Match That Smell!

I remember going into the Hallmark store with my sister one time and her getting incredibly frustrated at how long I was staying in the candle aisle, smelling each and every candle.  She complained that the smells gave her a headache and that she was ready to go, and I went on and on about how I couldn't decide which candle to get (I probably ended up with five or six) but that it didn't matter because I just enjoyed smelling them all!

You'd think this kind of behavior would have led me to come up with this lesson idea on my own, but it didn't. So before sharing, let me just say that a fifth grade teacher at my school is the one who had this idea.  She had the entire activity set up and ready to go and offered to share it with kindergarten. Thanks, Mrs. Blanton!

Okay, so here's how it goes. There are about 25 film canisters with one of five different strongly-scented wax chunks at the bottom, under a cotton ball.  The canisters are labeled with the numbers 1-25.  Numbers 1-5 each have a different scent, and these are used as the "home base" scents.  These are placed at different locations around the room, and students get a chance to smell each one.

Then, students are given a random canister.  Their job is to smell the scent in their canister and match it to the correct scent out of the five home bases.  You'd think this would be an easy task, but only three students got it right on the first try.

The teacher has an answer key, saying which numbered canisters match the scent in canister 1, canister 2, canister 3, etc.

Despite it being a challenging activity, the kids said they had fun and enjoyed the smells.  

The only thing I would do differently if I redo this activity would be labeling canisters 1-5 with what type of scent they are.  For instance, Canister 1: Apple Cinnamon.  Canister 2: Fruit Loops.  Canister 3: Sugar Cookie.  I think having a name to compare the scent to would help some of the kids narrow it down. 

I also think I may have needed coffee beans for students to smell in between each canister to cleanse their nasal palate.  The smells all start to run together eventually.