Science Activity - What's That Smell?

Our Sid the Science Kid activity for this week was called "What's that Smell?"  We recently explored our sense of  touch, and coming up I'll share our exploration of taste, but for this week we are exploring with our noses!

First I gathered up our supplies.  I filled bowls with cinnamon, honey, peanut butter, and pickle juice.  I also gabbed a tube of toothpaste and a bottle of tea tree essential oil.

Then I blind folded the kids.  Mackenzie had a hard time keeping hers on =)

Then I took each item, one at a time, and waved it in front of their noses.  Trevor correctly guessed the cinnamon, pickle juice, and honey.  He thought the peanut butter was oatmeal, but that was understandable because I have put peanut butter in his oatmeal before.  He peeked when I put the toothpaste in front of his nose, and the wasn't sue about the tea tree oil.  I think Mackenzie peeked for all of them =)

Then the kids got to take their blind folds off and explore the food items with their other senses to see if they guessed right!  Mostly they just wanted to eat the honey.

Then Trevor had a great idea...he wondered what would happen if we mixed all the items together.  So we mixed the food items (minus the pickle juice!) and they enjoyed eating it.  He also wanted to know what would happen if we heated it up (he thought it would get softer), so I put the concoction in the microwave for a few seconds and sure enough it got a little softer!

Mostly Mackenzie just wanted to drink the pickle juice...yuck!

If this activity sounds fun to you and your kids, check out this and other Sid the Science Kid episodes!

Have you done any experiments with your senses or other fun science activities with your children?  I'd love to hear about it!



Happy Exploring!

 

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