I have been asked to make a port de bras exercise for a pre-ballet class. I am having troubles. Should I bring it to there attention when they are in 1st and 5th... Should I have them standing or sitting... etc... I just don't know what to focus on.

How do you describe round arms to them? hug position? I really need some advice. and then from port de bras 5th should I have them open right then left? or together, or just bring it back to 1st?

please, any exercises or ideas would be great!

I do port de bras at the barre when we are doing our plie exercises we do demi plie 4xs then port de bras down, front (1st), over the head (5th) and side (2nd) we do this with one arm at a time, other arm is on the barre. Regarding the roundness I tell them to pretend they are holding a beach ball. When I go to center floor we do the same port de bras but with both arms......hope this helps....my kids have really got the hang of it so it works for me !!!!

Yes yes thank you! Exactly what I am looking for, and is it really unheard of to bring props... Like would you ever bring a beach ball and have them feel what it's like. Or is that kind of a distraction. Like would the class be lost?

I do the same thing with the ball analogy. They usually describe their ball to me - "It's pink, it's blue, etc.". I have never tried actually bringing a ball to class. With preschoolers their imagination is so good, you probably won't have to. Just emphasize that it is a BIG ball because you will have several making a little ball with just their hands. As for the port de bras, I do these at center with my classes. We start with arms in low 5th, bring up to 1st then high fifth and open 2nd. They do great with that.
GOOD LUCK!

If I tried to bring in a ball with my little ones I think it would be very distracting for them. They are good kids but easily "hyped up". We "bounce" and "catch" our pretend balls. We start in bras bas, lift our balls to first and open second to let them bounce. We catch them again by closing first. Other times I have the children walk while bringing me a giant bowl of grapes when they practice ballet walks. If they close their ams to much or their elbows drop I tell them they're spilling my grapes and I'm sooooo hungry! That usually makes them smile and correct their arms. Also, I interchange image and technical names for arms with my kids. For example, I call high 5th "high 5th sunshine" arms. Hope that helps you out some! Good luck!

I do the same thing with the ball, but also for the 1st, 5th, 2nd, low 5th type combo we do Sun (arms down low, through 1st, up to 5th), Flower (arms open to 2nd), Seeds (arms float down like seeds are falling to low). They usually say it with me like that until they are 6 or 7, then they transition eventually to the actual position names. so the whole class is saying, Sun, Flower, Seeds together

To explain how to hold their arms in first, I tell them to hold their pizza pie (i'll let them pick something to put on top, cheese, gummi bears, you should hear something i hear!) then when they do their plies they bake it in the oven.

When going from 1st to 5th, I tell them to "blow up a balloon" and it pops when they go from 5th to 2nd.

If I think of any others, i'll post later. I know I have used and heard more, those are just the ones i've been using lately.

stand in first...one thing at a time i say... grab your beach ball(low 5th) pick it up (1st) over your head (high 5th) drop it (2nd)
for other arm positions we use a tree anaology...sway the branches...don't use props, too distracting...BUT for older girls i break out a small hula hoop to teach them how to extend their arms in front of them becuase they always squish their beachballs...i've made them do chaine's turns with the hoop before...they get the point quickly

I know from years ago we used a record haha how long ago was that. It wa called por de bra the spider the kids really liked it and it got them to learn their positions. Good luck finding it now though but it worked great. I also tent to use a beach ball for them to get high 1st round arms and stuff like that. Try to be as creative as possible

This is for my 3-4 year old class, some are 5 by the end of the year:
I tell them to hold a pizza in their arms when in first, for en haut we make the letter O and for en bas we "hold our baby", for a la seconde we hug our daddy.

For first port de bras we have to gently lift a bubble and then when its above our head we drop it (both arms opening to 2nd) and turn our hands over when they get to our shoulders so we can catch it at the bottom.

