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MathStart: Level 3 #11
Shark Swimathon: A Fun Math Picture Book for Teaching 2-Digit Subtraction to Children (Ages 6-10)
“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 Shark Swimathon is perfect for teaching subtracting 2-digit numbers to second, third, and fourth graders. The Ocean City Sharks have to swim 75 laps by the end of the week, and every day they figure out how many laps are left to go. Kids will love the story and the funny illustrations by Lynne Cravath. 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 November 15, 2000
1 person is currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Stuart J. Murphy
161 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 8, 2024
To get the full appreciation out of this story, one must read it with a mathematical mindset. Read this one aloud when your child is introduced and learning the two digit subtraction algorithm. My eight year old laughed at the silly sharks, and was invested in how many laps they had left to swim.
August 23, 2024
Readers will discover a clever, engaging premise for this book on subtraction. Hint: This is not just a book about subtraction!
Intended readers are in second, third, and fourth grade.
As for the premise, imagine this. A team called the Ocean City Sharks must swim 75 laps by the end of the week. Each day they figure out how many laps are left to go. You know, by subtracting.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF THE SPLENDID STORY
From facing Pages 16 and 17:
All the Sharks arrived early on Thursday.
"I hope we can make it," said Stripes, looking at the sign.
"I hope so too," Gill said.
The gorgeously colorful illustration shows the math work. Keeping score, only 44 laps are left to swim.
RATING THIS BOOK
No problem to me, giving this book FIVE STARS!
Intended readers are in second, third, and fourth grade.
As for the premise, imagine this. A team called the Ocean City Sharks must swim 75 laps by the end of the week. Each day they figure out how many laps are left to go. You know, by subtracting.
HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF THE SPLENDID STORY
From facing Pages 16 and 17:
All the Sharks arrived early on Thursday.
"I hope we can make it," said Stripes, looking at the sign.
"I hope so too," Gill said.
The gorgeously colorful illustration shows the math work. Keeping score, only 44 laps are left to swim.
RATING THIS BOOK
No problem to me, giving this book FIVE STARS!
February 21, 2018
This was a cute and encouraging book to not give up and try your very hardness. There is also some math sneaked in there and a lovely explanation at the end on how to work the math in with the reading with children. As an adult, I found the illustrations and story to be a little humorous because they are sharks who live underwater and there's a pool. Underwater. Love it!
September 16, 2021
Good story, very engaging, teaches how to keep a tally, addition and subtraction and working towards a goal. The positioning of the paragraphs could have been done better, at times it was not obvious what to look at first, but as with every MathStart story, very happy to have found it
February 18, 2019
this book would be good to help teach place value, subtraction and subtraction with two digits. Students will like the illustrations of the sharks.
February 28, 2019
The sharks need to swim 75 laps in 4 days to win a taco party! Keep track of their laps with practicing two digit subtraction! Hope you get a taco party too!
March 22, 2013
"Shark Swimathon" is a wonderful book about teaching kids how to subtract two-digit numbers. The book is about a team of sharks, Flip, Flap, Gill, and Stripes. Their coach, Coach Blue challenges them to make 75 laps in a week in order to win some tacos! After each day, the sharks swim a certain number of laps and Coach Blue subtracts that amount of laps from the 75 laps that they will have to complete by the end of the week. Coach Blue shows how subtracting occurs, first by subtracting the ones, then the tens. However, by Friday, Gill is injured after falling off the bike and Tiny has to complete more laps to make for Gill not being able to swim a lap. After hard work, Tiny swims all her laps and the sharks get rewarded their tacos and end up going to swim camp. This book is targeted for advanced first graders and mostly 2nd graders. I could use this book to show how subtracting can be done and to show different methods of doing subtraction problems.
October 8, 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 story shows how to track progress toward attaining a goal through math. The illustrations are fun, and while the story is a bit predictable, it was also entertaining. We enjoyed reading this book together.
April 19, 2010
I found this in my first grade classroom's library. This is a good book about teaching children how to borrow and subtract double digits. The fun story will keep your kids engaged while they learn at the same time. I am always interested in books about math concepts because they seem to scarce( I could be wrong). I think it's good that you can have a fun story that teaches children a math concept at the same time. It's the best of both worlds!
March 15, 2011
This is a great book when teaching double digit subtraction. The students become engaged in this book as they have to solve double digit subtraction problems to see how many laps the sharks will have to swim in order to win the race. Its a great read especially for teaching a lesson on double digit subtraction as students can definitely relate to races as students are involved in sports!
June 6, 2011
This book would be helpful for subtraction and could even work with multiplication and division. Students could work on subtracting the laps on their own as the sharks completed them and then check to see that their answers were matching the sharks. I could see using this book to give students the chance to try invented strategies and share their strategies with classmates.
August 1, 2011
I didn't really like it that much. It was all about math.
November 23, 2011
Filled with tons of two-digit subtraction examples and would be a great way to integrate literature into the math lesson of introducing 2-digit subtraction.
November 30, 2012
This book is great for working with subtraction of two-digit numbers, addition, and multiplication. The Addition could even be designed like the grapes of math book the teach the multiplication.
January 18, 2013
Great for introducing or reviewing subtraction with regrouping
March 7, 2013
K and 1st
subtraction
subtraction
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews