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Robert Goddard French Immersion students gleefully walked four laps — one mile, occasionally stopping to break out in dance — around the front of their Seabrook school Monday, as part of a Turkey Trot designed to encourage activity and healthier hearts.

The school held the first of what they hope will be an annual turkey trot as part of an initiative throughout Prince George's County schools to promote health and fitness, said school nurse Tommie Schoendorf. Robert Goddard Montessori, which shares the building, held its walk Nov. 5.

"We hope students will take it home and walk on a regular basis," Schoendorf said. "We want to get the oxygen flowing and healthier hearts."

For children ages 2 to 19, more than 12 million boys and more than 11 million girls are overweight and obese, according to 2009 statistics from the American Heart Association.

During Monday's Turkey Trot, students walked, skipped and danced to music playing through a stereo system.

Fourth-grader Samia Shell, 9, of Glenn Dale said exercising is fun and important.

"Exercise is important because it benefits your life," said Samia, who said she enjoys ballet, gymnastics, swimming and plays soccer. "Some people don't exercise in their life — they end up obese and not in good health. [Exercise] makes you healthier and enjoy life longer."

Sixth-grader Lexie Gifford, 11, of Cheverly also said staying healthy is important.

"As Americans we need to start exercising to be healthy," Lexie said. "It's better to be healthy than not."

Principal Kona-Facia Nepay said the walk is a way to increase students' attentiveness in class.

"Movement helps the blood flow to the brain, making them better thinkers and perform better, [but] they just look at the fun side," Nepay said.

As they finished the walk, each class added a construction paper feather with their teacher's and classmates' names to life-size construction paper turkey on Schoendorf's bulletin board, decorated with "Let's walk together, move for a mile."

Twenty-two small construction paper turkeys flanked the large turkey with healthy activities — such as biking, walking, swimming, karate and dancing — listed on the feathers.

Schoendorf said both the Montessori and French Immersion schools have a health and fitness committee that planned the walk as a way to create awareness about physical activity and the health of students and their families as part of a year-round focus on fitness and fun.

Sam Price, the school's physical education teacher, said this year he began requiring third-graders to log three hours of exercise per week, fourth-graders to log four hours and sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders to log five hours.

"I want them to do more physical activity, to be in better shape for themselves," Price said.

E-mail Liz Skalski at eskalski@gazette.net.