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third gift

eight cubes

The cube of the second gift is the basis of the third gift. Eight cubes are presented to the child in the form of a single larger cube. As each cube is removed, different shapes emerge. The eight blocks can them be arranged to create:

Knowledge Forms

mathematical and logical ideas such as number, proportion, equivalence and order. These ideas serve to define natural divisions of the gift and to suggest ways of rearranging or transforming these parts.

Life Forms

represent things that can be seen in the outside world; buildings, house, table, sofa or tree.

Beauty Forms

blocks arranged on a grid without stacking to have some kind of symmetry to form patterns viewed as ornament.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Many people have observed that the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright look as if they were built with Froebel Blocks. In his day it was usual to play with the blocks on a table with a one inch grid. The importance of this grid on which the blocks were arranged is often overlooked. The extensive use of grids in his buildings may be another influence from his experiences with his Froebel Blocks.

understanding block play

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Froebel Gifts

• ball on string
• sphere, cube and cylinder
• eight cubes
• eight rectangular blocks
• more cubes, some halved or quartered to introduce the triangle
• more rectangular blocks, some halved lengthwise or breadthwise
• parquetry tiles
• lines
• rings
• points

list of gifts and occupations

Each gift should aid the child to make the external internal, the internal external, and to find the unity between the two.