This Gift consists of 6 soft yarn balls of approximately 2" in diameter. The balls are colored red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. They have a string (approx. 6 inches long) with a loop on one end so that they can be dangled. It is introduced while the child is still an infant and is used for children ages 3 mos. to 3 years.
Froebel recognized that a ball is often a first or favorite toy of infants. It is lightweight and easy to grasp or hold. For Froebel, the ball symbolized unity because it is a complete whole, a pure form. The whole is the beginning of understanding and everything else is derived from the whole.
Learning is derived from impressions formed during play. The child forms his/her first impressions of the physical world by holding, rolling or watching the ball. Play with objects and interaction with the mother or caregiver help the child begin to differentiate his/herself from the rest of the world (the whole). The talking and the eye contact are so important for these early impressions. The balls are a wonderful tool to build this interaction around.
So the ball is at first an interactive plaything, with the mother playing with the child in a cheerful but deliberate way. Songs, rhymes and animated facial expressions all help convey fundamental ideas about the world to this new person. The play with balls introduces the idea of movement and motion into child' world through rolling, swinging, and tossing games. It is imaginative play in which the ball is the teacher, demonstrating the many possibilities if the physical world.
The balls help a child begin to distinguish form, color and movement - the qualities of matter in the physical universe. It also is early physical activity to improve of eye-hand coordination and gross motor control. While later Gift play is divided by Froebel into Forms of Life, Forms of Beauty and Forms of Knowledge, First Gift play is simply grouped into Form, Color and Movement.