Froebel imagined and developed twenty materials for his Kindergarten, materials which he called Gifts. The first nine Gifts were primarily wood forms for design work while Gifts ten through twenty included paper, tiles, stiff cardboard, parquet, bricks, sticks, rings, slats, yarn, peas and clay. THese materials were used for drawing, creating, weaving, sewing, piercing, folding, cutting, and modeling.
Common to all learning associated with the twenty Gifts was the manipulation of materials to create, mimic, simulate and express artistic patterns and forms of nature. Working with both three-dimensional and flat forms, the twenty Gifts ran the gamut from simple to complex activities always challenging learners to be creative and inventive.