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Emoji Baby Pictionary — baby shower game

✍️ Best Baby Shower Games Editorial Team · Updated May 2026

Emoji Baby Pictionary

Baby songs, movies, books, and nursery rhymes written entirely in emoji. Guests decode each line and write what they think it spells out. Most correct wins — and the wrong answers are usually funnier than the right ones.

  • 🤝 Low-pressure
  • ⚡ Quick
  • 📹 Works on Zoom
  • 🧒 Kid-friendly
⏱ Prep
15 min
👥 Best for
Any size
🍷 Coed
Yes
📹 Virtual
Works on Zoom

What you'll need

  • Printed emoji puzzle sheets (one per guest, 15–20 emoji rows with a blank line beside each)
  • A separate master answer key sheet only the host sees
  • A pen for every guest
  • Optional: a TV or laptop for screen-share if you're running it virtually
  • A small prize for the winner ($20 gift card, candle, or wine bottle)

Before the shower (setup)

  1. About a week before the shower, build your puzzle sheet. Open a notes app on your phone (Notes on iPhone, Google Keep on Android) so the emoji render correctly, then type 15–20 rows. Each row is a string of emoji that represents a baby-themed song, movie, book, item, or nursery rhyme. Easy starters: 👶+🍼+📖 = "baby book," 🐑+🐑+🌑 = "Baa Baa Black Sheep," 🌟+🌟+✨+👀 = "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," 👶+👀+👶 = "Peekaboo," 🐸+👑 = "The Frog Prince." Mix difficulty — five easy, five medium, five hard.
  2. Paste the emoji into a Google Doc or Word doc and add a blank line next to each row for the guest's answer. Save a separate copy of the doc with the answers filled in — that's your master key, only you see it. Print one puzzle sheet per guest in color if your printer can do it — some emoji rely on color to make sense (red heart vs. broken heart). Black-and-white prints work, just expect a couple of misses.
  3. Have a small prize ready in a visible bag — a $20 Target or Trader Joe's gift card, a candle, or a bottle of wine all work. Stack the sheets and pens on a side table near the seating area, ready to hand out when the party reaches its seated portion (right after food or before gifts is the sweet spot).
Front-door setup for Emoji Baby Pictionary — basket of clothespins and a chalkboard rule sign by the entryway
Set up at the front door so the game starts the second guests walk in.

How to play

Hand out the sheets and pens during the seated portion of the party. Read the rules out loud: "Decode each emoji row and write what you think it spells. You have ten minutes. No phones, no shouting answers, no helping your neighbor." Tell guests to guess on every row even if they're clueless — blanks always lose, and the wrong answers are where the laughs come from.

After ten minutes, collect every sheet. Read each row's emoji aloud (or have the room read it together) and then announce the real answer from your master key. The reveals are the fun part — pause after each "the answer is…" because someone always groans, someone always claps. Guests circle every correct guess on their own sheet as you go.

Once all rows are revealed, ask everyone to count their circles. Highest score wins. If two people tie, the tiebreaker is the last and hardest puzzle on the sheet — closer reading takes it. Hand the prize over right there. Save the file for the next baby shower in your friend group — the puzzle work is the only time-consuming part, and reusing it later saves an hour.

A hand lifting a clothespin off another guest's shirt — the steal moment in Emoji Baby Pictionary
The moment of the steal — someone slipped, someone caught it, pin changes hands.

Variations to try

  • Screen-share version. Skip printing entirely. Build the puzzles on a single Google Slides deck or Keynote and project them on a TV. Guests write answers on a small notepad. Cheaper, paper-free, and easier for guests with poor eyesight to read.
  • Time-pressure rounds. Reveal one emoji puzzle at a time on a TV and give the room 30 seconds per row. First to shout the correct answer scores a point. Loud, fast, completely different energy from the silent-write version — best for groups that are already warmed up.
  • Team mode. Split the room into two teams. Reveal one puzzle on a TV. Teams race to write the answer on a small whiteboard. First correct wins the round. Best for groups over twenty where silent-write rounds drag.
  • Submit-your-own. Hand each guest a blank sheet and ten minutes to build their own emoji puzzles using the mom-to-be's favorite movies, books, or songs. The mom-to-be solves the whole set at the end. Totally different game — works best for close-friend showers where everyone knows her tastes.
  • Zoom version. Send the puzzle PDF to all guests an hour before the call. They fill it in privately, then DM their answers to the host before the reveal segment. The host reveals each one live on screen-share, guests check their own sheets. Same scoring, no print costs.

