Students at Cumberland Trace Elementary School are determined not to be counted among the latest and most alarming childhood obesity statistics, which confirm that about one-third of the nation’s children are either obese or at risk for obesity.

This week, as first lady Michelle Obama unveiled her $10 billion “Let’s Move” campaign to improve the lives of the country’s children through diet, exercise and better food labeling, some 450 kids at the Warren County school were one step ahead.

They turned off their televisions and video games and got serious about exercise. A program designed for them by physical education teacher Joshua Culver, called Active 60, requires 60 minutes of physical activity four days a week.

Culver, a Western Kentucky University student, created Active 60, modeled on the National Football League’s Play 60, when he became concerned about the fitness level of the kids in his classes.

With kids taking just one physical education class per week, many just don’t get enough exercise, he said. Add the distraction of technology the lack of exercise and poor dietary habits and that adds up to a generation projected to be the first in two centuries that is not expected to live longer than its parents, according to a New England Journal of Medicine report.

“For the kids to get active, I felt like I needed to challenge them,” Culver said. “I want them to understand that they – and everyone – need to have at least 30 minutes of exercise every day to get the benefits.” He also made the program manageable for all ages and gives incentives of Tiger dollars that can be spent at the school store.

While the kids do not have to hit the gym or go for an hour run every day, they do have to log their physical activity for the day, all of which can add up to the hour. “Active” activities include riding bikes, playing outside, basketball practice, P.E. at school, helping around the house by sweeping, dusting or cleaning a room, or playing Wii Fit or Wii Sports.

Parents sign the activity logs, which brings them into the project as well and gets them thinking about physical activity, said Charmaine Forshee, physical education teacher.

“The students come to school excited about their after-school activities and can’t wait to tell me what they have done,” Forshee said. “In class recently, I asked the class to run five laps around the gym here, a small gym. Some of the kids were lucky to make two laps, so this is a good thing.”

“I like Active 60,” said 6-year-old Logan Hunt, a first-grade student. “It’s really kind of easy because there is so much to do, like climb trees.”

Hunt said he never gave much thought to a daily exercise plan until now but that may change now. “Now I feel like exercise kind of makes me feel better,” he added.

Sixth-grader Alexis Swift, 12, is an athlete and swims for two hours a day as a member of the Greenwood High School swim team. “I think it has helped a lot of the kids here that didn’t exercise before,” she said. “And we want to see (principal Mary Evans) have to take a gym class with us. That is one of the prizes.”