Solids And Objects In Froebel's Kindergarten '

Chapter 6
Solids
In Froebel’s Kindergarten, the first six Gifts are solid bodies consisting of soft, colored knitted balls of Gift 1; a three-piece set of wooden bodies (sphere, cylinder and cube) of Gift 2; wood cubes of Gifts 3 and 5; and, rectangular wood prisms of Gifts 4 and 6. These different-shaped solids are scaled to Kindergarten’s one-inch square grid, which provides a uniform area for child play with the potential for judiciously placing and combining the Gifts in creative ways. Wright emphasized the importance of maple blocks in his fingers, which left many academic researchers and skillful practitioners, as strong advocates of his architecture, with the false impression that Froebel’s Gifts consist solely of building blocks. A

All of the solid forms are related one to another, played with early on, which leads naturally to multiple as well as integrated in-depth studies of planes, lines and points. Children return to them often in conjunction with studies of other Gifts and Occupations.
First Gift – The Ball
The First Gift consists of six soft one-inch balls, each having one of the colors of the rainbow − red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. They are contained in a covered wooden box, in which there also are six strings of the same colors, corresponding to the balls. Froebel selected the ball for his First Gift because it is nature 's most fundamental ground-form, and found within it are the other forms of his Kindergarten Gifts and Occupations. With the ball, children quickly learn to observe and compare elements of size, form, color and motion. The ball is a complete round body in which neither planes, nor lines, nor points can be seen. <insert image 52

Therefore, the six balls are introduced to children in every possible manner and connection including general properties of form, color, size, weight, volume and density; of course, without necessarily using these terms with very young or inexperienced children. It goes without saying that Froebel had some ideas about child development and growth in mind; and ingeniously discovered and showed the way for children to naturally proceed in the improvement of manipulative (motor), mental (cognitive) and touching (affective) skills. The versatility of playing with six soft colored balls provides years of entertainment, enjoyment and pleasure for children who recognize and gain knowledge and satisfaction from hands-on activities that stir the imaginations in new and often novel