In the 17th century, John Locke(1632-1704)believed that education should start from children’s characteristics from different ages, and create relaxing and happy atmosphere。 For example, when taught some words about animals, children prefer books and cards with pictures about animals。 Children can be aroused interest by this way and regard study as games and fun, so that they will be able to pursue study。

     In the 18th, Rousseau(1712-1778),the French educator, extremely concentrated on the significance of games on children education。 He held the view that children had better develop talents in lives and study,and children should be exposed to a non-restrictive, supportive environment。

     Games teaching before Froebel lacked theory system due to the limitation of society and education, and it paid more attention to use games in kindergarten, seldom in junior school。

2。3。2 Froebel’s Game Teaching 文献综述

     As is well-known to us, games has a very long history and originates in ancient times。 While in classic education, the famous Germany educationalist Froebel, who is regarded as “the Father of Preschool Education”, is the first person that combines games with education。 In the book Kindergarten, Froebel described a set of games created by him independently。 For example, Froebel helped children to perceive the color, shape and size of objects by making children play with sphere, cube of different colors and shape, which can help children form the concepts of space, time and number, and furthermore develop their construction ability。 This set of toys was called Froebel Gifts。Froebel emphasized that Froebel Gifts should be accompanied by explanations of teachers and music, so that Gifts could be accepted by children and play its teaching function。 The theory of Froebel Gifts was extremely popular and spread far and wide。

     Modern educationists believe that Froebel Gifts really makes great contribution to education, however, they also point out that Froebel’s game teaching system is short of the elements of games, and every movement of children is under the control of teachers without any freedom and game behaviors。 Therefore,from the views of modern game teaching theory, Froebel’s system can just be counted as teaching exercises ,not game teaching。