Pro tips from hosts who've actually run this

  • Mix difficulty across the sheet. Five obvious ones (everyone gets them) keep the room engaged. Five hard ones (only one or two guests get them) create the actual winners.
  • Use songs and movies the older guests will also know — "Rock-a-bye Baby" and "Twinkle Twinkle" beat newer shows like "Bluey" if grandma is in the room.
  • Build the puzzles in your phone's notes app first, then copy-paste into Word or Google Docs. Some apps render emoji weird when you go straight to Docs.
  • Print in color when you can. Black-and-white emoji lose meaning fast — a yellow heart and a red heart look the same on a black-and-white sheet.
  • Keep the master answer key on your phone the whole party. Guests will ask "what was number twelve" until the second they leave.
  • Save the puzzle file in your Google Drive after the shower. Every baby shower for the next five years in your friend group can reuse it.
  • Number the rows clearly on the left side (1, 2, 3…). It's easier to score and easier to discuss "how did you get number 14?" afterward.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Building all 20 puzzles on hard mode. Half the room shuts down by row five if every puzzle is a stretch — you need the easy ones to keep guests in.
  • Printing in black and white when puzzles include color-dependent emoji. Hearts, fruits, and flags all lose meaning without color.
  • Forgetting the master answer key. Without one, you'll guess your own puzzles wrong during the reveal and the scoring breaks down.
  • Letting guests shout answers during the silent write round. One person yells "Twinkle Twinkle!" and you've handed everyone an easy point.
  • Using only modern references. Bluey, CoComelon, and Ms. Rachel are great if the room skews under-35 — older relatives will get blanks on those and feel left out.

Best prize for this game

A $20 Target or Trader Joe's gift card works for any crowd. Other strong picks: a small Bath & Body Works gift set, a candle from Yankee Candle, a bottle of wine for over-21 crowds, or a basket of fancy popcorn and snacks for the at-home movie-night vibe. Wrap it visibly so guests see what they're competing for as they walk in.

→ More baby shower prize ideas, by budget

Our verdict

Easy to print, easy to play, and the smartphone generation in the room finally gets to flex on the grandparents — but the grandmas surprise everyone on the nursery-rhyme puzzles. Save the file and you can reuse it for every baby shower in your friend group.

Emoji Baby Pictionary — FAQ

How many emoji puzzles should be on the sheet?

15–20 is the sweet spot. Fewer than 15 feels short and the round ends in five minutes. More than 20 and guests stop trying around row 16. Stick with 15 if your group skews older, 20 if it skews younger.

Where do I get the emoji for the puzzles?

Type them directly using your device's emoji keyboard. On Mac: Control-Command-Space. On Windows: Windows key + period. On phones: tap the emoji icon next to the spacebar. Then copy and paste into your document.

Can I print this in black and white?

You can, but you'll lose puzzles that rely on color. Red hearts, yellow stars, green frogs all look the same in grayscale. Color printing at FedEx or Staples is usually under a dollar for the whole stack.

Is this fair for older relatives who don't text in emoji?

Mostly yes — most emoji are self-explanatory (a heart is a heart, a star is a star). Pair anyone who looks lost with a younger guest as a teammate, or run the team-mode variation so nobody feels stuck alone.

What kinds of puzzles work best for a baby shower crowd?

Nursery rhymes, classic baby movies, baby songs, common baby items, lullaby titles. Songs everyone can sing — "Twinkle Twinkle," "Old MacDonald," "The ABC Song," "Itsy Bitsy Spider" — are the strongest puzzles because the whole room can guess them.

Can I run this on Zoom?

Yes — see the Zoom variation. Email the PDF to guests an hour before the call, they DM their answers back, then the host reveals each row live on screen-share. Same scoring as the in-person version.

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About the author

Best Baby Shower Games Editorial Team — Party planners, parents & writers. We’re a small team of party planners and parents who’ve hosted — and been guests at — dozens of baby showers. Every game here is sorted by what actually lands in a real room, not by what just looks cute on a Pinterest board.