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MathStart Level 1
Jack the Builder (Mathstart: Level 1
Jack stacks up blocks high. Two make a robot, five make a boat, and fifteen make...whatever you can imagine! Math becomes child's play as young readers are introduced to the skill of counting on, a first step toward mastering addition.
33 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 2006
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Stuart J. Murphy
136 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 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 23, 2017
Jack has a bunch of blocks. He begins to build with the blocks, adding some on top of others to create new shapes for his imagination to play with.
Okay, so usually something says "Makes Math Fun!" or some such on the cover and I'm as far gone the other way as can be. I restrained myself, however, and made myself crack the cover of this one... and actually kinda liked it. (I know! Weird!) Instead of being the usual "this block or shape on that block or shape makes this number and/or this shape! Yay!", this book does have simple addition, but after putting on more blocks the new shape becomes something in Jack's imagination (robot, rocket ship, etc.) and it's more about how he can just add more and his imagination will come up with something new from the new shape. Good plan, put to effect well, you got a reluctant math reader to read it, so good work Mr. Murphy!
No content issues.
November 26, 2020
This was an okay book about counting. It was about a little boy who used his vivid imagination while using his building blocks to create things. Every time he would add on another block to the one he had and the number of building blocks would increase as well as the number shown on the page. For example he would have 3 blocks and then the number would increase to four where the illustration will be 3->4. The illustrations in this book were nice and colorful and took up all of the pages. I would recommend this book for children who are learning how to count.
January 14, 2018
Want to trick your 3-year-old into counting? I did, and this book worked great! I knew he could count, but he was tired of performing like a monkey. Even better, he wanted to read this book (and count) over and over again.
This book is part of an educational series about math. We've checked out a few, and they've been great.
This book is part of an educational series about math. We've checked out a few, and they've been great.
September 28, 2020
This book was a cute way to incorporate math into a reading lesson. This would be a good one to have in my classroom because it can be used in a math lesson. Not only that, but the illustrations were bright and fun. This book also encourages the reader to use their imagination in everything that they do. I thought this book brought together two different concepts in a unique and appealing way.
February 6, 2020
"Jack the Builder" is a book, I will read in my future classroom when we are talking about numbers and addition. The book has a variety of colors, shapes, and prints of words. This book can be used to increase student's math skills and also identify what colors they know and do not know.
January 30, 2019
Jack uses blocks, and his imagination, to build all kinds of things.
Colorful illustrations and simple text make this a winner for group sharing.
Colorful illustrations and simple text make this a winner for group sharing.
October 23, 2019
A great early math concepts book. It makes addition easy by presenting it as counting. The book also has great engineering, building and imagination concepts
February 21, 2023
Read this to both my sons over the last 6 years or so. They both really like it.
May 17, 2022
A good addition concepts book. Jack adds up to 17 using his amagination along the way. A great basic addition book showing the application of math to play.
November 21, 2012
This book helps students to understand the concept of counting on. I will give each student a number line to help them count on. For example, the student will point to the number that I call out. They will then count on by moving their fingers to the number that I want them to add.
Extension- Students will roll the number generator. The number that they land on is the number of objects that they will add to the jar. For example, if 3 marbles are already in the jar, and they rolled the number generators and had 2, then they will add on two to figure out the total number of marbles in the jar. They will continue to roll the number generators and fill up the jar until they run out of marbles. They will also write the equations in their notebooks. Ex. 3+2=5
Extension- Students will roll the number generator. The number that they land on is the number of objects that they will add to the jar. For example, if 3 marbles are already in the jar, and they rolled the number generators and had 2, then they will add on two to figure out the total number of marbles in the jar. They will continue to roll the number generators and fill up the jar until they run out of marbles. They will also write the equations in their notebooks. Ex. 3+2=5
February 11, 2012
Jack builds things by adding blocks. I really enjoyed Jack's imagination! I think this would be a great addition activity starter. Students could build their own things, which would require them to count the blocks and add them as well as using their imagination. It could also be used for a writing prompt as well: students could write what it is they build and tell how many blocks they added to make it.
December 2, 2012
Great book for imaginative students who love to build. This book use the idea of shapes, imagination, and the concept of counting on from a given number. Students can easily see that by adding different shapes to a building that the building can transform into something new. I would use this book as a way to talk about shapes and seeing them in real life, and reinforcing the math strategy of counting on.
October 25, 2013
A book that grabbed my students' attention and helped them explore counting--and perhaps more importantly, how to use one's imagination. In some families this is taken for granted, but some of my students need a little boost in this important life skill. (Without imagination how can we ever make things better than they are today?)
June 10, 2009
Liked the introduction of addition as well as some geometry/shape recognition in a way that wasn't blatant. My 4yo son loved it and I think he got some new ideas of things to build with his blocks from this book!
February 2, 2010
Math strategies for adding numbers are put into words and pictures in the book, Jack the Builder. The book is an easy to read book that can be used as an introduction to adding. Children enjoy reading it on their own.
November 12, 2012
This book has great illustrations and does an amazing job with the math skill of coutning on. The main character begins with jus two blocks and continues to add more blocks as the story goes along. This book is also full of ellipsis. The author does it in this book to draw attention.
May 21, 2016
Jack is quite imaginative in this book and the boys love that. It helps with numbers as well as creativity, as Jack builds with his blocks.
April 11, 2012
Will encourage youngsters to let their imaginations soar.
October 19, 2012
This book is sweet and simple. This book was read out loud by the author . It explains how jack adds on using blocks to create different figures. This book is great for counting on .
July 2, 2013
COMMON CORE, PRE-K, SHAPES, COUNTING ON, MATH, INFORMATIONAL TEXT, NARRATIVE TEXT, ADDITION,
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2014
Great for preschool kids but even my second grader enjoyed it. The counting exercise is good but the boy's imagination is what makes it a fun book.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews