Questions about the mystery picture maker

A list of coordinate pairs that students plot on a grid in order, joining each point to the one before. At Lift pen they stop and start the next line without joining. When every point is plotted a picture appears, which is the reward and the self check.

Draw on the grid with the pen, the line tool or the shape tool, or start from one of the 24 starter pictures and change it. Each shape is one line the student draws without lifting the pen; press Lift pen to start the next shape. The worksheets below the grid update as you draw.

Yes. Load a PNG or JPG of up to 5 MB under Trace a picture and draw over it with the snap grid. The image is shown faintly under the grid, stays in this tab, is never saved or uploaded, and never appears on any worksheet. It is your job to use an image you are allowed to use.

Version A is the picture as drawn, in integers in the first quadrant. Version B moves the picture by whole squares so the middle of it sits on the origin, so students plot in all four quadrants. Version C labels each square 0.5, 0.25, a half, a quarter or an eighth, so the coordinates are decimals or fractions. All three make the same picture.

A flagged point would not sit on a grid line in that version, for example a point on a half square in an integer version. Rounding it would quietly change the picture, so the page names the point by its number and holds that version back. Move the point, or use Snap every point to whole squares, which says exactly how many points it moved.

A worksheet needs at least 2 shapes or 10 points and holds at most 400. As a rough guide, 150 points fill a 45 minute lesson for a class that plots confidently, and the page warns past that. Younger students often manage 30 to 60; the guide on point counts by grade has more detail.

The pen keeps every grid point it crosses, then drops the points that sit within a set distance of a straight line between their neighbours. The Simplify pen lines slider sets that distance, from corners only up to 3 squares, and shows the point count as you move it.

Yes. Tab to the grid, then the arrow keys move a cursor one snap step (with Shift, 5 squares), Enter or Space adds a point, Escape lifts the pen and C closes a shape. Undo and redo work with Control or Command and Z.

Each version gives a student page with the title, name and date lines (each optional), the instructions and the point list in columns with Lift pen marks; a blank grid, one or two to a page; the answer key with the picture drawn on the grid, numbered if you choose; and a points only page. The grid lines are vector lines, so they print crisp on A4 or US Letter.

No. The student page prints the title you choose, Mystery picture unless you change it. The picture's own name prints only on the answer key.

In this browser only, up to 3 pictures free or 50 with Premium. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account. Save a backup file from Pictures to move them to another browser or keep a copy.

Yes. Share this, above the grid, makes a link that carries the drawing and its grid and worksheet settings inside the link itself, so nothing is uploaded. It opens as Shared with you and is saved on the other device only if they keep a copy. You can leave the picture's name and the sheet title out of the link.

Yes. After one visit the maker opens and draws with no connection, and PDFs work offline once you have made one while connected. Where the browser offers it, Install Plotpicture is in the menu and at the foot of the page. On an iPhone or iPad, open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.

The drawing grid can be 5 to 40 squares each way. A printed grid never has more than 40 squares a side, and its squares are never smaller than 3 mm, so a student can plot on it. If labels would overlap, the page says which spacing fits.

The worksheets you make from your own drawings are yours to use in class and to share. The starter pictures were drawn for this site; use them in your teaching freely. Do not trace images you do not have the right to use.

Plotpicture is not affiliated with any publisher, curriculum body or teacher marketplace.