1. The wooden staffs of the eighth gift (sometimes called the tenth) are of various lengths, but have for their uniform thickness the tenth of an inch.
They present, as now made, flat sides and square ends, are sometimes uncolored and sometimes dyed in the six primary colors.
2. The previous gifts dealt with solids and plane surfaces, wholes or divided wholes, while this one illustrates the edge or line.
The previous gifts more definitely suggested their uses by their prominent characteristics; this depends for its value largely upon the ingenuity of the teacher.
We have contrasts of size in the preceding gifts, both in the units themselves and in the component parts of which the divided units are made; but in this gift the dimension length is alone emphasized.
3. The most important characteristic of the gift is the representation of the line. The relations of position and form enter as essential elements of usefulness.
4. The laying of sticks may be used as an occupation very early in the kindergarten course, and thus serve as a preparation for the first drawing exercises, but there should be no attempt at this time to give them their legitimate connection with the cube as the edge of the solid and with the tablet as a portion of the surface.
Later they may be introduced in their proper place in the sequence of gifts, and thus assume their true relation in the child's mind. This relation is made more evident as we can and should reproduce the lessons with the solids in outline with the sticks. When the child is more advanced, the connection of the sticks with the preceding objects will be more clearly explained and intelligently comprehended, and then they may be used in connection with softened peas or tiny corks, which serve to illustrate the points of contact of the sides of surfaces and edges of solids whose skeletons the child can then construct with these materials.
5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:—
Angles of every degree.
Triangles, quadrilaterals, and additional polygons.
Skeletons of solids by means of corks or peas.