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The Nose Knows

Have a scent-sational outing exploring the great outdoors!

child sniffing flower

What you need:

box or bag for collecting
tray (or any flat surface)
8 labels (Spicy, Green, Woody, Earthy, Sweet, Fruity, Metallic, and Yuck!) to help sort your collection

What you do:

Go collecting. Take your child outside and roam around your neighborhood, using your "sniffers" to collect objects with different smells. Take a sample of each object. (Ask permission if you plan to enter someone else's property, of course!) Let your noses be your guide, but here are a few sample ideas to get you started: assorted flowers, grass, herbs, bark, pine needles, dirt, leaves, compost, seeds, lavender, even an old, damp newspaper.
Arrange your aromas. Place the labels around your tray or table. Ask your child to smell each object and put it into the category that best describes its fragrance. If you need to, crush the object to boost its odor. When you and your child are through sorting, try to find some candidates for categories that might not have any items in them.

What you talk about:

Ask your child: How did you decide which items belonged in each category? Which were the hardest to label? Do you wish you had a whole different category? If so, what would it be?
Have your child pick his or her favorite and least favorite smells. Ask your child to sniff that favorite smell and say how the scent makes him or her feel. Do the same with the stinky object. What makes the two things smell so different?
Revisit the rest of the smells you've collected. Do any of these smells bring back memories for either of you? Imagine which scents you'd combine to make perfume. What would you name those combinations?

Activity: Susan Goodman