Thursday, June 2, 2011

Smelling Bottles

There's nothing like an inspirational bargain find!  I found these spice shakers complete with a button for pressing open - can anyone say, "perfect point of interest?"  My thoughts immediately turned to figuring out a way to make a set of Smelling Bottles.  Here is what I came up with:

All that was needed:  cotton balls, four varying extracts, the eight bottles which I couldn't pass up..

Each pair of bottles received matching scents (on cotton balls) and one yellow and one blue dot sticker on top.

The bottom of each pair was marked with matching colors for control of error.
 Do-It-Yourself Smelling Bottles within minutes!  I can hardly wait to introduce these to the kids in my classroom.  We might have to use these blindfolded as some of the extracts, vanilla in particular, can be easily matched by sight.  What a fun way to emphasize various scents and allow the children to become aware of them!

13 comments:

  1. These are wonderful, Sasha! I love when Montessori materials can be inexpensive yet still attractive! I featured your post on the Living Montessori Now Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow

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  2. You can hide the cottonballs in muslin tea bags - they can be found at a health/natural foods store.

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  3. Well done, of course you had to get them. The children will love them, I'm sure!

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  4. What a great idea! I'll be watching my dollar store for some spice jars! I just found your blog through Deb's FB and love it! Thanks for writing!

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  5. Thanks for all of your comments! I introduced these to the kids this morning and they loved the lesson! I will try to look for muslin tea bags - great idea... Sasha

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  6. Hi Sasha, Thanks for the great idea. I will definitely try this with preschoolers and in my ESL classes. I'm following your blog and looking forward to exploring it a little more.

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  7. This would be a perfect lesson for learning the langauge of scents... I love that you plan to use it in an ESL class! Welcome to my blog! Sasha

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  8. Great idea!!I will collect spice bottles too.
    Patty
    www.olivesandpickles.blogspot.com

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  9. I just featured your lovely smelling bottles and photo at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2011/07/18/activity-of-the-week-diy-montessori-smelling-bottles/

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  10. what kind of spice or seasoning bottles would work I have plastic ones with screw on lids would that work

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  11. I love it! Can't wait to try it. Thanks so much

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  12. This is a great idea! I was looking for DIY montessori materials for my toddler. Thank you for sharing this!

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