Here the solid points represent spin 1/2s which are put into singlet states. The lines connecting the spin 1/2s are the valence bonds indicating the pattern of singlets. The ovals are projection operators which "tie" together two spin 1/2s into a single spin 1, projecting out the spin 0 or singlet subspace and keeping only the spin 1 or triplet subspace. The symbols "+", "0" and "−" label the standard spin 1 basis states (eigenstates of the S z operator).