If they're sufficiently bright, we can spot them with our telescopes as bright lines or patches near or crossing a large sunspot. Plages are emission areas in the vicinity of active regions, and usually also appear as brighter spots. Faculae are small hot areas brought to the surface from the convective zone just below the photosphere. They normally reach a maximum size of about 600 miles and appear as lighter granules covering the surface. They are more visible near the limb of the Sun.
Spicules appear to be the same, but are hot areas in the chromosphere.
If you observe over a period of an hour or more, you may be able to detect changes in these phenomena. Some challenging activities involve careful estimating and calculating. Knowing that the diameter of the Sun is 865,000 miles, you can estimate the sizes of sunspots and determine whether they're growing or shrinking. You can also check the rotation rates at different parts of the Sun's surface by watching a sunspot over several days. Here's where an eyepiece with a graduated scale reticle comes in handy.