Updated: 3/31/2025
Froebel’s Gifts: The First Didactic Materials for Preschool Children
Froebel’s Gifts are the world’s first educational (didactic) materials for preschool children, which remain well-known and widely used today. What is this system? Who created it? How do you play with Froebel’s Gifts? You will find answers to these questions in this article. To understand a person’s ideas and the system they created, it is essential to know their biography and life, as well as the background in which these ideas emerged and developed. The concept of kindergarten and educational games for preschoolers did not come to Froebel in his youth. So, how did it all begin?
In 1839, Friedrich Froebel established an educational institution in Blankenburg for playing and engaging with preschool children. Before this, such institutions did not exist. There were schools for older children and shelters for younger ones, where the focus was on supervision and care rather than child development.
A year later, Froebel named his institution a “kindergarten,” and the educators working there were called “gardeners.” This term has endured to this day.
Why “kindergarten”? Froebel explained it as follows: 1) A real garden, as a place for children to connect with nature, should be an essential part of the institution. 2) Children, like plants, need skilled care.
This idea was later cited in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary in 1902, explaining the origin of the word “kindergarten”:
“This term has a dual meaning: first, Froebel believed that a garden where children could play and observe plant life was an essential part of such a school; second, it symbolically suggests the similarity between children and plants, which require careful and skilled care.”
Froebel’s System
A key aspect of Froebel’s system was the active participation of children and the organization of independent activities. He believed that preschool children learn best through practical, play-based activities. Play was given special importance.
In kindergartens, children not only played but also engaged in drawing, sculpting, crafts, appliqué, music, poetry, embroidery, and construction using metal rings and sticks. They also assembled geometric shapes based on samples.
Every activity combined action with verbal expression, which was a mandatory requirement. Verbal explanations helped children comprehend and reinforce their experiences. Teachers named objects, described their characteristics, and demonstrated different ways of interacting with them. All actions were accompanied by rhymes or songs integrated into the games.
Froebel’s Gifts and Games
Froebel developed the first-ever didactic materials for preschool children, known as “Froebel’s Gifts.” These consisted of objects of different shapes, sizes, and colors, including balls, cubes, cylinders, sticks, and weaving strips.
The First Gift consisted of textile balls in all the colors of the rainbow plus white. Each ball was attached to a string, allowing children to explore different movements—side to side, up and down, circular, and oscillatory. These games helped children recognize colors and develop spatial awareness.
The Second Gift included a sphere, a cube, and a cylinder of the same size. This set introduced children to geometric solids and their differences: the sphere rolls, while the cube remains stationary due to its edges.
The Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Gifts featured cubes divided into smaller parts (miniature cubes and prisms), serving as building blocks. This allowed children to explore geometry and develop an understanding of whole-part relationships. The later Gifts enabled the construction of diverse structures during play.
Froebel also introduced “Forms of Life”—structures such as buildings, bridges, towers, furniture, and vehicles, which children could recreate based on illustrations.
Additionally, he proposed “Forms of Beauty” (or Forms of Knowledge), which introduced children to basic geometry through symmetrical and decorative patterns.
These Gifts helped children develop coordination, spatial understanding (above, below, right, left), and concepts of length and width. Froebel believed that through these materials, children could grasp the unity and diversity of the world, its divine nature, and the fundamental laws of the universe. The sphere symbolized unity and infinity, the cube represented stability and diversity, and the cylinder combined both properties—it was stable when upright but rolled when laid flat.
Froebel’s Influence and Legacy. Today, Froebel’s Gifts are primarily seen as educational tools that enhance children’s cognitive abilities.
Interesting Facts About Froebel’s Gifts and Games:
- Friedrich Froebel introduced finger games, which remain popular today—this was in 1844!
- He invented the first children’s mosaic and many other developmental games. Froebel also promoted activities like stringing beads of different colors and materials (ceramic, glass, wood), paper weaving, and origami.
Froebel’s system gained recognition in many countries and continues to influence early childhood education worldwide