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MathStart: Level 3
Dave's Down-to-Earth Rock Shop
“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 Dave's Down-to-Earth Rock Shop is perfect for teaching classifying to second, third, and fourth graders. Josh is the best collector on the block. And now he has something new to collect—rocks! Soon Josh and his best friend, Amy, have so many rocks they need to organize their collection. But how? Kids will love the story and the illustrations by Cat Bowman Smith. Parents and educators will love how the story and pictures make understanding the math concepts 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, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Stuart J. Murphy
169 books61 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 18, 2019
Review is a little inflated due to my love for Dave's.
May 13, 2020
In this one, Josh and Amy are two friends who start rock collecting when Josh's uncle from Hawaii encourages him to try it as a hobby, leaving him a nice present: a rock, taken from the detritus of one of Hawaii's volcanoes. The two take the chunk of rock to Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop where total rocker of rock collecting Dave examines the thing and identifies it as basalt. This spurs on our duo as they hit the beach, the park, anywhere to locate and learn from different types of rocks. Basically what you got here is a little educational piece in the form of fiction minus plot development, kinda like an episode of Mr Wizard. But it's fun, and for the most part, kids do learn about rock collecting and are inspired to try it out. Only, to be realistic, who really collects rocks anymore.
Three stars
Dave's rocks were born to rock.
Three stars
Dave's rocks were born to rock.
May 22, 2018
An engaging story about rocks and rock collecting. I think it makes a perfect read aloud to accompany a Science unit on Rocks in elementary school.
August 31, 2023
A kid's book with a rock shop as a setting.
January 22, 2026
I really enjoyed reading this, it goes into other subjects which is also helpful!
March 22, 2013
"Dave's Down to Earth Rock Shop" is a book about a boy named Josh who gets a package of rocks from his uncle. His friend Amy and he went to Dave's rock shop to get information about his rocks and other rocks. Dave told them about the many ways that rocks can be sorted (color, size, hardness). Dave and Amy decided to sort their rocks into groups according to hardness. This book could be used in the classroom to teach about sorting and grouping. The targeted grade level for this group would be kindergarten. The teacher could bring in rocks and sort them with the class as an extension activity for the book.
April 16, 2012
This is a book that shows different ways of classifying, and the main focus is classifying rocks. What I like about this book is that it integrates math, science, and literacy. It can easily be used in implementing an activity or math station with different rocks to classify. It is appropriate for ages seven and up.
April 22, 2012
Highly recommented for your library.
Great literature for science, math, and social studies lesson.
Uncle Nick, Josh, and Amy will take our ready through the great
adventure of classifying rocks and fossils according to: color, size, type, and hardness.
It is an adventure to explore.
Great literature for science, math, and social studies lesson.
Uncle Nick, Josh, and Amy will take our ready through the great
adventure of classifying rocks and fossils according to: color, size, type, and hardness.
It is an adventure to explore.
October 27, 2015
This was read to us by a guest teacher we had in for a Teacher's Pet presentation on Rocks and Minerals. This book is a great summary of what we learned in this unit. It touches on most of the concepts in our Grade 3 science unit.
Read
March 12, 2013Grade: 3+
Content: Rocks / Fossils
Math and Social Studies integration
Content: Rocks / Fossils
Math and Social Studies integration
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews