1.11.2011

Strawberry.

As you know if you teach kindergarten or have read here, Bingo is about the most fun and exciting game in the world. There’s something about shouting out ‘Bingo!’ that just motivates kids to focus and learn. We don’t play too often because we don’t want to dull the shine, but today, when we played, we offered an amazing prize… a strawberry scented sticker.

Each winner got to come up and select a strawberry scented sticker. We played ‘Letter/Sound Bingo’ today. The caller gave a letter sound and the players covered the corresponding letter. In addition to the awesome sticker, the winner got to call the next game. We played enough so about half the kids got a sticker.

Every time a winner received their sticker (I always put it on their hand), they’d offer the others at their table a sniff of the prize. What tickled me was how even those who already had their own strawberry scented sticker on their hand wanted a sniff. Was there some different, deeper or richer strawberry smell on the new sticker?

Scented stickers always fascinated me as a kid. They’re not easy to find. The website EverythingSmells.com has some rather cool ones. I keep them in a tightly sealed Zip-Loc bag to keep them fresh and ready. They don’t come out often, but when they do, the room smells like a strawberry field... or hot dogs... or root beer... or pickles. Pick your poison.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Try Smencils (pencils that smell like strawberry, chocolate, etc.)! Kids love those too. This past semester, one child said "hey that's my chocolate smencil!" grabbing it, and smelling it. "Oops, sorry, that's rootbeer". Something about the added sensory experience of normally odorless objects. I LOVED playing BINGO in elementary school, and I have seen how motivating it is in my classroom. I will have to try the scented stickers :)

Linda said...

Love it! I often wonder, after working with my 4-year olds, exactly when do we lose the wonder of simple things?

Plants seeds of knowledge...for our future! said...

My kinders play many different types of Bingo games in my class and LOVE all of them! They get so excited when they have 4 in a row. I hear them say "I have 4 in a row I only need one more!" :)
I love Bingo it makes my life more pleasant because you can incorporate so many different skills with it!