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osmoz KIDS is a fragrant section of our site that’s both educational and fun. It will allow you to initiate your children, nephews or nieces, cousins or friends’ children into the delightfully surprising world of scents. Each issue will present a different theme, with smells to discover in a playful, simple and safe way that can keep your little rascals busy on a rainy day…
 

My Smell Boxes
 

Trying to recognize different smells can be fun. Thanks to these clever little smell boxes,
smell boxes, you can practice becoming a “smell specialist”, all by yourself or with your friends.

Chocolate, flowers, candy... recognizing smells can be fun. But it isn’t always easy, especially when you can’t see what you’re smelling. But the good thing is that the more you do it, the better you get. To become a real scent specialist, you can start by creating a collection. Some people have stamp or coin collections, I’m going to build a scent collection, with my smell boxes.
 

My little collection
To make “my little collection,” you have to pick things that have a strong smell, like coffe or spices, but they also have to dry well. Things that grow on plants, like flowers or fruit, tend to rot when they get old, so you can’t use them for your collection. There are some tricks though: for fruit, you can put fruits-flavored candy in your boxes; for flowers, you can try dried flowers (you can find different dried flowers in supermarkets, florists or home-decoration stores).

Here are a few ideas of smells you can collect:

There are lots more possibilities. Have fun looking for them; you just have to have enough boxes! If you use any liquids, make sure you close the box carefully. If you have any questions, just ask an adult for help.
Write each item’s name on a label (lavander, vanilla... etc.). The best thing is to stick the label on the bottom of the can or box. That way, when you play the guessing game, you won’t be able to see the name. But if you can’t guess what’s in a box, or you want to see if you guessed right, just turn the box over! If 2 or more people want to play, one person at a time is blindfolded. The other player(s) let the person with the blindfold smell a few boxes at random and try to guess what they are. You get a point for each right answer. Whoever has the most points at the end wins!
   

 

 

For this activity, you need:
- little metal cans or opaque plastic boxes with lids
- adhesive labels and a pen
- a scarf to blindfold people’s eyes if more than one person’s playing

Age range >10+