Edgerley Room

Some of the Edgerley children discovered that many of the recyclables that had been brought into the room still in fact had a residual smell. Often they would bring a container or a bottle and share the smell with the teacher. So the Edgerley teachers created a table where the children could ‘Guess the smell.’

Fletcher and Athan had a wonderful time experiencing the table and all the 14 smells in the bottles. They also recorded their guesses on a table by writing letters, numbers and drawing pictures that helped them remember the smells.

Fletcher excitedly expressed to Athan, “It’s like what you put on sushi (soy sauce). But Number 3, I don’t know what this flavour is.”

“Smell this – see if you remember that one,” Athan held up a

bottle to Fletcher’s nostrils.

“This one, number 4, I had it but I can’t remember where. I had it on something before but I can’t remember,” Athan referred to the cinnamon.

Fletcher confidently said, “Ah ha – I know what this is – it is a type of medicine – it’s like strawberry or raspberry.” In fact he was smelling the vanilla extract. “This is what you put on top of chicken to cook – it’s a really nice flavour. When you make tacos you put it on chicken. It’s really nice,” Fletcher was smelling the cumin.

Fletcher said, “I know what this is, I have it in a cup at home – it’s hot chocolate. Smell it Athan.” The boys continued to share the bottles.

“Yeah, it smells like hot chocolate,” Athan agreed as he smelt the cocoa. “Number 7, it’s nice but it smells like chewy gums.”

“It’s like cordial – number 8,” Fletcher added.

Athan held up the mint sauce. “This one’s nice but Fletcher doesn’t like it. Number 10 – that’s mint.”

Fletcher kept going back to the soy sauce all throughout the investigations. He obviously loved it. “This is a kind of special oil – for sushi. You put it on it, it’s really nice. I love it soooo much.”

There was then some confusion over number 3, the vanilla. “It’s medicine,” Fletcher was convinced.

“No, I have it on my food, but I can’t remember,” Athan sat there wondering for a few moments. “It goes 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 8, 7, - we need to move it so it’s right.

Where’s number 10? Oh, here’s number 10. Move that one forward, move that forward – that goes after that one,” Athan was concerned that the bottles were getting out of order. “Help me Fletcher.” The boys took a moment to set up all the bottles in the right order again, checking constantly with each other.

“What’s in there?” Athan help up number 14 to Fletcher. It was a spray of Mrs Baird’s perfume. “How can you smell something when there’s nothing in there?”

Fletcher was deep in thought, “That smells like… something I don’t know. Have you had a smell of this Mrs Baird?” Fletcher was back to his delicious smelling soy sauce. “It’s so delicious.”

“I’m not sure about the number 11. It’s disgusting. We’ve got to look in the book to get answers and ideas,” Fletcher started opening the books on display and sharing the contents with Athan.

Athan smelt the fish sauce and curled up his nose, “It’s so different.”

Fletcher agreed, “Oh, I don’t like that one. Oh, this one, it’s a nice smell. It’s like a spray for your armpits. Armpits!!” Fletcher started giggling.

“That’s what my daddy uses sometimes. Not all the time,” Athan admitted. Athan was looking at the order of the bottles again. “Problem, does it go: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8?”

Fletcher laughed again, “Some people got it wrong!”

The boys were giggling at the incorrect number order as they corrected it.