Today I made a quick and easy set of sensory smell jars for my two boys (ages 1 and 3). I am always trying to find fun sensory things for them to do, especially for my 3 year old who has autism. He is hyposensitive (opposite of hypersensitive) which means he requires more stimulation to feel the same effects as a typical person. I have never purposefully introduced my kids to different scents like this before. I thought this would be a fun little adventure for them.

I purchased these 1 oz. plastic spice jars on Amazon, but if you have any empty spice jars you can wash out and repurpose, all the better! I designed labels for the jars and printed them out on regular paper, then cut them out and used spray mount to stick them onto the jars. It probably would have been easiest to print them on a blank full sheet label, but I didn’t have that on hand and improvised. You can download a PDF of my labels here.

Next I put cotton balls in each jar, and squeezed 2-3 drops of essential oil/fragrance oils in with the corresponding label. You can use any scent you like. I used Rose, Lavender, Lemon, Chocolate, Coconut, Vanilla, Peppermint, Cinnamon, and Apple.

I plan on making it into a matching game, matching the jar picture to the lid picture. For an advanced game, you can leave the jars blank and write the name of the scent on the bottom of the jar so they have to guess what the scent is!

Parental supervision advised. I think you can over-do it on the smelling, so just monitor to make sure your kids aren’t huffing or trying to eat the cotton balls because they smell yummy!