Smelling Boxes

Materials

Two wooden boxes each containing six smelling bottles each - twelve bottles in all. One set has a red cover with hollow cylinders having red lids, the other box has a blue cover with hollow cylinders having green lids.
The smelling made by the cylinders are paired, i.e. The smelling made by one cylinder in the red set matches the smelling made by its equivalent cylinder in the blue set.

Preparation

An individual exercise (Note: work cycle to be observed)

Presentation

1 The Directress sits beside the child.

2 Start with three sets of distinct smelling bottles first.

3 The Directress arranged one set of the bottles in a column on the left side, call side A.

4 The other set is then also arranged in another column on the right side, called side B.

5 The Directress then goes to all the bottles on side A, one at a time.

6 She takes one bottle, unscrew it and smell the contents.

7 Then the Directress invites the child to smell it also.

8 The Directress starts th pairing exercise.

9 First, she takes a bottle from side A, smell it, passes to the child to smell and says, 'we are looking for this smell'.

10 Encourage the child to go through the bottles on side B to find the matching bottles.

11 When a match is found, the pair of bottle is placed in the middle between the two rows of bottles.

12 Continue matching the two sets of bottles.

Control Of Error

The bottom of the bottles can be coded-coded to provide a control of error. The inside of the lids are colored in a similar way to prevent the wrong lids being replaced on the wrong bottles and so mixing up the smells.

Points Of Interest

The child can pair the various bottles as presented.

Purpose

Refine the child's olfactory sense.

Stimulate the child's interest and awareness of smells with in the environment.

Extends the child's vocabulary.

Variation

Have an outing outdoors. Get the children to smell different types of flower, herbs and learn the names at the same time.

Have soaps of different scent to repeat the above exercise.

Beech/Plywood.