Emoji Party Games

Nearly every game uses a face, from Pin the Smile to a sleepy-face wind-down: press Pick 3 new games.

Emoji Party Games

  1. Blank Face ChallengeA straight-face game: the face to hold is the one with a flat line for a mouth. 1. One child sits on a chair and puts on the blank face. 2. The others have twenty seconds to make them smile with faces only. No touching, no sounds and no words. 3. Everyone counts aloud together. A blank face held to twenty scores a point. 4. Change the chair after every turn until everyone has sat on it. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  2. Whisper, Walk, Make the FaceA relay with a face at the end of every trip. 1. Teams line up at one end of the room and the host kneels at the other. 2. The first players walk fast to the host, who whispers the same emoji to both. 3. Each goes back to the team and makes the face with no words. The team calls out its name. 4. A right call sends the next player. The first team through six faces wins. Ages: 6 to 12. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  3. Build the Feeling, One Piece a TripA relay in which the team builds a face the host has named. 1. Tape a big yellow circle to the wall for each team. Put a tray of paper eyes, eyebrows and mouths of different shapes at the start line. 2. The host whispers a feeling to each team: surprised, sleepy, furious, delighted. 3. One player at a time carries one piece to the wall and tapes it on, or moves a piece that is already there. 4. When both faces are finished, the other team guesses the feeling. A right guess means the builders did their job. Ages: 6 to 12. Players: 6 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: two yellow poster circles, paper face pieces and tape.

Next step Make emoji bingo cards

How it works

These emoji party games are for a child's emoji-themed birthday, ages 4 to 12. Nearly every one is built on a face: made, thrown, drawn, guessed or held still. A third need no props at all.

Read the full guide

Start with faces, end with sleepy ones

The All games menu runs in party order. Make the face needs almost no props, so it fills the minutes while guests arrive. Yellow paper plates and balloons is the loud middle, and Calm-down games brings the room back before cake or pick-up.

What to buy

Yellow paper plates and cups, paper, a thick marker, sticky labels and masking tape cover most games. A few also ask for balloons, yellow poster board or a die, and for household things such as a laundry basket and a tray. More filters, the last entry of that menu, sorts by head count, minutes, energy and Works outdoors.

Tips
  • Draw the plate faces with the children as the first activity: the tossing and rolling games use them.

Questions and answers

What games can you play at an emoji party?

Games where a face is the whole point. Copycat Partner Faces, Slow as a Mirror and The Feelings Dial need nothing, Flip the Frowns uses twenty paper plates, and Pin the Smile on the Emoji is the classic with a yellow circle on the wall.

How do you play guess the emoji at a party?

Hold up cards and let teams write the answer. Two Pictures Make a Word: The Host's Twenty lists twenty pairs to draw, such as sun and flower. Emoji Charades: Act the Little Picture swaps the cards for acting.

What is a calm emoji game for the end of the party?

Sleeping Lions With the Snoozing Face and The Slowest Smile Melt both end with the whole room still and quiet. Best Moment, Shown Not Told is a closing circle with the birthday child last.

Do the balloon games suit small children?

Two games use balloons, and each one says so in its steps: an adult blows them up, stays with children under eight and throws away the pieces of a popped balloon at once.

More tools

Browse Acting and Drawing

All 33 games

Make the face 8

  • Add a Face to the Chain A memory chain: each player repeats every face so far and adds one. 1. Sit in a circle. The first child makes one face: a wink. 2. The next child makes the wink and adds a face: a wink, then a gasp. 3. Go on around the circle, repeating the whole chain in order and adding one face each time. 4. When the chain breaks, the circle shows that child the missing face, and a new chain starts there. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 6 min. Props: none.
  • Blank Face Challenge A straight-face game: the face to hold is the one with a flat line for a mouth. 1. One child sits on a chair and puts on the blank face. 2. The others have twenty seconds to make them smile with faces only. No touching, no sounds and no words. 3. Everyone counts aloud together. A blank face held to twenty scores a point. 4. Change the chair after every turn until everyone has sat on it. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Copycat Partner Faces, Slow as a Mirror A copying game in pairs: the moves to mirror are emoji faces. 1. Pairs stand face to face. One is the leader and the other is the mirror. 2. The leader slowly makes an emoji face: a wink, a huge grin, wide surprised eyes. The mirror copies it at the same moment. 3. The host calls "Switch!" every thirty seconds. 4. For the last round the host names the face, and both partners make it at once, as alike as they can. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
Show all 33 games (30 more)

