Teaching the Sense of Smell: Simple Ways to Help Young Learners Explore

When we teach the five senses, smell often gets less attention than sight or hearing. But it’s just as important and honestly, it can be one of the most fun for kids to explore. Smell is personal, memorable, and sparks lots of questions. That makes it a perfect topic for early science lessons.

If you’re working with preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or special education students, introducing the sense of smell doesn’t need to be complicated. A few simple activities can make the concept clear, and a ready-to-use worksheet can give your students a chance to show what they’ve learned.

Why Teach the Sense of Smell?

Young children learn best when they connect science to their own daily experiences. Smelling cookies in the oven, noticing flowers outside, or wrinkling their nose at garbage. These are all real-life examples of how smell works. By helping students pay attention to scents, you’re encouraging observation, comparison, and descriptive language.

How to Introduce the Sense of Smell (Inquiry-Based Approach)

Here’s a simple, hands-on way to get started.

Set the stage
Gather a few safe items with clear scents (orange slice, cinnamon, soap, flower, coffee, vanilla, etc.). Place each in a small cup or container.
Spark curiosity
Without naming the items, invite students to close their eyes and smell one container. Ask: What do you notice? What does it remind you of?
Encourage questioning
Let them compare two different smells. Ask: Are these the same or different? Which one do you like better? Why?
Guide discovery
Reveal the items after guesses. Connect their observations to the idea that our nose helps us identify and remember things.
Review and practice
Once students have explored real smells, hand out the Sense of Smell Coloring Worksheet. Ask them to color the things that have a smell. This connects the hands-on inquiry to a simple review activity.

A Low-Prep Resource for Review

To save time, I created a Sense of Smell Worksheets Coloring Activity that makes review easy. Students color the pictures of objects that have a smell, reinforcing what they just learned in your lesson. It’s straightforward, quick to prep, and comes with an answer key.

You can use it for:

Independent practice
Morning work
Early finishers
Classwork review

It’s especially helpful for Pre-K, Kindergarten, First Grade, and SPED classrooms.

👉 Grab the Sense of Smell Worksheets Coloring Activity here on TpT

Teaching the sense of smell doesn’t have to be complicated. A few real-life items, some good questions, and a quick worksheet can make the lesson meaningful for young learners. With the right mix of hands-on exploration and structured practice, your students will not only understand the concept, they’ll remember it every time they notice a smell in their daily lives.