The 30 Circles

Title

The 30 Circles

Mental
Author: Aleix Barrera, Diego Castro & David Rodriguez-Gomez
Facilitated by the teacher
Aim

The aim is to avoid self-censorship in the creative processes.

Time
10-20 mins
Students
15 students
Materials
Whiteboard, pen & post-its
Steps

Steps

  1. Each student is given a pencil and a piece of paper with 30 blank circles on it.  
  2. The students are challenged to fill in as many circles as possible with the aim being quantity not quality. The circles can be filled in various ways e.g. shading, drawing emojis etc.  They are given 3 minutes to complete the challenge.
  3. The students share and reflect what similarities there are between their circles.
  4. The teacher brings the students together to discuss the following points: 
  • Did you stop yourself from self-censoring?
  • When you went for quantity, did you think that your work poor or did you think you would edit it?
  • Can this activity be the basis from which creativity can flourish?
Reflection

Reflection

The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, Miro, Mural, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.
Inspiration

Inspiration

Inspired by: Bob McKim Adapted from: Tim Brown https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_tales_of_creativity_and_play and https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/7-fun-exercises-to-quickly-improve-creative-thinking