Sense of Smell Activity

What You Need:

• Paper
• Pencil
• Several small containers
• Small pieces of fabric
• Rubber bands
• Large craft needle
• Various strong smelling items

What You Do:

1. Your child can get started by making a list of his favorite smells. Encourage him to use lots of descriptive words to explain why he loves each smell.
2. Now he can find the items that are his favorite smells to use for creating his smelling station. Offer assistance cutting up small pieces of items (such as lemons or oranges) for your child to use.
3. Invite your child to place a small amount of each super-smelly item in a small container that isn’t see through. The purpose of the smelling station is to challenge people’s noses! If they can see what they are smelling, it takes all the fun away!
4. Before covering the containers, get out the list of his favorite smells out and encourage him to create a master list of what smells are in each container. He can code the information based on the cover of the container, such as blue fabric for cinnamon, red for lemon, etc. Along with creating a smelling station, he’s honing his organizational skills!
5. Have your child use bits of colorful fabric to cover the top of the containers and secure with a rubber band following his master list. Offer him a large craft needle to gently press holes in the top of the taut fabric allowing the tantalizing scents to waft through.
6. All that’s left is to challenge friends and family with his smelling station! He can give small sheets of paper and pencils to each participant and see if they guess correctly!