Thirty circles, infinite ideas — the creative thinking challenge your students won't want to put down.
This 30 Circles Creative Thinking Challenge is a brilliant open-ended classroom activity for Australian primary school students in Years 2–6. Students are given a sheet of 30 blank circles and challenged to turn as many as possible into recognisable drawings in a set time. It's a playful, low-stakes way to build divergent thinking, creativity, and fluency — and it never fails to get even your quietest students buzzing with ideas.
Perfect for classroom activities focused on creative thinking, this no-prep printable is an instant download you can use again and again.
Why teachers love it:
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Builds creative confidence — the open-ended format means there's no wrong answer, so every student succeeds
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Develops divergent thinking — challenges students to push beyond obvious ideas and think laterally
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Sparks discussion — comparing results is a fantastic class conversation starter
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Endlessly reusable — use as a warm-up, early finisher task, or full lesson activity
Perfect for:
- Years 2–6 Australian primary classrooms
- Creative arts and design thinking activities
- Fast finishers and extension activities
- Warm-ups and morning work
What's included:
A printable 30 Circles challenge sheet with 30 blank circles arranged in a grid for students to transform into original drawings. Designed for individual or small group use on A4 paper.
Print and go — your creative thinking lesson is sorted. 🖨️
Need a quick brain break?
Our brain breaks guide has movement, calm-down and creative ideas to use alongside this resource.
SPECIFICATIONS
Format: PDF, set up for A4 paper. Exactly what's inside is listed above.
Editing: This download is not editable. The PDF is flattened to protect the design and the artists' work we license.
Printing: Open the file in a PDF reader and choose 'Fit to page' or 'Actual size'. Do a test page on plain paper first — card, colour and black-and-white all print well.
Licence: One classroom, one teacher. Please don't share, resell or post the file online; buy an extra licence for each colleague who wants their own copy.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
You'll need a PDF reader on your device — the free Adobe Acrobat Reader is the most reliable. Double-click the downloaded file to open it.
If a page shows on screen but won't print properly, open it in Acrobat Reader, choose Print → Advanced → tick 'Print as image'.
Stuck? Contact us and we'll sort it out.
OUR HAPPINESS GUARANTEE
We want you to love every Mrs Edgar resource. If something isn't right, contact us within 30 days and we'll make it right. Because this is a digital file we can't refund a download that has already been opened, but we will always help you get it working. See our Returns Policy.
FAQS
Where is my download?
Check your inbox (and junk folder) for the email from Mrs Edgar with your link. You can also log in to your account at mrsedgar.com.au and download it from your order.
It came as a ZIP file — how do I open it?
On a Mac, double-click it. On Windows, right-click and choose 'Extract All'. Your PDFs will be inside.
Can I print in colour or black and white?
Yes. Our resources are designed to work both ways; black-and-white versions look great on coloured card.
The download won't start on my school computer.
Some school networks block downloads. Try again at home, or right-click the link and choose 'Save link as'.
