About Kitties

Kitties is a no-ads, cat-breed-naming game for children aged 4 to 7. We show a real photograph of a cat at the top of the screen — a Siamese, a Persian, a Bengal, a ragdoll — and put four breed names below it. Your child taps the name that matches the picture. Get it right, score a star. Endless turns, no fail state, gentle pace.

Kitties is part of the Tadpole Games family. Where Fredle teaches phonics and Flagle introduces the world’s countries, Kitties introduces the cats we meet every day — one breed at a time. It pairs a real photograph with the breed name, so a pre-reader can match by picture and an early reader can sound the word out. The breeds are drawn from the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy’s recognised list.

Who Kitties is for

• Reception (age 4–5) — just starting to put names to the cats they meet at home, next door, in picture books. Two of the four names are usually easy to rule out, so the child still gets to think and pick.
• Year 1 (age 5–6) — building vocabulary and noticing how breeds differ. Learning that the fluffy one with the squashed face is a Persian, and the sleek pale one with dark points is a Siamese.
• Year 2 (age 6–7) — ready for the trickier breeds (Abyssinian, Tonkinese, Chartreux) and starting to spot a breed from its coat and shape.
• Home-schoolers, tutors and grandparents who want a five-minute animal warm-up with no ads and no fuss.

How it works

• A real photograph of a cat appears at the top of the screen.
• Four breed names sit in a 2×2 grid below.
• Your child taps the name that matches the picture. Sleek pale cat with dark ears and face → Siamese.
• Right answer? The tile flashes green, a star is added, and a brand new cat flips into place.
• Wrong answer? The tile wobbles red and stays struck-through; the picture stays put, and they can try one of the other three. Endless turns — no losing.

Why a real photograph (not a drawing)

Children learn to recognise cats in the world from photographs faster than they do from cartoon drawings, because the colours, coat and shape of a real cat are what they’ll see at home or next door. Every Kitties photo is a real photograph sourced from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons licence — the same open library that encyclopaedias use.

That ordering matters. Picture-recognition comes first; the word comes second; the joy of spotting the same breed in real life comes third — said by the grown-up alongside. By the time your child can read “Siamese”, they already know what a Siamese looks like, and what a Persian looks like, and how to tell them apart.

How to play with your child

• Say the breed name aloud each round. “That’s a Maine Coon. They’re one of the biggest cats. Look how fluffy the tail is.” Repetition is the lesson.
• Talk about what each breed is like. “Sphynx cats have no fur.” “Bengals have spots like a little leopard.” “Ragdolls go floppy when you pick them up.”
• Spot them in real life. Kitties works best as the indoor half of a habit — the other half is “ooh look, a tabby” out of the window.
• Relate it to something they know. “Grandma’s cat is one of these — it’s a British shorthair.”
• Five minutes a day. Short and warm beats long and earnest. The stars only go up.

Frequently asked questions

Can my child fail?

No. There is no timer, no lives, and no fail state. A wrong tap just gives a gentle wobble — the picture stays in place and they can try one of the other names. Stars only go up.

Which cat breeds does Kitties cover?

Kitties starts with the breeds a UK child is most likely to meet at home or in books, and unlocks more as they earn stars:

• Tier 1 — from the first round. Seven favourites: British shorthair, Persian, Siamese, Maine Coon, Bengal, ragdoll, sphynx.
• Tier 2 — unlocks at 3 stars. Eight more familiar breeds: Burmese, Birman, Abyssinian, Norwegian forest cat, Russian blue, Cornish rex, Devon rex, Manx.
• Tier 3 — unlocks at 10 stars. Eight popular breeds: exotic shorthair, Siberian, Tonkinese, Egyptian mau, Turkish van, Somali, oriental, Balinese.
• Tier 4 — unlocks at 22 stars. Eight trickier breeds: Chartreux, Korat, Singapura, Ocicat, snowshoe, Selkirk rex, Australian mist, Nebelung.
• Tier 5 — unlocks at 40 stars. Seven challenge breeds for Year 2: toyger, sokoke, LaPerm, RagaMuffin, Khao Manee, Kurilian bobtail, American curl.

Each new tier comes with a small celebration so your child knows new breeds have appeared. Stars only go up — the tiers do not reset on a wrong answer.

What if my child can’t read yet?

That’s the right age to start. Kitties uses only four answers per round, two of which a parent can quickly rule out by colour or coat. A wrong tap is welcome — it’s how the matching click happens. Read each name aloud the first few times; by the tenth round your child will be tracking the word on the tile, not just the picture.

More from Tadpole Games

• Doggies — the same game for dog breeds: a real photo of a dog, four breed names, tap the right one.
• Fredle — a daily phonics word puzzle for UK children aged 4 to 7.
• Name the Flower — the same game for garden flowers.
• Flagle — tap the flag that matches the famous landmark in the middle.

Photo credits

Every Kitties photograph is a real image from Wikimedia Commons, used under a Creative Commons licence (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA) or in the public domain. Per-photo attribution is recorded in /kitties/CREDITS.txt in the source repository. Thank you to the Wikimedia community for putting these photographs into the commons.