Make the face, continued

  • The Feelings Dial A conductor game: one arm sets every face in the room. 1. One child is the dial and holds an arm straight out to the side. 2. An arm down by the knee means the sleepiest face there is. An arm straight up means the most excited. 3. As the arm moves, every face follows it, slowly or fast. 4. The dial hands over to a new child after one trip up and down. Every turn ends at sleepy. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: none.
  • Freeze in a Feeling Built on freeze dance: when the music stops, the host names the face to freeze in. 1. Play music and let everyone dance. 2. Stop the music and call an emoji: laughing with tears, shocked, sleepy, heart eyes. 3. Everyone freezes with that face and holds it for a count of five. 4. Nobody is out. The host picks the best frozen face, and that child calls the next emoji. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: music.
  • One Face Is Different An odd-one-out game with a detective. 1. The detective waits outside the door. 2. The host shows the group a face to make and quietly gives one child a different one: everyone grins, and one child only smiles. 3. The detective comes back and has three guesses to find the odd face. 4. The odd face is the next detective. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 5 to 15. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Send the Face Down the Line Built on the telephone game: a face is passed along in place of a whisper. 1. Children stand in a line, all facing the back wall. 2. The host shows the first child a drawn emoji. That child taps the next on the shoulder, makes the face once and turns back. 3. The face travels down the line, one tap at a time. 4. The last child makes the face for everyone, and the host holds the drawing up beside it. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 5 to 15. Time: 6 min. Props: one drawn emoji card.
  • Whisper, Walk, Make the Face A relay with a face at the end of every trip. 1. Teams line up at one end of the room and the host kneels at the other. 2. The first players walk fast to the host, who whispers the same emoji to both. 3. Each goes back to the team and makes the face with no words. The team calls out its name. 4. A right call sends the next player. The first team through six faces wins. Ages: 6 to 12. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: none.

Yellow paper plates and balloons 7

  • Fan the Smiley Balloon Into the Box Built on a fanning race: the fan is a paper plate. 1. Lay a big box on its side at the end of the room. 2. Each racer has a paper plate and a balloon with a face on it, and may not touch the balloon with anything. 3. Fan the balloon along the floor and into the box. 4. Race two at a time, and let everyone race twice. Latex balloons: ask about allergies first. An adult blows them up, stays with children under eight and throws away the pieces of a popped balloon at once. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: a paper plate and a balloon for each racer, a marker and a big box.
  • Flip the Frowns Built on a two-team flipping game: each plate has a smile on one side and a frown on the other. 1. Draw a smile on one side of twenty paper plates and a frown on the other. Scatter them on the floor, half each way up. 2. One team turns plates smile up. The other team turns them frown up. 3. Hands only, one plate at a time, and no standing on a plate. 4. After one minute, freeze and count. Swap jobs and play again. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 6 min. Props: twenty paper plates and a marker.
  • Flying Smiley Plates Into the Basket Built on a target toss: the thing thrown is a paper-plate face. 1. Each child draws a face on a yellow paper plate and writes their name on the back. 2. Stand a laundry basket three steps from a line. 3. Throw the plate flat, like a flying disc. In the basket scores two points, and touching the basket scores one. 4. After three throws each, move the line back a step. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 15. Time: 10 min. Props: yellow paper plates, markers and a laundry basket.
  • Happy Stays Up, Grumpy Stays Down Built on keep-it-up: two balloons with two different rules. 1. Draw a happy face on one yellow balloon and a grumpy face on another. 2. The group taps the happy balloon to keep it in the air. 3. At the same time, the grumpy balloon may only be nudged along the floor with feet and may never be lifted. 4. Count the taps before happy lands or grumpy leaves the floor. Try to beat the group's best. Latex balloons: ask about allergies first. An adult blows them up, stays with children under eight and throws away the pieces of a popped balloon at once. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: two yellow balloons and a marker.
  • Roll the Smiley on Its Rim Built on a rolling race: the wheel is a paper plate. 1. Each child draws a face on a stiff paper plate. 2. From a line, set the plate on its edge and send it rolling with one push. 3. Mark where each plate falls over with a strip of tape. 4. The longest roll of three tries wins. A plate that lands face up earns a cheer. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: stiff paper plates, markers and masking tape.
  • Row by Row Emoji Cup Pyramid Built on a cup-stacking race: every row has to be one face. 1. Draw faces on ten yellow paper cups: four happy, three surprised, two sleepy and one winking. 2. Mix the cups up on the table. 3. On go, a pair builds a pyramid with the happy cups at the bottom, then surprised, then sleepy, with the wink on top. 4. Time each pair, and add five seconds for a cup in the wrong row. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: ten yellow paper cups, a marker and a watch.
  • Tip the Smiley From Plate to Plate A passing relay with no hands on the thing passed. 1. Teams stand in lines, and every player holds one paper plate flat. A ball of crumpled yellow paper with a face drawn on it is the smiley. 2. The first player tips the smiley onto the next player's plate, and so on down the line. 3. If it falls, the player who dropped it puts it back on their own plate and carries on. 4. At the end of the line it comes back the same way. The first team to get its smiley home sits down. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 8 min. Props: a paper plate for each player and a ball of yellow paper for each team.

