henry, my 4 yr old grandson declared, "I have this book!". His dad is a hs math teacher. I'm not usually a fan of books with level numbers on them, but a math book doesn't bother me as much. Go figure. It's a level 1, btw, and GREAT for pre-school and up! Fun, short rhyming sentences, with a note at the back for further information on math!
March 12, 2011
This is a great story for young children who are just beginning to learn about subtraction. With every round of musical chairs, another chair is taken away, giving children a visual representation of subtraction. Great story to be used as an activation strategy before a math lesson.
December 19, 2016
Read at Baby/Toddler Story Time on 5/15/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Preschool Story Time on 9/7/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
Read at Preschool Story Time on 9/7/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...
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April 7, 2013This is a cute book that could be read around Halloween. It's about a group of monsters at a party and they are playing musical chairs. The reader learns how to play the game as well as learning about subtracting and counting backwards. Great book for younger readers. Grades prek-1
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December 10, 2015I liked this book because it introduces math concepts by using the game of musical chairs. It is a fun way to learn about numbers and subtraction. I think that children would enjoy reading this book, especially because of the silly illustrations.
July 10, 2009
Subtraction and one less than
June 12, 2010
Another great MathStart book...
December 8, 2010
This books was so cute and fun about little monsters playing musical chairs. The stutents can do an activity hwere they creat their own monter and then they write about it. Lot's of rhyming words!
January 22, 2011
Simple version of subtracting one.
October 9, 2011
This is a great book for learning "one less than." The students will love the pictures and watching a monster disappear after each game of musical chairs. My first graders LOVED it!
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March 13, 2012*This book is a great activation strategy for the introduction of subtraction.
*Great story line so that the students are able to see how they can use it in their everyday life.
*Great story line so that the students are able to see how they can use it in their everyday life.
September 19, 2014
Great for 3-5 year old kids. It's cute and help them count backwards.
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March 20, 2015All by herself!
February 11, 2016
Another "counting down" book that uses monsters playing a game of musical chairs to demonstrate the subtract one idea.
Fun, silly illustrations.
Fun, silly illustrations.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews