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Name of Activity: Does Your Nose Know?. (By Galen Sylvestri)

Category:. Me and My World

Props: A blind fold, paper, crayons/watercolor, various different familiar smelling foods or objects (orange, banana, Peanut Butter cups, lemon, carrot, pickle)

Your Role: Coach

Directions: Place all the food out of view from the child. Talk to the child about the senses and explain how sometimes certain smells or sounds can remind them of certain times or experiences. Then ask where they smell things with. Now see if its OK to blind fold them. After this put one of the smelling object in front of their nose and ask them to smell it, but not say what it is, just keep the idea in their head. Then ask them to make a picture in their head of something that the smell reminds them of. Take off the blind fold and ask them to draw what they think they smelled and then the picture they formed in their head of the reminded experience. Repeat with other smelling objects..

Goals for You: Your job is to participate in the forming more elaborate memories. The memories may be real or made up. Help them differentiate between the two and embellish them with their imagination.

Goals for Children: The non use of eye site should help them not to rely on visual experiences as the only conscious form of sense. Also connections with how smell and site can be related may be made. Explorations in understanding how memories may be formed can be accomplished. Imagination exercises. Refining skills of expressing images and experiences..

Possible Strategy:

What to say "Have you ever smelled a smell that you couldn’t where it came from but it made you think of some memory?" After smelling the object : " Now form a picture in your head of what the smell reminds you of " make sure your encourage their feelings of success when guessing what the object is " That’s wonderful!" ... " So that’s what you think the smell came from, very good!"

What to do Help them build on the memory. You may need to cut some of the object to release the smell more. If they can’t think of a real life memory, ask them to make up a story. If they don’t like the blind fold ask them to hold their eyes shut, and no peeking.

Possible Shaping:

What to say " What else do you think of when you smell that smell? What are other things that would go along with that orange? trees? fruit baskets? breakfast?"

What to do: Help your child extend the memory as large as possible. And be able to explain the drawing and how it relates back to the smell.

Possible Ending:

What to say: "I liked the memory that you created. You are very good at guessing with your nose. You have a great memory! You have a wonderful imagination."

What to do: Make sure they don’t see the smelling objects. Make them feel like the are very good at guessing and have very nice imaginations, and handsome/ pretty nose..

Material on this site created by Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D. and Yakov M. Epstein, Ph.D. in conjunction with their forthcoming book titled Play for Success. All material on this site is copyrighted and may not be reproduced or cited without written permission of Helane S. Rosenberg, Ph.D.. Dr. Rosenberg is Associate Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Epstein is Professor of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Science of Rutgers-The State University, New Brunswick, NJ. He is also Director of the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Computer Education of Rutgers University.

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