Froebel Gifts

The Froebel gifts (German: Fröbelgaben) are play materials for young children designed by Friedrich Fröbel for the original Kindergarten at Bad Blankenburg. Playing with Froebel gifts, singing, dancing and growing plants were each important aspects of this child-centered approach to education created by Friedrich Fröbel.

The Sonntagsblatt (1838-1840) published by Fröbel explained the meaning, and described the use of each of his five play gifts (Spielgabe):

"The active and creative, living and life producing being of each person, reveals itself in the creative instinct of the child. All human education is bound up in the quiet and conscientious nurture of this instinct of activity; and in the ability of the child, true to this instinct, to be active."

Between May 1837 and 1850, the Froebel gifts were made in Bad Blankenburg in the Principality of Schwarzburg Rudolstadt, by master carpenter Löhn, assisted by artisans and women of the village.

Fröbel also developed a series of occupations such as sewing, weaving and the modelling with clay, for children to reconstruct their experiences through play.

Ottilie de Liagre in a letter to Fröbel in 1844 observed that playing with the Froebel gifts empowers children to be lively and free, but people can degrade it into a mechanical routine.

Each of the five gifts was assigned a number by Fröbel in the Sonntagsblatt (1838-1840), which indicates the order in which each gift was to be given to child.

The first gift is a soft ball or yarn ball in solid color, which is the right size for the hand of a small child. When attached to a matching string, the ball can be moved by a mother in various ways as she sings to the child. Although Fröbel sold single balls, they are now usually supplied in sets of six balls consisting of the primary colors red, yellow and blue, as well as their secondary colors, purple, green and orange.

These soft balls can be squashed in the hand, and they revert to their original shapes.

The first gift was intended by Fröbel to be given to very young children. His intention was that, through holding, dropping, rolling, swinging, hiding and revealing the balls, the child may acquire knowledge of objects and spatial relationships, movement, speed and time, color and contrast, weights and gravity.

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