Dot to dot printables
30 connect the dots pages that each draw something you can name, counting from 1 up to 22, 38 or 58 depending on the sheet.
What is on this page
Every sheet here is one A4 page with one dot-to-dot on it, and each comes with a separate answer sheet showing the finished outline. Nothing is watermarked and there is no sign-up. The count runs from 1 up to 22, 38 or 58 depending on the sheet, and the title on every page says what the child is about to draw, so nobody has to join forty dots on faith.
How many dots should you start with
The three sizes are real differences, not labels on the same picture:
- 22 dots. For a child who has just learned to count past twenty. The shapes are the simple ones on this page: a star, a maple leaf, a butterfly, a bat. The numbers sit far enough apart that a small finger can point at each one without covering the next.
- 38 dots. The middle of the set, and where most of these sheets sit. Counting is no longer the hard part; following an outline around a corner is.
- 58 dots. A longer sequence with more direction changes, for a steadier hand. These take a few minutes rather than one.
What makes a dot-to-dot worth printing
Two things, and both are easy to get wrong. The first is spacing. If two dots land on top of each other their numbers overlap and the puzzle becomes unreadable, so every outline here has a minimum gap enforced between consecutive dots before it is allowed onto a page. The second is that the puzzle sheet must not show the answer. Plenty of printable dot-to-dots print a faint version of the finished picture underneath the dots, which removes the entire point of the exercise. There is no guide line on any sheet here. The solution lives on its own page.
What a child is practising
Number order first, which is the obvious one, and it is genuinely useful practice because the sequence has to be right the whole way or the picture does not close. Underneath that is pencil control: the line between two dots has to be drawn as a deliberate stroke rather than a scribble, and the sharp corners are where that shows. The sheets that turn a sharp corner twenty or thirty times are the ones that build a steady hand.
Printing
Every file is a real vector PDF, so it prints crisp at any size. Choose actual size or 100% in the print dialog rather than fit to page, and the 15mm margin will clear any home printer. A4 and US Letter both work. Each sheet carries its own catalogue number at the end of its description, which is how you find the same one again.
How to use these sheets
- Pick a sheet and press Print. The file is a PDF sized for A4 and Letter paper.
- Print it in black and white at normal quality. None of these sheets need colour ink except the colour by number pages.
- Keep the answer page for yourself, or print it too if you want to check the work later.