ABSTRACT
Froebel devised a series of simple but carefully planned materials he called ‘gifts and occcupations’ for use in his kindergartens. These, together with nature, stories, movement games, music, songs and rhymes, were integral to his educational approach. However, it was not just the resources but the ideas underpinning them that were important to Froebel. Materials on their own were not enough. Adults had to engage with and understand the processes of development in the child.
The first gift was a soft ball on a piece of string, for babies and very young children to play with. It was designed to be able to be reached for, grasped and held in the hand. The baby could roll it, push it and swing it back and forth. Inevitably the ball would roll away, and awareness of lost and found, disappearance and appearance could be fostered. Adults could play hide and seek or pretend the ball was, say, a cat – and make it jump. Later a set of eight different coloured balls was introduced. Froebel collected over fifty different ways of playing with the balls, based on his observations of how children used them.
