Fruit Faces Play Mat - Tea Time Teachables

Teach your kids fruits and parts of the face vocabulary with this fun, FREE Fruit Faces printable play mat! There are versions in colour and black and white included, so it’s a versatile teaching aid that you can use in a number of ways.

How I use the Fruit Faces Activity Mats in class:

First I print a colour copy of the plate mat and the fruit photos. I cut out the fruits and laminate them and the mat. I stick the plate mat onto a baking tray using blu-tac. Then I stick adhesive magnets onto the backs of each of the fruits.
In class, I have the kids sit in the circle and show them the printed fruits, asking the children to name each one and say the colour. I teach them six to ten different fruits, depending on their age and level.
Then I show the children the plate on the baking tray and stick on pieces of fruit one by one, arranging them into a face. For example, first I might put two cherries for eyes, saying “Cherries! Look – eyes!” while pointing to my own eyes. Then I might put a pear for the nose, saying “A pear! Oh! It’s a nose!” while pointing to my own nose. The children soon understand the idea and will offer suggestions for the mouth and ears.
Once the face is completed, I put all the printed fruits into a bag and have each child take one out in turn. When they pull out a fruit I ask them to name it, then they stick it onto the plate to build a face.
As a follow up, I give the children a black line copy of the plate and copies of the printable fruit pictures for them to cut and paste and make their own fruit faces. You could have your kids cut the fruits out of magazines of course, but if you’re doing this with a group you may not have enough magazines with pictures for all the kids to use. The printable fruit pictures in the Fruit Faces printable are the perfect size to make a face on a normal sheet of paper. You can choose to give kids colour copies of the fruits, or the black line pictures for them to colour.
I leave the baking tray and magnetic fruit pieces on a table for children to play with once they have finished their faces. I also have other laminated copies of the plate mat available for children to use as play-dough mats. Instead of using the magnetic fruits, they can use play dough to make fruit shapes.