NEWARK -- For a few minutes, all you can hear inside this third-grade classroom is a collective inhale and exhale.

There's no voices, no sounds of scraping chairs, no fidgeting.

Students dressed in uniformed blue polo shirts stretch their hands overhead and grow tall like trees; they breathe deeply, close their eyes and search for their heartbeat with their palms.

"When I do yoga, I feel really good. I feel like my whole body is new," says third-grader Astrid Arita, 8. "As if I was born today."

At Hawkins Street School, students in kindergarten through fourth grade practice yoga in their classrooms for 15 to 20 minutes a week as part of a program offered by the Newark Yoga Movement.

The stretching, breathing and mindfulness fits in with the school's priority on social/emotional well-being and making sure kids are focused so they can learn, said Principal Alejandro Lopez.

"We understand how students are dealing with the stresses of real life," Lopez said. "Yoga allows them to find peace, to understand they can take a mental time out so life doesn't become so overwhelming."

Students at Hawkins Street School practice yoga as part of a program with Newark Yoga Movement. (Bernadette Marciniak for NJ Advance Media | NJ.com)

About 500 kids in the school participate and say they're using the breathing and stretching exercises at home and before going to sleep.

First-grade teacher Isabel Pita said yoga helps her 28 students "calm down a bit in the mornings."

In her class, students form the number four with their legs as yoga instructor Kim Stevens-Redstone tells them to look "at something that's not moving" to help with their balance.

"It's the best job ever," Stevens-Redstone says between her back-to-back classes. "You can feel the energy in the schools changing."

Stevens-Redstone, who went to school in Newark, said she turns yoga poses into animal poses like the flamingo or the bear, and sometimes attaches stories to the stretches. Teaching children, she said, has made her a better adult yoga instructor.

"We're all kindergarteners," she laughs.

Newark Yoga Movement began in 2009 and is working in 17 public and charter schools in the city. The nonprofit has served 30,000 students since its inception.

Founder Debby Kaminsky said she started the nonprofit to bring yoga to a city in need.

"Urban districts have a different kind of stress than suburbs. You add violence to it and you add gangs to it ... yoga gives them these tools so they know how to regulate in a non-violent kind of way," she said. "You are helping to reduce anxiety and stress and sleeplessness."

Kaminsky said yoga in schools is starting to catch on across the country as districts are increasingly recognizing the value of exposing children to the practice.

She said students and teachers in Newark have shared stories of calmer classrooms, a shift in school culture and even one middle schooler who opted out of a fight.

As the yoga session wraps up for Bruno Simoes' kindergarten class, he said the stretching made him "feel happy."

"I see the good in you. You see the good in me. We see the good in each other. Namaste," the class said as they press their palms together.

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.