Created: 4/1/2009 4:01:00 PM 
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FL -- More than 30 teachers at PV PV/Rawlings in Ponte Vedra have signed up their classes to Fight the Couch.
The students are already launching all sorts of creative ideas from their teachers.
The goal of this new First Coast News project is to get kids off the couch and up moving. Experts say one third of children on the First Coast are overweight or obese.
Take a look at the video to see ideas for your school.
The "Pink Panthers" at PV PV/Rawlings cut small couches out of old wallpaper, recycled the wallpaper, and put little potatoes on their personal couches.
It's all about goal-setting. Each "potato" represents an hour of exercise. Addie wants to knock 30 "couch potatoes" off her couch. Knock off a potato and you get a gold star.
The "Purple Cobras" are making a trek from Ponte Vedra to Seattle Washington on maps. Every 15 minutes of exercise equals one mile on their journey.
The contest encourages children to find any activity they enjoy and count that as exercise. If a child isn't into running around the track five times, he can walk his dog or dance in his room.
The four classes with the most activity minutes win big prizes.
The teachers and administration at PV PV/Rawlings say all during the school year they emphasize the value of health and physical fitness. The children even pick fresh oranges from orange groves on school grounds.
But Fight the Couch enables each team (class) to track their own minutes on bar graphs, upload photos, and add fun notes (today...jumping rope...loved it) to their own private page on Fight the Couch, a free section on firstcoastnews.com
Just click on the Fight the Couch banner at the top of firstcoastnews.com to sign up. Teachers must register their classes to join the fun.
The contest begins Monday, April 6th.
Fight the Couch begins a First Coast News initiative, Kick It Up, First Coast, to tackle obesity.
©2009 First Coast News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, or redistributed.
