Go on a scent trail

How long will it take?

40 to 50 minutes. This project can be done in the spring or summer.

What you will need

• a garden with some scented plants in it
• two sheets of paper
• some friends and an adult

Step-by-step guide

1 Ask the children to collect some scented plants from the garden. Think of leaves as well as flowers.

2 Get them to decide how they are going to sort the scents - beautiful/ugly, nice/stinky, strong/weak, flowery/spicy, sweet/savoury. Then write the two words on the paper.

3 Let the children go through the collection of scented plant material, sorting them on to the sheets of paper. Do they agree with each other? Why might that be? Ask everyone to pick their favourite.

4 They could also make it a game by wearing a blindfold while they smell them all, then see if they can find the plants the scents came from.

Tips and advice

• You can adapt this game if your children know their scents quite well. They could play it as a recognition challenge by asking you to collect the samples without them seeing; then tell them to wear a blindfold and see if they can identify the smells.
• Think of tree leaves as well as the more obvious herbs. Try the plants in your own garden to see if they have a smell - a surprising number have!
• Include some more unusual scents as well - perhaps some soil and compost if the children are playing with a blindfold. They can play this in the winter months with herbs and spices. Instead of trying to recognise them, ask the children to sort them by the parts of a plant they come from - leaf, seed, flower, stalk or root.