Herb | Scent | Leaves | Plant | Identification | Fragrance | Taste | Aroma

Preparation

• Bring in some supermarket herbs in pots or collect some stems of herbs from the garden and keep them fresh in jam jars of water. Arrange the plants and jam jars in a row
• Cut or crush leaves from each herb and place in a separate lidded pot, making sure you make a note of which herb is in each pot
• Arrange the lidded pots in front of the herbs but muddle them up

Equipment

• A range of herbs
• Small lidded pots
• Blindfolds

1. Ask your group to look at the different herbs you have collected and placed in a row
2. Let them explore these plants, smelling and tasting their leaves
3. Ask them now to open up the lidded pots in front of the herbs, one at a time and smell them. Invite them to taste the leaves inside if they want to
4. Now ask them to match the pots to the plants they came from
5. Check to see if they have matched up the right pot and herb
6. Do the smells remind your group of anything? (e.g. minty smell = toothpaste)

• You could try using blindfolds so the pupils are only using their sense of smell or taste to match the pots to the plants