315 Dots per Page

Each of the three pages that follow has been printed with the exact same amount of ink; each has 315 black dots that are all the exact same size. When those 315 dots are spread equally across the page, they are very difficult to see beyond a distance of a few feet. When those same 315 dots are clumped together, their visibility increases dramatically.

Although the Dot Sheets are not labeled in any way, they are referred to in the curriculum by their order:

• Dot Sheet 1 [pdf] shows the dots equally spaced but clustered closely together.
• Dot Sheet 2 [pdf] shows the dots equally spaced but spread across the sheet.
• Dot Sheet 3 [pdf] is identical to Dot Sheet 1; there are times when showing all three sheets in order called for in the curriculum.

These pages can help students understand why we can see salt in its solid form but not after it has been dissolved; or water in its liquid form but not when it is a gas. It's not the amount of salt or water that changes; what changes is the distance between the tiny particles that make up the salt or the water.

Point out to students that the dots on these sheets are billions of times larger than the particles that make up salt, or water, or any type of matter. The same general idea applies: spreading them apart makes them difficult or impossible to see.