Discover geometric shapes with Fröbel

Discover geometric shapes with Fröbel

“200 years ago, a term was coined in Thuringia that stands for one of Germany's most important export goods: “kindergarten”. This word was adopted unchanged in eight languages and translated into their respective languages in over 40 other countries,” writes Dr. Gerhard Friedrich in the ‘spielen und lernen’ blog.

Read a summary of his article here:

More important than the term itself is the educational concept behind it, which was developed by Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852). Fröbel recognized early childhood as an independent phase of life with specific developmental needs. He emphasized the importance of this phase for overall human development.

Fröbel's pioneering ideas not only resulted in theoretical considerations, but also in the practical establishment of the world's first kindergarten in Bad Blankenburg in 1840. His play pedagogy, in particular the introduction of play theory for children, was revolutionary and still has a modern impact today. Fröbel recognized that children understand the world through active play. This insight still lays the foundation for modern elementary education today.

24300
Fröbel Set 1
Grasping comes from comprehending!
24301
Fröbel Set 2
Everything begins with Fröbel!
24304
Fröbel Set 3
The XL set with laying materials

The gifts 1-6: Understanding contexts

Froebel, the kindergarten and the gifts are closely linked and probably form an inseparable conceptual chain of associations for many educators. The materials in these gifts are designed to encourage children's creativity and understanding of shapes, patterns and relationships. The gifts include objects such as spheres, cubes, cuboids and cylinders that help children to understand basic geometric and physical concepts.


One of Fröbel's aims with his gifts was to use these building blocks to help children understand key areas of life in greater depth. To this end, he formulated the concepts of forms of life, beauty and knowledge.

(l) Life forms: The play material can be used to recreate or re-enact things from the children's everyday lives, here, for example, a seating area with the eight cuboids of the 4th play gift. (r) Forms of beauty: When playing with the material, aesthetic, even ornamental pictorial forms can be recreated. In this way, the 8 blocks of the 4th gift can be combined to form ever new “beautiful” figures. This is a simple mandala. (m) Forms of cognition: If the child engages with the game material and finds mathematical connections (here: the number eight can be broken down into four times two), the material contributes to the gain in knowledge.

Playing with laying materials - discovering colors and shapes

Laying materials consist of sticks of different lengths and colors and geometric shapes such as triangles, squares and circles that help children to lay and understand patterns and structures.

These materials allow children to explore geometric principles and patterns by laying out and constructing different shapes.

It is above all mathematics that brings order to the confusion and again it was Friedrich Fröbel who first succeeded in designing a system of laying materials, such as sticks and regular bases, which on the one hand meets strict mathematical didactic requirements and on the other hand is incredibly fun for children to play with.

Seating group made of natural materials and seating group made of laying materials (life form)
Spiral Nature and Spiral Fröbel Material (beauty shape)
Nature triangle and triangle made from laying materials (cognitive form)

Interaction as a didactic principle

You will be surprised how much fun children have when you actively participate in the game or take the first step yourself by creating a pattern or a lifelike picture with the laying materials. Your initiative will almost inevitably encourage the children to join in with your game.

Even small, carefully formulated impulses are often enough to integrate them into the joint game:

  • “What would you do now if you were me?”
  • “Would you like to try it out for yourself?”
  • Do something on purpose that doesn't quite fit and express your dissatisfaction: “I don't like it somehow. Do you or do you have any ideas on how I could do it better?”

It is important to stay in conversation with the child or children during the game. The focus should not be on instruction, but on a co-constructive dialog in which ideas are developed together. Joint interaction is the didactic principle that needs to be implemented.

Working with picture stories by beleduc: Children have a natural affinity for exciting stories that goes beyond simply listening to them. They are particularly enthusiastic when stories are read to them, as this not only stimulates their imagination, but also gives them the opportunity to immerse themselves in a world of images and ideas. Active listening and the associated inner visualization of stories promote cognitive development by strengthening children's ability to understand narrative connections and create their own images in their heads.

Authors:

Dr. paed. habil. Gerhard Friedrich: holds a degree in education and has taught mathematics, technology, education and psychology. He is a private lecturer in general didactics at the University of Bielefeld and an author of books and games.

Renate Schoof is a German author. She studied education and German language and literature in Lüneburg and Berlin. She writes poetry, novels, short stories, non-fiction, young adult and children's novels and picture book stories.

Photos: Beleduc Lernspielwaren GmbH and Gerhard Friedrich



This text first appeared on the blog “spielen und lernen”.