This 5 Senses activity teaches children about the sense of smell in a fun way. It’s similar to write-the-room, only in this game, children smell the room! In this game, children will move around the room, sniffing pictures posted around the walls and/or furniture, and decide whether it has a scent or not. Check out more of my Five Senses activities here.
Prepare the Scent Hunt Game
To prepare this activity, you will need the printable pictures for this game (download below), along with scented essential oil or body spray. Just make sure whatever you use will not bother students with allergies or asthma.
Cut out each picture card. You can either put the scented oil on a cotton ball or cotton round, and attach it to the picture. Just make sure it’s something that won’t be visible. It has to be invisible so that children are only using their sense of smell to decide whether or not the picture is scented. If you use a cotton round, you can put the scented oil on one side and flip it over. You will still be able to smell it, but the oil won’t be visible.
To attach cotton balls or cotton rounds to the paper, just smear on some glue stick and press the cotton onto the glue.
You will need to put scented cotton on half of the pictures, and unscented cotton on the other half of the pictures.
Attach the pictures randomly around the walls and/or furniture in the classroom. Print out the game board sheet to give to each child.
How to Play the Scent Hunt Game
To play the game, children will walk around the room with their paper and a crayon or bingo marker, finding each picture and sniffing it to see if it has a scent. If the picture does have a scent, they will find the same picture on their sheet and mark it. They will continue to walk around the room until they have found all of the pictures, or until you call “times up”.
For my Pre-K kids, I like using the animal pictures, but in case a teacher needs to add another level of academics to the game, I also created a version with letters.
Download the Scent Hunt Printable
Download: Scent Hunt Game (animal cards)
Download: Scent Hunt Game (letters)
Note: This printable is FREE. Just click to download!
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You continue to inspire me, thank you!
looovvvee this idea! thank you so much!
Thanks for all the wonderful ideas.
Thanks for all your great ideas. I love looking through them and using them with my class.
Wow!! I love this it seems like so much fun. Cant wait to try it with my students. Thanks Karen!
You are so amazing.Thankyou for sharing your ideas?
WOW! Karen , Thank you again I would be using this for my students.
You are such an inspiration, I have been teaching for 20 plus years and sometimes you just feel like you’re doing the same old thing. Not only do I use your ideas, but it inspires me to come up with different ways to use them. Thank you so much for all you do to keep learning fun.
Thank you!
This would be great as a STEM activity!
That is so good, going to put that idea forward for preschool.
Thank you
You are brilliant! You always have the cutest activities! Thank you for being such an inspiration!
Thank you!
WONDERFUL.Thank you for this idea.
Great idea! I will be using it as a STEM activity!!!
What scents do you use for the scent hunt?
I used essential oil for mine. Essential oil can be pricey, but Walmart sells some for around $5-6 per bottle (in the vitamin area). You can also use scented body spray (as long as the children in your class are not allergic to perfume or chemical scents). You could even try extracts, like lemon extract, vanilla extract, etc.