The next time you clean out the fridge, getting down to the bottom of all those old condiment jars, you have the perfect opportunity for… a smell test! So many condiments have strong, sharp scents that are just right for olfactory sensory play.

To start, I dipped a cotton ball into each item we would be testing and placed them in the compartments of an ice cube tray. We had the following:

White vinegar

Salad dressing

Mustard

Ketchup

Soy sauce

Lemon juice

Sweet relish

Now it was time to smell and discuss! Veronika recoiled back from the lemon juice immediately, no surprise there!

When concentrated on a cotton ball, the rich tomato notes of the ketchup and the sugary sweetness of the relish really came through.

The opportunity is rife here for great vocab worlds. Beyond just asking whether she liked a scent or not, I encouraged Veronika to explain what she smelled.

Vinegar was sharp, soy sauce was pungent and earthy, mustard smelled spicy, and more!