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Nose Know How

Learning about mammal’s sense of smell through fun “sniffing” games

AGE RANGE: pre-school, early elementary

Polar bear cubs and mom

WHAT YOU NEED:

WHAT YOU DO:

Discuss the importance of the sense of smell, for most mammals. They use their noses to detect predators or prey, to distinguish between family and non-family, to find mates and to recognize their territories.
Now let’s put our sense of smell to work!

Begin by filling 10 baby food jars with cotton balls that were soaked with a different scents (such as vanilla, peppermint, lemon, orange, cinnamon or chocolate just a few to get your started). You can even use orange peels, pine needles or other fragrant items but you have to remember to cover them with a cotton ball so the kids can’t see them.
Number both top and bottom of the container with masking tape and a permanent marker.
Here comes the test --- have all the kids sit in a circle and pass around one container, once everyone has had a chance to sniff then discuss what they think it was. They can even write down which numbers are what and see how many they each got right.
Don’t forget to ask the kids, what could happen if a wild mammal failed to recognize a particular odor?

Divide the group into two teams. Team 1 will be the mammal mothers and Team 2 will be the babies.
Team 1 “Mothers” stand at the front of the room and Team 2 “Babies” stand at the far end of the room.
Give each mother the jar with a scent and tell them to try to memorize the smell, and then give them just the cap.
Collect all the jars and mix them up and pass them out to the babies.
Now each mother needs to find the right baby by sniffing the baby’s containers and finding the correct scent. Remember no peeking at the numbers on the jars and lids.
Once everyone thinks they found their matches have everyone check their numbers to see if they are correct.
Switch roles and play again!

Sniffing Out A Trail: In this game the kids will get a chance to follow a scented trail.

For this you need to print out (or use something like index cards) 5 cards for each mammal that will be apart of this game. For example; for a female Moose you will need a card for its description, habitat, food, reproduction and special facts (so if you have a total of 5 mammals you will need a total of 25 different cards).
On each card you will attach a scented cotton ball. Remember that every mammal has a different scent such as; the Moose will only have the lemon scent. Use string or yarn attached to the index card. Don’t forget to have another string attached to the other end of the card to hang on the tree branches.
Then pick out a well marked trail and hang each information card with its scented cotton ball on various trees. Group all the habitat clues together at say station #1, all description clues and at station #2 all habitat clues, and so on.

Divide the group into different teams and each team represents a different female mammal that they need to follow.
They are to try and discover which mammal they are by following their correct scent, write down the clues and then put them all together.
Each team begins by smelling the scented cotton ball that represents their mammal. Then they hit the trail and they must visit all five stations.
Good luck and have fun!