Emotion Face Plates

Emotion Face Plates are a fun way to get kids thinking about what emotions look like. Emotion Face Plates are an easy project that you can do with objects lying around your house, and once you get kids started, it is something they can continue to work on by themselves.

Supply Listing for Emotion Face Plates

This is a fairly simple task. All you need is:

• Paper plates (that you can write on).
• Markers, pens or crayons.
• Scissors (if you want to make the half-plate emotion faces).

How to Use Emotion Face Plates

• Pick emotions (the picture above only includes examples of less pleasant emotions, but make sure you include some more pleasant emotions in your list as well).
• Draw a face representing the emotion on the back of paper plate. It sometimes help to label the plates with the name of the emotion if the child will be referring back to them later. You can write the name on the other side of the plate if others will be guessing what emotion is represented.
• If you’re doing half-plate emotions, drawn the eyes on the upper half of the plate and the mouth on the lower half. Then cut the plate in half. As above, it might help to label both half of the plates with the name of the emotion.

Ideas for Using Emotion Face Plates

Here a few starter ideas for using the emotion face plates. Have fun with the child while engaging them in conversations about their emotions and emotions in general.

• Create a collection of emotion face plates that the child can refer back to when they are having trouble putting a name to their emotions.
• Attach yard to each plate and put a tack in the wall. Encourage the child to hang the plate(s) with the emotion(s) they are currently feeling.
• Act out various scenarios from the Hope 4 Hurting Kids Scenario Cards using the plates as each emotion is represented.

Additional Ideas for Using the Half-Plate Emotion Faces

The half-plate emotion faces offer some additional fun possibilities.

• Act out various scenarios from the Hope 4 Hurting Kids Scenario Cards using half the plate as each emotion is represented. Have the child act out the other half of the emotion (eyes or mouth) during the activity.
• Another fun game you can play is called “Opposite Half.” Have the child hold half of the plate (top or bottom) in front of their face. They then must use the other half of their face to represent the opposite emotion. For instance, if they hold the bottom half of happy in front of the bottom half of their plate, they must act out sad with their eyes.

For more awesome resources for learning about and dealing with emotions, please visit our Hope 4 Hurting Kids Emotions Help Center.