Yoga Teacher Amanda Barrick uses an expandable ball to show kids how to breath deeply, during a Teddy Bear Yoga Class she teaches at Wilton Public & Gregg Free Library.

WILTON – Pretending to be an animal like a cat, dog or frog comes naturally to kids, and so does dancing, hopping and singing. That’s what they do and more during Amanda Barrick’s yoga classes.

Barrick is bringing children’s yoga to the Wilton-

Milford area and has opened a studio in Pine Valley Mill in Milford.

She recently led a Teddy Bear Yoga Class at Wilton Public & Gregg Free Library, with about a dozen kids happily doing simple poses along with singing and dancing with their stuffed animals.

Starting with a “Welcome Circle,” they bounced around to the song “Hop Along Yogi” to “wake up their dolls,” and a fancy hula hoop served as a boundary to keep a degree of order among the children.

“I learned the hard way that we need to make a definite edge, so kids don’t go crashing into one another,” she said.

Near the end of the one-hour session, which alternated high-energy activities with quiet periods, the children decorated little yoga mats for their stuffed friends.