Draw and build a face 6

  • Build the Feeling, One Piece a Trip A relay in which the team builds a face the host has named. 1. Tape a big yellow circle to the wall for each team. Put a tray of paper eyes, eyebrows and mouths of different shapes at the start line. 2. The host whispers a feeling to each team: surprised, sleepy, furious, delighted. 3. One player at a time carries one piece to the wall and tapes it on, or moves a piece that is already there. 4. When both faces are finished, the other team guesses the feeling. A right guess means the builders did their job. Ages: 6 to 12. Players: 6 to 16. Time: 10 min. Props: two yellow poster circles, paper face pieces and tape.
  • Fill the Circle With Yellow A gathering hunt: everything found goes into one giant face. 1. Mark a circle on the floor with masking tape, as wide as a child lying down. 2. The children have three minutes to fetch yellow things from the rooms the host names and lay them inside: a banana, a duster, a sock, a toy brick. 3. Then they fetch a few dark things to make two eyes and a mouth. 4. An adult takes a photo from a chair, and everything goes back where it lives. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 12 min. Props: masking tape and the yellow things in the house.
  • Invent a New Emoji A drawing and guessing game: the feeling has no emoji yet. 1. The host hands each child a slip with a moment on it: the ice cream falls off the cone, the bus leaves without you, a coin turns up in a pocket. 2. Each child draws a new emoji for that moment on a yellow plate. 3. Hold the plates up one at a time while the others guess the moment. 4. The table votes by pointing for the emoji it would use most. Ages: 7 to 12. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 12 min. Props: yellow paper plates, markers and moment slips.
  • Pin the Smile on the Emoji Built on pin the tail on the donkey: the tail is a smile and the donkey is a big yellow circle. 1. Tape a yellow poster circle with two eyes to the wall at the children's height. 2. Give each child a paper smile with their name on it and a loop of tape on the back. 3. One at a time, a child closes their eyes or wears a sleep mask, is turned around once and walks to the wall with an adult beside them. 4. The smile closest to the right place wins, and the oddest face gets a cheer too. Ages: 4 to 10. Players: 3 to 15. Time: 10 min. Props: yellow poster board, paper smiles, tape and a sleep mask.
  • Roll a Face Built on beetle, the roll-and-draw game: the roll decides which part of the face you may draw. 1. Everyone draws a yellow circle. Pass one die around the table. 2. A 1 lets you draw one eye, a 2 one eyebrow, a 3 the mouth, a 4 the tongue or the tears and a 5 the cheeks. A 6 lets you draw any part. 3. A roll for a part you already have draws nothing. 4. The first finished face shouts "Emoji!" Everyone else then finishes theirs without the die. Ages: 5 to 10. Players: 2 to 10. Time: 10 min. Props: paper, yellow crayons or markers and one die.
  • Sticker Face, Eyes Closed A seated building game: every child makes a whole face without looking. 1. Each child has a yellow paper plate and five stickers cut from sticky labels: two eyes, two eyebrows and a mouth. 2. Eyes closed. The host calls each piece in turn, and the children stick it where they think it goes. 3. Open your eyes and give your emoji a name. 4. Line the plates up along the wall as a gallery. The host gives every plate a prize title. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 15. Time: 8 min. Props: yellow paper plates and sticky labels cut into eyes, eyebrows and mouths.

