Dot Paper Widget

Dot paper is a grid of dots where children draw a shape by joining dots with straight sides: connect the red dots, draw "a shape with 3 sides and 3 corners", or make a rectangle with 2 long sides and 2 short ones. Berdee knows when the shape is closed, counts its sides and corners, and checks it.

Drawing a shape is how a child shows they know what makes it that shape. Choosing a triangle from a list checks that they recognize one; drawing one checks that they can make its sides and corners happen. Because every side runs from one dot to another, each shape is exact, and Berdee can name it the way you would.

Select the dot paper on the canvas and click the floating ⚙ Configure button to set it up. Pick what children do, size the paper, then set up that mode. Press Try it as a student to draw on it exactly as a student will.

The four modes

• Connect the dots: some dots are red. Children join them into a shape, with every red dot a corner. You mark the red dots by tapping them on the grid in the Configure dialog. Graded.
• Draw a shape: children hear a clue, like "Draw a shape with 3 sides and 3 corners", and draw any shape that fits. Graded.
• Free draw: children draw any shape they like, or several if you allow it. Never graded, but you see what they drew.
• Show a shape: a finished shape children can't change, for questions about it ("How many sides?", "What shape will he make?"). You draw it by tapping its corners in order in the Configure dialog.

How a student uses it

1. Tap a dot, then tap another. A straight side appears between them. Keep tapping dots to add sides. A side can pass straight through dots on the way.
2. Or drag from dot to dot. The side follows the finger and snaps to the nearest dot when they let go.
3. Tap the first dot again to close the shape. It fills with color, and Berdee can count the sides aloud: "1, 2, 3, 4 sides."
4. Undo takes away the last side (or opens a closed shape again). Clear starts over.
5. Done checks the shape. After a right answer the shape is finished. After a wrong one, the shape stays so the child can fix it, and a short message helps: "Close your shape: tap the first dot again", "The sides cross. Try again", or "Not yet. Listen to the clue again."
6. The speaker button beside the clue says it again.

The paper

• Dots across and Dots down: 3 to 12 each. The default, 7 across and 5 down, matches the dot paper in many K–2 student books.
• If the dots would be too close together for a young child's finger, the Configure dialog says so. Make the widget bigger or use fewer dots.

Draw a shape: the shape and the side rule

• Shape: a triangle, a number of sides (3 to 8), a rectangle (squares count, because a square is a rectangle), a rectangle that isn't a square, a square, or any closed shape.
• Side rule says more about the sides, so fewer shapes fit:
• 2 long sides and 2 short sides
• All sides the same length
• At least one long side: longer than the number of spaces between dots you choose.
• Clue: what children read and hear. Leave it empty and Berdee writes one from your choices, like "Draw a rectangle with 2 long sides and 2 short sides." Type your own to change the words.

If a side rule can't go with the shape, the dialog tells you. A square can't have 2 long and 2 short sides, and on square dot paper a triangle can't have all its sides the same length.

Why every right shape counts

"A shape with 3 sides and 3 corners" has many right answers: skinny triangles, wide ones and tilted ones. Berdee accepts every one of them and nothing else, which is exactly the point children discover when they draw from a clue: the clue fits more shapes than they expect, and a better clue says more.

• A side drawn in two pieces through a middle dot still counts as one side.
• A tilted rectangle is still a rectangle: Berdee checks for 4 square corners, not for sides that run along the rows.
• A square counts as a rectangle, but not as "a rectangle with 2 long sides and 2 short sides".
• A shape whose sides cross, or that isn't closed, is never right.

Example: a rectangle with 2 long sides and 2 short sides

1. Add a Dot Paper from the toolbox and click ⚙ Configure.
2. Choose Draw a shape.
3. Set Shape to Rectangle and Side rule to 2 long sides and 2 short sides. The clue becomes "Draw a rectangle with 2 long sides and 2 short sides."
4. Press Try it as a student. Draw a square and tap Done: it isn't accepted. Clear it and draw a long, flat rectangle: it is. A tilted one works too.
5. Click Save.

To ask the next question from the same lesson, ask what to add to "4 sides and 4 corners" so the shape must be a rectangle and not a square.

Example: connect the dots

Choose Connect the dots, then tap 4 dots on the grid to make them red, such as the corners of a rectangle. Children can start at any red dot and go in either direction; any way that joins them into one shape without sides crossing is right. They can't turn a corner at a dot that isn't red.

Grading and what you see

Connect the dots and Draw a shape are graded when Done is tapped. Each Done counts as one attempt, so a perfect run is one attempt; drawing, undoing and clearing never count. Tapping Done on empty paper just reminds the child to draw first.

Berdee checks every answer again on the server. On each student's attempt page you see one line:

• Drew a rectangle · 4 sides · 2 long, 2 short ✓
• Drew a 4-sided shape, not a rectangle (no square corners) ✗
• Shape not closed · 3 sides ✗

Free draw shows what the child made, such as Drew a triangle and a hexagon, and isn't graded (0 of 0). Show never records anything.

Use it in logic

Dot paper has two events:

• On Shape Closed: when a learner closes a shape.
• On Done: when a learner taps Done (Connect the dots and Draw a shape).

It reports Sides, Corners, Is closed and Shape name (triangle, square, rectangle, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, or "4 sides"), alongside Is correct and Is answered. It has three methods: Start over, Clear and Draw an example shape, which draws a dashed example (the red dots joined, or a shape that fits the clue) without counting as the learner's answer. See Widget properties and methods.

In Free draw, add a behavior on On Shape Closed with the condition Sides is 5 that shows "You made a shape with 5 sides!"

Accessibility

• Keyboard: Tab reaches the paper. The arrow keys move a cursor from dot to dot; Enter or Space joins the cursor's dot to the shape (on the first dot, it closes it); Escape lets go of a first dot; Backspace undoes the last side. Tab moves on to Undo, Clear and Done.
• Screen readers hear each dot by its position ("Row 2, dot 3, red dot") and every change ("Side 3 drawn, from row 2 dot 3 to row 4 dot 3. 3 sides." "Shape closed: 4 sides, 4 corners."). A description of the shape so far is always available.
• Color is never the only cue. Red dots are bigger and ringed, sides are thick lines, and a closed shape is both filled and outlined.
• Big targets. Each dot's tap area reaches all the way to its neighbors, and children never need a steady drag: tapping dot to dot works everywhere.
• When a device asks for reduced motion, the fill appears without fading in.
• Count the sides aloud (under More options) is on by default, which models counting. Turn it off when counting the sides is the task.

Related

• Pattern blocks: build with the six classic blocks.
• Drawing: freehand sketching, not graded.
• Choose the right widget