Printable Connect the Dots (Free PDF)
A dot-to-dot picture where the numbers are spaced evenly around the shape, so the line you draw really is the outline.
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Join 1 to 2 to 3 and on to the last dot, then back to number 1, and a star or a heart appears. The picture fills the width of the page, so a small child can follow it with a crayon and still end up with a clean outline, and there is room inside the shape to colour it in afterwards. The instruction is printed at the top in one sentence, and the note at the foot says which picture you are drawing, which stops the sheet turning into a guessing game for a child who gets stuck halfway.
The dots are not placed by hand. The outline is a parametric curve, sampled at two thousand points and then cut into equal lengths, so the dots sit at even distances all the way round rather than bunching up on the curves. Each number is pushed outwards along the line's own normal, which keeps the labels clear of the shape and of each other, and the generator checks the gap between neighbouring dots before the page is drawn and refuses to print a crowded sheet. Dot number one is circled so there is no doubt where to start.
Twenty-four dots is the easy version for a child who is still learning the numbers to twenty-five; forty dots gives a smoother outline, more counting practice and a better finished shape for an older child. Both print as plain black line work on white, which photocopies well and uses very little ink, and both leave a name line at the top for a classroom set. There is nothing to type into: this is a sheet for a pencil.
