Follow Your Nose

by Rita Richardson

An Imagination Station Activity

Age: All ages
Time: As long as you like
Type of Activity: Using your senses

Materials needed:

• Pen
• Paper
• Your nose!

Are you ready for some serious smells? Pack a pen and paper, jot down your observations, and follow your nose on a stroll this weekend and be, well, nose-y!

Take a mid-winter walk and note the crisp, clean air mixed with the musty scent and crackle of old fallen leaves. Find an orchard and walk through. Can you smell the wood-smoke, rotted fruit, grassy hay?

On a frosty winter morning get you and your nose outdoors early and breathe in the cold, clean air that zaps you awake. Is this how "cold" smells? Can you come up with three words to describe this sensation?

Walk into a local bakery. A combination of smells assails your nose. What are they?

What smells do you recognize as you enter your school; a subway; movie theater?

Every home has its own unique scent. Note and describe what is characteristic of your house in comparison to one of your friends'.

Go to the perfume counter at a department store--spray a few samples on little paper strips and see if you can determine the prevailing scent of each. Cedar, roses, lavender, orange, patchoulli?

Go to a coffee shop or local fast food place and see what smells.

Well, you've given your nose quite a workout. Compare your findings at the supper table with other family members. Could make for a "scent-sational" conversation!

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