Montessori education encourages using hands-on materials to develop the five senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. The Montessori sensorial materials are beautiful and made to last a long time. However, many of the materials are expensive. That is why replicating these materials with items found around the home can be a great alternative. These simple DIY Montessori smelling bottles are made from recycled plastic spice/herb jars. I washed the containers thoroughly and found four of each color lid (red and black) to create matching pairs. Read on to find out how we used these smelling bottles in our homeschool.

Recycled Herb Jars

This photo is an example of the spice/herb jars that I had in my cupboard. I removed the labels and washed the jars well to remove all the previous smells.

DIY Montessori Smelling Bottles with Essential Oils

Next I placed two cotton balls and put 1 drop of essential oil into each container. The smells that I used were distinctly different - lemon, peppermint, oregano, and lavender. PLEASE NOTE that essential oils should be used with caution. Please only use them if you have done your research and feel that they are safe for your child. Instead of essential oils, you can use lemon juice and pressed herbs from the garden (or grocery store). Pressing fresh herbs will heighten the aroma of each plant.

I made four pairs of matching smelling bottles. One with red lids and one with black lids. Please note: it really doesn't matter what color lids that you use. If you have all the same color lids than you can put two different colored sticker dots to the top of the lid as a control.

Matching Game with Herb Printable

Little Bee smelled each container and matched it to this free printable that I created - Herb Printable for Smelling Bottles. The printable has bright pictures that Little Bee was able to recognize from herbs in our garden (except for the lemon.) Little Bee loves lemons and recognized that smell right away without the picture for explanation. The peppermint smell was a bit strong for him and he made the face pictured below. He told me the lavender plant smelled like a flower and the oregano smelled like food. It's wonderful to ask your child what each smell makes them think about.

Free Printable

Herb Printable for Smelling Bottles

Matching Montessori Smelling Bottles

Next I introduced matching pairs for each smell. Here is a presentation for how to present the smelling bottle pairs to a child - Montessori Album: Smelling Jars. Little Bee enjoyed matching the smells, especially the lemon spell because that is his favorite. In the photo below, you can see he found the two lemon jar pairs and is holding them both up to his nose for a double sniff!

The Montessori blog, "Carrots Are Orange" also has a wonderful tutorial and lesson on the smelling bottles.

http://carrotsareorange.com/montessori-sensorial-smelling-bottles/

Please also visit our other posts on the senses ~

DIY Montessori Inspired Scent Jars

This very popular post was written when Little Bee was a young toddler. It uses real glass bottles and herbs from the garden.

Montessori Inspired Five Senses Activities

July: Sensorial

The Best Ways for Exploring Senses in Nature| Natural Beach Living

Montessori Sensorial Color Activities for Kids {Printables} | The Natural Homeschool

DIY Montessori Sensorial Materials {Hundreds of Resources} | Living Montessori Now

Thick and Thin Sensory Bottles for Toddlers | The Kavanaugh Report

Montessori Sensorial Activities using Knobless Cylinders | The Pinay Homeschooler

Montessori-inspired Camping Themed Sensorial Activities | Every Star is Different

Pink Tower Power | Grace and Green Pastures

DIY Texture Pattern Sticks | Christian Montessori Network

DIY Montessori Smelling Bottles and Free Printable | Mama’s Happy Hive