If you're ever standing near a soccer field when an under-10 game comes to an end, the players are far more concerned about the upcoming snack than they are with the result of the game. You can turn this love of food to your advantage. For example, gumballs and donut holes can be spheres. You can cut block cheese into cubes. For cylinders, you can pull out some cheese sticks or marshmallows. Give each student an appropriate number of different shapes of snacks and ask them to categorize their treats and identify the shapes before allowing them to dig in.
If you can head to the toy store and pick up a bag of plastic or wood shapes in the toddler toy section, you have a bag of manipulative instructional tools. Gather enough shapes so you can make four or five bags with up to 10 shapes inside, and give each bag to a group in your class. If you have spheres, cones, cylinders and cubes, you can keep the students guessing. Have them take turns reaching into the bag, grasp an item, and guess its shape before pulling it out. Record each answer to see which student or group can get the most answers right.
After you've shown students examples of the major three-dimensional figures, you can turn them loose with some craft dough and allow them to make some of their own. They may think they're just making long snakes and dinosaurs, but the process of molding the dough into the shapes of the 3-D figures will send the information into their brains through different channels than are utilized during verbal instruction or visual presentation.
Ask students to bring examples from home of the four major 3-D figures, or at least to bring pictures of the figures. Allow each student to present one (or all four, depending on time) of the figures and explain where it came from and how it's used. Once students start looking for these shapes, they'll start seeing them everywhere they go -- and you'll know you taught them effectively.