Stencils - draw outlines of a circle, square, rectangle and triangle on a piece of card and cut them out. Clip the card on top of a piece of paper and let your child paint in the shapes. When dry, lift off the card and write the shape names underneath.

Shape pictures - draw pictures made of different shapes. Draw a tree using a circle and a rectangle, or a house using squares with a triangle roof and rectangle door.

Crazy centipede - cut out circles of coloured paper and ask your child to stick them in a row on paper, with each overlapping slightly. Then add felt-tip eyes, a mouth, antennae and feet.

Patterns - use wooden bricks to make a pattern of shapes on the floor; triangle, square, circle for example. Then ask your child to continue it.

Ask your child to stick the 'eggs' on hen's nest

Hen and her eggs - on coloured paper, draw a hen with an empty nest beside her. Then cut out some white oval shapes and ask your child to stick the 'eggs' on hen's nest.

Shape sandwiches - make sandwiches together, then take off the crusts and cut them into neat squares, triangles, rectangles and circles (use an upturned plastic beaker to press out circles).

Shapes are all around us, we just need to see them. Show your child that an orange is round, that the edge of a cereal box is a rectangle, or that a plate is a circle.