(6) Great Picture Books to Teach Observation Skills
We have been hard at work on a new series of thinking skills units! Each unit will focus on developing one aspect of critical or creative thinking using five core skills.
While we are still working on finalizing the units, we are excited to bring you a series of blog posts with some great literature companions for each thinking skill. First up, OBSERVATION! Note:As an Amazon associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Observation is a critical thinking skill used in convergent, analytical, and evaluative thinking. Using their powers of observation, students can become more skilled at noticing details, considering perspectives, and checking their own understanding.
The six books here use observation in different ways, but all are fabulous! Without further ado, here’s the list:
They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel
This is a great book to teach the power of perspective. In this story, each page shows us how a different character views a cat. The Caldecott Honor book gives us beautiful illustrations and invites the reader to consider how they see a cat (or anything in the world!) as well.
If you know us, you know how much we love Graeme Base! (We even wrote a whole unit for his amazing puzzle/mystery book The Eleventh Hour!) This is another great one from Mr. Base, and it’s also a puzzle book. In this story, readers have to use their powers of observation to find lost magical objects on each page and discover the hidden code that will unlock the *real and working* combination lock at the back of the book! Fair warning, this one is a little bit pricey, but we love it and think it’s totally worth it!
We know, we know…. another one by Graeme Base? But hear us out… his illustrations are unmatched, and the puzzles are SO much fun. In this one, you can observe each illustration to find things that begin with each letter of the alphabet, making it a great entry for the primary set!
This story is all about a forgetful Grandpa who needs to find all his things before he can go out and play with his grand kids. This book is SO cool, because each page is basically monochromatic. In each new room, there are new objects to find. This one invites us to ask: what might hinder or help our ability to observe well?
Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel
Anansi the Trickster strikes again in this story, but someone is using their own keen powers of observation to get even! Can you spot the creature who will give Anansi a taste of his own medicine?
This Caldecott Medal winner is a great example of thinking about what we miss if we aren’t careful in our observations. Flotsam is a wordless book that follows the discoveries a boy makes when he finds an old camera on the beach. Think about perspectives: What can we learn from looking at the photographs? What did each new owner of the camera observe?
That’s our list for now! What other books have you used to teach observation?
