The program's called "I'm Moving, I'm Learning," and it helps teachers find ways to get students exploring seemingly simple actions like hopping, skipping or jumping.

It was developed through the Head Start program. Head Start's Janet Tichnell said preschool is a good time for kids to develop active lifestyles.

"In early childhood, you are just beginning to teach those skills from birth to five that are going to be built upon for the rest of their lives," Tichnell said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named West Virginia one of the three most obese states in the country in 2005.

In terms of childhood obesity, the percentage of West Virginia students taking part in strenuous activity for at least 20 minutes on three days out of the week before a CDC survey dropped from 66.3 percent in 2003 to 63.7 percent in 2005 (a 2.6 percent drop).

The percentage of students doing no vigorous or moderate physical activity in the week before the survey increased from 7.5 percent to 10.2 percent (a 2.7 percent increase).

West Virginia University physical education professor and "I'm Moving, I'm Learning" organizer Linda Carson says West Virginia was a pilot state for the program, and now other states want to try it out too.

Carson says the Mountain State poses a challenge for the program.

"Honestly, if it can work here in West Virginia, then it can work everywhere else," said Carson. "West Virginia really does need additional programs to help them combat this terrible obesity problem that we have in this state."

Students aren't the only ones who have seen benefits from the program - Tichnell says she's lost 48 pounds while working on it.