Main Index Page

Last updated 18/11/2025

x

A second revised and enlarged edition of 'Kleiner Kindergarten' by Karl Schellner was published by Alfred Holder in Vienna in 1880. It contains sections about Das Falten, Das Verschnuren, Das Ausschneiden and Das Pappen.

I have not seen a copy of the first edition and do not know when it was published.

A full copy of the second edition can be accessed online here.

**********

**********

**********

Analysis

Das Falten

Inter alia this introductory paragraph says, roughly translated: 'in particular ... folding is intended to create forms for representation that can easily serve as suitable tools for elementary and secondary school students in drawing and geometric form theory lessons.'

**********

This second paragraph is about the paper to be used for folding. Inter alia it says, roughly translated: 'The material ... is a square cut from white or coloured paper ... Since only precisely cut shapes can be used it is advisable to have them cut by a bookbinder ... For the hands of an inexperienced child sheets of two-coloured glossy paper ... are particularly useful. Folding sheets of chancery or tissue paper can also be used ...'

**********

This third paragraph describes how to make the Double Blintz Basic Form (though it does not specify the need to turn the paper over between the operations) and how to begin to develop it into Schonnheitsformen (although the term is not used).

The final sentences read, roughly translated: 'The Double Boat ... is also created from the groundform ... by continuing to fold the corners. Through a few attempts one can certainly arrive at this shape, albeit indirectly.'

**********

Das Verschnuren

**********

Das Ausschneiden

This section is mostly a description of the basic elements of Froebel's Ausschneiden und Aufkleben occupation. The last few sentences, however, describe how Lebensformen with bilateral symmetry (such as the ladder shown, but also 'tables, benches, trees etc') can be cut from singly folded sheets of paper.

**********

Das Pappen

The author says, roughly translated: 'This activity is less suitable for children of pre-school age, but more so for pupils in the upper grades of of elementary and middle school, who are not only supposed to make the boxes necessary for the various teaching materials eg seeds, minerals etc, but also, according to the prescribed curriculum, to produce geometric solids from nets they have drawn themselves.'

The final sentences describe how to make a simple open box by cutting out a template, folding up the sides and joining the sides together with paper or canvas strips pasted over the joints.

**********