I have them practice doing regular 1st port de bras and one arm at a time, we also to the reverse coming up from en bas through 2nd to en haut and then straight down through 1st with both arms and 1 arm. Also we practice pushing and stretching through our fingertips when sitting in a butterfly with one arm to each side, both forward and with both arms to each side (similar to a 3rd arabesque position with the arms one higher and one lower).

I have other exercises that we do for my 5-6 year olds that include 3rd and 4th position of the arms and different arabesque arm positions.

I, too, used props and images. I have found that using images that come into my own mind work well but some kids need a different image. I might have one who gets it one way and another who needs a different image.

1st position: hold a balloon. If their hands touch each other they will pop their balloons - oops.
5th position: balloons up.
Open to second: let balloon float down
catch balloon in 1st without poppping.

For 2nd position placement: I tell them they are hugging the worlds largest peanut butter jar and everyone knows all peanut butter jars are round.

We do a little story for porte bras. 1st -clothesbasket 2nd-clotheslines 3rd-4th bend over pick up a tutu and hang it up 5th- window and then we open our window and let all the sunshine come in. It worked for me when I was that age so I just stuck with it. It's cute to see the little ones tell their "story".

For First I do "pick up the beack ball" and have them plie and act like they are picking it up from the floor, then to go to second we "drop the beach ball"...For Fifth I do "make an ice cream cone" and then let it melt to go to low first. I also ask them to move their arms like they are going through water to get that slow motion . My other catch phrase is "There are no elbows in ballet" - this seems to help them visualize a smooth, round arm.....at least sometimes

I start by having them just follow my arms and I end up doing all the arm positions as well as some funny ones this also works on their following skills. I then teach them 1st, 2nd and 5th. I have them pretend to hold a baby doll for 'en bas' they can't have strait arms or they squish the baby or it too big or the baby will fall. Then I have them pretend to hold the beach ball, make a T and make and O (for 5th). I have a small ball that I bring out that we use (the girls love it) and it makes it fun. Just remember to make it fun and easy to relate to them. We don't get to technical in names until age 5-6 years (this is with anything).

Port de Bras the Spider can still be purchased. It is on a CD called the Fantasy Garden by Rosemary Boross.

I do the beach ball and the pizza pie analogies too. They work great.

I do not teach little kids, or at least I haven't for many years. I really like many of the ideas here and plan to use some of them when I teach the winter session of my adapted ballet class for teens. Kids with special needs often need visuals and many times are still functioning intellectually like a little kid. I want to be age appropriate, but the beach ball and pizza( I especially like that one!) ideas are just perfect images, and I think they will have fun.
Thanks!

The Port De Bra song mentioned sounds like Port De Bra Spider on the "A Fantasy Garden" Cd by Rosemary Boross. I teach preschool and have used this with my students. When they open from 5th postion back to en bas, I give them pretend marshmallows to hold in their hands, to help them turn over their hands at 2nd pos. It works--they have great imagination!

We do port de bras both sitting and standing. After we stretch we all go to center and we have a set routine that we do. I have been working with them on arm positions all year so they get that before we start the routine. I tell them feet like a duck and and arms like a round pond and I have a rubber duck that went around and checked if their arms were nice and round. I don't have to do that anymore.

Our routine :
over counts 1-2 move arms to 1st
over counts 3-4 mover through 1st to 5th
Over counts 5-6 bring arms to 2nd
then float arms down to your sides. We repeated this sequence over and over.
Once they got to know this I added other port de bras and do leg work and have incorporated it into some of their recital pieces.

Use words like bloat and butterfly have the practice going from 3rd to 3rd and pretending to be a flower blowing in the wind.
My kids love to visualize and it really helps.
And yes you should vocally announce which arm position you are in. This way they will pick it up over time.
Good luck

With my pre-ballet students, I usually don't go too in depth, but a simple port de bras exercise I use is picking flowers. We bend over to pick up our fowers (this is when I remind them to use straight legs and a flat back), then we raise them up to the sky (high 5th). After this, we either throw our flowers in the air (open both arms) or give some to "mommy" and "daddy" or our friends on each side (opening right then left).