Activities for Developing Observation Skills

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This is a young website. It is intended to offer activities that help improve observation skills and critical thinking, useful in both science and art learning. As this website grows, it is our hope that this library of activities will acquire additional offerings over time. 

Note: While these activities are free to use, please give credit to the author and our site, if you wish to post one of our activities elsewhere.

We post new observation activities on our site periodically. It could be next week, or in a month or three. Contact us and we'll put you on the list! (We won't spam you, we promise.) 

Send us your email address through our "Contact Us" page and we'll be sure to notify you when a new activity is posted.

This warm-up exercise helps prepare students for fast-paced observation!

Take a stroll. Observe. Discover. Draw. Take field notes. See nature like you've never seen it before!

A fun observation activity for making visual representations of leaves. An excellent introduction to studying plants.

What makes your leaves special? Aren't all leaves alike? Are they? Study, draw, compare, discuss. 

What do pine cones, artichokes, and pineapples have in common? Discover how mathematics informs nature.

Study these familiar plants and

learn how they are related to the Fibonacci number series. 

What do owls eat? Dissect an owl pellet! Discover skeletons of tiny animals. Enjoy exploring, drawing, and sharing notes with classmates!

Birds are fascinating. Tempt your students with these familiar, yet intriguing members of nature. 

Observe, study, draw, learn!

The world is new to elementary school students. Show them how observing and drawing different birds can open the door to the natural world!

This verbal skills game uses drawing

as a tool for checking accuracy. 

Can you tell these lemons apart? Prove it! This observation challenge uses drawing and note-taking.