Smelling Jars

For this activity you’ll need jars with holes in them, salt and pepper shakers work great, you could even use some recycled food jars and puncture holes in the lids. Fill them with items that have very distinct smells. Here, I’ve used coffee beans, an orange wedge, and some ground cinnamon. Ideally I would have liked to use cinnamon sticks, but didn’t have any in the cupboard. To start I put the jars to my own nose and make a loud sniffing sound. Then I handed it to Yumi, for her to do the same. In the past we’ve used lavender, ground peppercorns, and lemon peels. Yumi sniffed the peppercorns so hard it made her sneeze! These are a great way to engage your little one’s developing sense of smell! For the little olders you can use cotton swabs and essential oils (i.e. peppermint, lavender, lemon) and let them try to guess the scent, or just use a blindfold! We started this activity when Yumi was 12 months, at this age it is important to build the association, so using the actual item is better in this case.