Summary:
This book is about three kids who have a sand castle contest.They are going to see who has the tallest tower, the deepest moat, and the longest wall. While they are building their castles, they stop along the way to measure to see who is winning. They measured using their shovels, spoons, and feet. They thought they knew who was going to win already, but when the lifeguard measured with inches he had different results than the kids. It was because the kids measured with different size spoons and shovels and even feet.

Personal Reaction:
This was a cute book as well, and a good way to show kids that they can use all sorts of things to measure. To get an accurate measurement to use a ruler though because a standard unit doesn't change.

Classroom Extensions:
1.) Go on a field trip to a sandy place and have a sand castle contest and have students measure for the tallest tower, deepest moat, and longest wall.
2.) Have students measure each others body lengths laying down and using straws then a ruler.

Summary:
This story is about one hot Saturday, Larry the life guard wanted to have a sand castle contest before the tide comes in. So everyone was trying to build the tallest and widest sand castle. The children were measuring their sand castle's by how many shovels high it is and would measure the width by how many feet they used to walk.

Personal reaction:
This story gives information to children about math how they can use it in everyday life.

Classroom Extensions:
1. Have your students draw how big they want their sand castle to be, how they would measure it.
2. After the story ask your students to write down what objects they can use to measure with.

Summary:
This is a story about three kids at a beach. The lifeguard says they are having a contest for the tallest tower, deepest moat, and longest wall. They measure with different sized spoons, shovels, and their own feet. As the lifeguard measures with a measuring rod, the kids found out that their measurements were wrong. The lifeguard then explains that the shovels, spoons, and feet are all different sizes, but an inch will always be an inch.

Personal Reaction:
This is a great story to learn about measurements and explain it to the class.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
A. The class can measure with a rule various items in the classroom as an assignment.
B. This is a good book to read during a measuring unit. The class can also go outside and measure different items there.

Some kids enjoy a beautiful day on the beach and have sand castle contests. When they measure them with NON-standard items, the measurements are wrong. However, the judge uses Standard measurements and gets the right results! great visual for why standard forms of measurement are much more accurate than non-standard.

Any of Stuart. J Murphy's Math related content books are perfect for children. This particular book is about children on a beach building the biggest sandcastle before the tide rolls in. As the children compare sandcastles, they use shovels, spoons, and feet to see who has the biggest one. However, they do not realize that the shovels and spoons are different sizes, along with the size of each child's foot. In the end, the winner is a child who does not think she was the winner. On Murphy's website http://www.stuartjmurphy.com/, the interactive website is a great resource for any age. There is even a section for teachers which I found very interesting! Great books, great website!