Smell Guessing Game (The Five Senses)

So far, we have covered the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. This activity will help your preschooler discover their sense of smell.

Curious about how our sense of smell works? In the olfactory epithelium in our noses neurons are responsible for sensing smells. Those neurons project axons to the brain through the olfactory nerve. You can read about this in more detail by going to Wikipedia's page on olfaction.

There are many ways to incorporate the sense of smell into your preschooler's day. We made smelly paint and wrote with scented markers. You could make scented play dough, or blow scented bubbles. The possibilities are endless!

To introduce the sense of smell, we did this really fun guessing game. It gave Little M. a chance to isolate her sense of smell from her other senses to really bring awareness to that type of perception.

Here's What You Will Need to Do the Sense of Smell Guessing Game

• small paper or plastic cups
• cotton balls
• various flavors of extracts (vanilla, mint, maple, coconut, orange, etc)
• permanent marker

Setting Up and Playing the Game with Your Preschooler

For each scent, you will need to write the name of the smell on the bottom of a cup with permanent marker. Then pour a few drops of extract onto a cotton ball and place it in the cup. I placed the cotton balls face down, so that you could not see any differences in color. Repeat for all of the extracts.

Now, allow your child to smell each scent and try to guess what it is. You can check the bottom of the cup to see if they are right.

If you found this article useful, share on social media or leave a comment. I'd love you hear from you! What is your favorite way to teach your child about their sense of smell?

Need a book to go along with this activity? Check out my 5 Senses Book Roundup!