Program Design Process - Emoji game

Speaking of challenges, a couple of students and I are attempting to do the sad/meh/happy emoji challenge where the emoji changes as it’s going down the screen. Would you recommend creating a sprite type situation where the costume changes at certain y values? Or completely separate icons whose hidden parameter is changed from true to false throughout the game? Or, something else much more slick that I haven’t thought of yet? Thank you,
Koreen