Charged like a new 9-volt battery, students at Neshannock Memorial Elementary School were on the move.

There was good reason for the excitement.

Pumped up and spurred on by local fitness expert Leslie Sansone of Walk Productions, grades 1 through 6 not only were getting fit, they also were taping a fitness video for in-school use.

As magically as a pumpkin was turned into Cinderella’s coach, the gym was converted into a pseudo television studio. With area videographers ducking in and out of walking-in-place students, television monitors, microphones on a boom, cameras, lights, revved-up music and a big screen that projected images of ongoing action, this school-wide venture stirred up energy in large doses.

Fun was the way Kelly Cournan, 10, described time spent during the morning session. Each grade had its 15 minutes of fame in the morning and afternoon, too.

Kelly, who plays soccer, likes exercising and the steady walking hadn’t caught her out of breath.

Her classmate, Grant Weaver, liked “going backward and forward.”

But jumping jacks are his favorite activity involving exertion.

Fourth-grade teacher Sandy Giordano said the children looked forward to filming the video.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful and we’re integrating gym into the classroom,” Giordano said. “A lot of children were not active and now they are becoming more active, and this is fun to do with friends.”

Once edited, one portion of the tape can be used in individual classrooms when students can’t go outside for recess or at the discretion of the teacher, said school nurse, Patty Kardambikis, Ph.D.

“Every classroom will have the video.”

She commended an exuberant Sansone, who marched in place along with the students, for donating the equipment, time and crew.

“This is all teamwork,” Kardambikis assessed.

Physical education instructor Mindy Nichols said 20 students were chosen to be in a special 10-minute segment.