Activity:
Sense of Smell Activity
Your child can challenge his friends and family by making a smelling station. With the help of some small containers, rubber bands, scraps of fabric and lots and lots of smelly stuff, he can create a whole collection of things to tempt everyone’s noses! Smell is one of the five senses, and your child can learn more about what role it plays and if smell is affected by the sense of sight!
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What You Need:
- Paper
- Pencil
- Several small containers
- Small pieces of fabric
- Rubber bands
- Large craft needle
- Various strong smelling items
What You Do:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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!
- 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.
- 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!
