It was Froebel’s intent that the routine of taking out and putting back the blocks would instill a sense of responsibility and respect for the materials given to the child. This respect and understanding of how to treat what has been given to them “the gifts”, shapes their view and the way they treat nature and others around them.
This is also due in part to the way that the gifts are presented to the child as “a representation of the natural world around them”. This is all so clear to me as an adult as I look upon my own experience as a child, when I attended a Froebel School, in Mississauga, ON, Canada, and played with the gifts on a regular basis.