Sensory sniffers

It's that time of year for our daycare again....dum dum dum...assessment time (oh, yay, I just LOVE assessment time!!). I just can't wait to be watched like a hawk for five hours. To see the assessors coming in with their clipboards and not knowing which of our rooms will be picked is just down-right nerve-wracking. But it's a necessary part of daycare life and last year, our staff did really, really well. It was my first official assessment, so I doubt that the high score came from my end, but I did gain a lot of knowledge from the experience.

 So now Mrs. A. and I are are about  a week away from doom, er, I mean, the wonderful opportunity to demonstrate our knowledge of young children to the suits (and I'm sure they are very nice suits, in case they are reading this post), and we are tweaking our centers and making some new stuff. This is the part of the year that I find enjoyable...a new class, new chances, new personalities. A chance to start fresh.

Here is a super-simple idea we are using in our science center, and it just might help you out on your own daycare/preschool assessment.:

Sensory Sniffers

What you need are some small food containers, something sharp for poking holes, Super glue or hot glue, cotton balls, and some sort of liquid scents (I used leftover soap scents from my crafting days because they come in a wide variety of smells and last).

  

 I started with a pack of Dollar Tree food containers. You can't beat the price. And they are just the right size for little hands. My coworker, J., uses recycled water bottles (I can see empty spice bottles being perfect for this if the smell of the original contents was removed).

I used a compass to poke small holes in the lids of the containers. Then I simply dropped 3-5 drops of the liquid scent onto a cotton ball that I placed into the food container. Lastly I glued on the lid using hot glue.

Now the kids can sniff and guess what scent is inside each little box. The lids have stayed glued-on for months and not one box has been destroyed, even with almost daily manipulation. The kiddos really enjoy picking out their favorite scents and having friends sniff them, too.

I plan to print out some clip-art of some of the scents we used, such as bubble gum or bananas, to glue onto the boxes but just haven't gotten around to it yet. 

Have fun this week!