Guess the emoji 6

  • Emoji Charades: Act the Little Picture Built on charades: every card is an emoji that is not a face. 1. Write or draw twenty emoji things on cards: a rocket, a slice of pizza, a ghost, a rainbow, a trophy, a snail. 2. An actor draws a card and acts it with no words and no sounds. 3. The first right guess keeps the card. 4. Everyone acts once. The biggest pile of cards wins. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 15. Time: 12 min. Props: cards and a marker.
  • Emoji on Your Back A touch-and-guess game in pairs: the message is a simple face. 1. Children sit in pairs, one behind the other. 2. The one behind draws a simple emoji on their partner's back with one finger: a smile, a frown, a wink, a heart. 3. The partner draws what they felt on paper. 4. Compare the two, then swap places. Next, pass a face down a line of four. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 16. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • Happier Means Closer: The Hidden Emoji Card Built on the hot-and-cold hunt: the clues are the faces of everyone watching. 1. One seeker waits outside while the host hides a single emoji card in plain sight. 2. The seeker comes back and walks around the room. Nobody speaks or points. 3. As the seeker gets closer, every face grows happier. As the seeker moves away, the faces grow sadder. 4. When the card is found, the seeker picks who goes out next. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 15. Time: 8 min. Props: one emoji card.
  • Say It in Three Emojis A describing game: three small drawings stand for one thing. 1. Each pair draws a slip from the host: the beach, bedtime, a birthday party, a rainy day, the zoo. 2. The pair has two minutes to draw exactly three emojis that describe it, with no letters or numbers. 3. Pairs hold up their three drawings in turn, and the room guesses. 4. Each right guess scores a point for the guessers and a point for the artists. Ages: 7 to 12. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 12 min. Props: paper, markers and slips.
  • Two Pictures Make a Word: The Host's Twenty Built on picture puzzles: two small drawings add up to one word. 1. Before the party, draw each pair on a card: sun and flower, rain and bow, cup and cake, star and fish, foot and ball, snow and man, butter and fly, pan and cake, ear and ring, key and board, book and worm, jelly and fish, hand and bag, tooth and brush, gold and fish, lady and bug, door and bell, moon and light, eye and ball, sea and shell. 2. Hold up one card at a time. 3. Teams whisper, then write down the word. 4. A point for each word. To break a tie, each team draws a pair of its own for the other. Ages: 7 to 12. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 12 min. Props: twenty picture cards, paper and pencils.
  • Which Emoji Left the Tray? Built on Kim's game, the memory tray: the objects are ten emoji cards. 1. Lay ten different emoji cards on a tray and let everyone study them for thirty seconds. 2. Cover the tray with a cloth and slide one card out. 3. Lift the cloth. The first child to name the missing emoji scores a point. 4. Later, take two cards at once, or swap one for a new card and ask what changed. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 8 min. Props: ten emoji cards, a tray and a cloth.

Calm-down games 6

  • Best Moment, Shown Not Told A closing circle: each child's best moment becomes a face. 1. Sit in a circle at the end of the party. 2. Each child in turn makes the face they wore at their best moment of the day. 3. The circle guesses which game or which moment it was. 4. The birthday child goes last. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 15. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • I Spy an Emoji Built on I spy: the clue is what one emoji on the decorations is doing. 1. Children sit where they can see the plates, cups, balloons and banners. 2. The spy picks one emoji in sight, says "I spy an emoji that is..." and gives one clue: winking, upside down, wearing glasses. 3. The others point and guess. 4. The first right guess spies next. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 2 to 12. Time: 6 min. Props: the party's emoji decorations.
  • Sleeping Lions With the Snoozing Face Built on sleeping lions: the lions wear the sleeping face. 1. Everyone lies down with eyes closed and the sleepiest face they have. 2. One or two wakers walk around and try to make a sleeper move or smile, without touching anyone. 3. A sleeper who moves gets up quietly and joins the wakers. 4. The last one lying still is the sleepiest emoji. Ages: 4 to 10. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • The Slowest Smile Melt A slow-motion contest: the last to finish wins. 1. Everyone starts with the biggest grin they can make. 2. On go, let the grin melt into a sleepy face as slowly as you can, without ever stopping. 3. The host watches for anyone who freezes or speeds up. 4. The last face to reach sleepy wins, and by then the room is quiet. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 4 min. Props: none.
  • Storytime Pauses for a Face A listening game: the host tells a story and the faces follow it. 1. Children sit facing the host. 2. The host makes up a short story about one day: waking up late, a surprise in the lunch box, a lost shoe, a puppy at the door. 3. At every feeling the host pauses, and everyone shows that face without a sound. 4. The story ends with everyone asleep. Hold the last face for a count of ten. Ages: 4 to 10. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 6 min. Props: none.
  • Throw Me the Smile A quiet circle game: there is only one smile in the room. 1. Sit in a circle with straight faces. One child is given the smile and grins as widely as they can. 2. That child wipes the smile off with one hand and throws it to someone across the circle. 3. The catcher puts it on and grins. Everyone else has to keep a straight face. 4. Anyone who smiles without holding the smile moves next to the host and helps to judge. Ages: 5 to 12. Players: 4 to 15. Time: 6 min. Props: none.

How this list was compiled: Written by the Game Night Generator editors on 2026-10-03 for a child's emoji-themed birthday, ages 4 to 12, in our own words. Ages, player ranges and minutes are our estimates. Nearly every game is built on a face, and where one follows a party classic its first line says so. Faces are described in plain words; no picture from a phone, an app or a film is copied. The balloon line follows the label in US Consumer Product Safety Commission safety alert 5087, read on 2026-10-03: https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/5087.pdf The classics were checked on 2026-10-03 against English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ followed by the name): Pin_the_tail_on_the_donkey, Musical_statues, Charades, Telephone_game, Sleeping_lions, Kim's_Game, I_spy, Beetle_(game). Licence: own work