1To blow up a balloon.

To become a candle.

And to take a trip through a jungle.

The five girls enrolled in the Hays Recreation Commission's kids' yoga class did all three during a recent session.

"This is all about using your imagination," Gail Wickham, HRC program director, told the girls as they sat "criss-cross applesauce" to begin a form of meditation.

They blew up balloons as big as they could by expanding their arms and taking a deep breath -- something Wickham said could relax them at the end of the long school day.

"I like that it calms you down," said Cassi Dillinger, 9. "Sometimes I have a bad day at school, and I just want to do yoga to calm down."

Dillinger likely will be calming down with her new favorite position -- the candle.

Wickham taught the girls to lay down on their mats and roll up onto their backs with their hands supporting their hips while their toes wiggled in the air like the light of a candle.

"We just want to get them some motor activity, some stretching and flexibility," Wickham said.

She said yoga could be a resort for children who don't necessarily belong in dance classes or on a playing field.

"Kids are needing a different way to relax," Wickham said.

The HRC started the yoga classes last summer with a "mom-and-me" session and expanded it to focus on the children.

"I like the positions, and all of it gets your body relaxed," 5-year-old Elena Herl said.

Herl practices yoga at home with her mom on their Wii Fit and comes to class ready to show the new moves she has learned.

Wickham has demonstrated the classic moves such as warrior one and two, but she also has taught the class unique positions such as the lion, snake and elephant.

Wickham said the children get restless after about a half hour of yoga, so they usually play a game involving the newest positions they've learned.

The jungle game allowed the class to swoop their arms like an elephant's trunk, stretch out and hiss like a snake, and growl like a lion.

"We're teaching them to relax their minds and bodies while trying to use their imaginations," Wickham said.