FRIDLEY, Minn. — At Hayes Elementary School in Fridley, students have been clattering around atop skateboards, swinging around corners and flying up ramps.

The reaction from their teachers is hardly what you'd expect.

Instead of scowling and muttering about "kids these days," the educators find themselves in awe. The students are the first in the state to learn to skateboard as part of their physical-education classes.

The students in Craig Coleman's gym classes at Hayes are taking to it with glee. Even those who used to beg off the tougher exercises are getting excited, he said.

"There's no, 'I can't,' anymore," he said. "They just want to do it."

Battling a national childhood obesity crisis, educators and curriculum creators alike saw a need to structure physical education around activities kids can take home with them and do after school in lieu of spending hours texting and surfing Web sites like Facebook.

Kids are more likely to stay active if they're introduced to a sport or activity they like, said Eric Klassen, who co-founded Skate Pass, the Colorado-based firm that helped start the skating curriculum program.

"If you drive down the street and you see kids just screwing around with their friends, being active, (skateboards and bikes) are the two things you normally see," he said.

The school bought 30 sets of skateboards, pads and helmets for the skateboarding classes, which started earlier this year. The students in Coleman's gym classes are 9- and 10-year-olds with bright eager faces, laughing and cheering each other on, even as they fall off the boards. "It's not just running around and throwing balls at people," said 9-year-old Jennie Harris. "You actually get to do your own thing. You don't have to do what everyone else is doing."

Katrina Mraz, 10, said she's excited to go skateboarding with her older brother, who told her he wishes his gym classes offered the same curriculum. Mraz said her mother worried whether the class would be safe and was a little skeptical at first. Safety was one of the top priorities when Skate Pass developed the curriculum, Klassen said. The students are all required to wear helmets, wrist guards, elbow pads and knee pads when they skate.

The equipment and boards for 20 students cost at least $3,000, but the company is working to help match schools with grant programs to help cover the costs, he said. Skate Pass also hopes to offer its own grants directly to schools in the future.

Since Skate Pass began a pilot program in 2005, schools across the country have signed on, from Oregon to New York. Lessons include everything from safety and etiquette to a few basic tricks.

Hayes Elementary Principal John Piotraschke said he has seen a lot of improvement in the students in just weeks of skateboarding.

"Our world has changed so much," he said.

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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com