PORTLAND -- The next time you watch your kid's gym class, you may not see students doing laps and playing dodgeball. Try juggling and geocaching instead.

As the state moves to teach fitness and nutrition to a new generation, hallowed physical education traditions are morphing into a more rigorous curriculum that emphasizes specific skills, building self-esteem and reducing alarming obesity rates. All that and textbooks, too.

Dodgeball as you know it is in disfavor as too aggressive, potentially dangerous and focused on winners and losers. Team sports such as softball and kickball allow too much standing around. Making kids run or do push-ups as punishment sends the wrong message about healthy activity.

What's in? Hiking and geocaching (an outdoor treasure hunt using navigation tools) to build practical skills such as walking on uneven terrain and using a compass. Multiple games of sports such as softball and basketball played at the same time so no child feels singled out. Unusual sports such as juggling, table tennis and cup-stacking to give kids an opportunity to excel at more things.

For the first time, Portland Public Schools has adopted a set of textbooks and materials that provide teachers with a how-to guide to make sure kids are meeting physical development standards set by grade. Many teachers got the texts this fall.

"It is a myth that anyone can teach PE," said Lynette Zuercher, who's leading Portland's effort to improve. "You do need training. You do need resources. There is a reason that we went to school to study this. It's more than running around."

Some districts in Oregon have used PE materials for years, but many, including Portland, needed a prompt from the state: The Oregon Department of Education last year added PE to its list of subjects that must have books. Districts have until 2015 to get them into schools.

The requirement does more than add an academic bent to PE. It's an attempt to provide consistency and prepare schools for a new state law that calls for almost twice as many hours of PE in most schools by 2017.

Right now, some kids in the metro area have PE once every six days while others have the class three times a week. Some students are learning skills while others are essentially getting a second helping of recess.

"I think it puts all of us on an even playing field," said Sally Doherty, who has taught PE at Llewellyn Elementary School for 18 years. "And for a new teacher, the curriculum will give them a place to start and all the information they need."

The state PE effort is a targeted response to the growing obesity and health problems facing young people today, supporters say.

One in four Oregon eighth- and 11th-graders is overweight or at risk of becoming so. Oregon ranked 23rd highest for overweight youths in a 2007 report by Trust for America's Health, which noted the state's efforts to combat obesity lag behind those in more than a dozen states that have raised school nutrition standards and screened students for obesity and fitness.

In 2003, the state spent more than $781 million on obesity-related medical costs.

School officials say the motive behind the state changes is great. But finding time in the school schedule for more PE will be much more difficult than besting a classmate in a game of hopscotch or four square.

Oregon school districts are already spending more time and resources on math, science and reading to meet federal mandates and state benchmarks. They don't know where they'll find the extra time, space and money to boost PE.

Still, to Don Zehrung, a 35-year Beaverton PE teacher, the increasing prominence of physical education is a long-awaited victory.

Zehrung was among a group of teachers who first tried to get legislation passed to increase PE in Oregon in 1995. The bill never made it out of committee.

"All of us collectively have to embrace the notion that a well-balanced curriculum -- including music, the arts and PE -- is going to contribute more effectively to the kind of citizens we want than just longer stretches of time devoted to math and literacy," Zehrung said. "In the long run, that will provide what we're after -- better students, better citizens who are healthier, happier and more productive."

Portland's making it happen with a curriculum that focuses on three major areas: teaching skills, health-related fitness and nutrition-related fitness.

This year, the district is putting in place the first part of the curriculum, which mostly affects elementary grades. In addition to textbooks, the teachers also will have training throughout the year. Future parts of the curriculum will include workbooks for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students.

Over at Llewellyn, Doherty has worked to develop her own physical education curriculum for several years, using best practices, research and her own experience.

Inside her Southeast Portland gym, third-graders travel in a big circle to the song "Walking on Sunshine." Doherty walks the sidelines looking intently at the children's motions as they skip, gallop and jog.

When she spots students who are having trouble with balance or can't figure out the rhythm, she doesn't single them out for correction in front of everyone else. She joins the crowd, laughing and chatting while demonstrating the proper movements.

In North Portland, the bass is thumping inside Terri Jo Bonbright's classroom at Peninsula School. Sixth-graders walk into the gym and immediately start jogging as part of their warm-ups. The kids run, do their sit-ups and push-ups to the beats of fast-paced hip-hop music.

During her 45-minute class, Bonbright brings out a set of rubber balls in large buckets. As students gather in the center of the gym, she explains a new twist on traditional dodgeball: Using only half the court, the students must roll the ball on the ground, much like in bowling, and try to hit other students in the foot or ankle.

And if students get hit, they can come back into the game after running to the other end of the gym and doing jumping jacks.

The upshot: It's a continuous game. There are no winners or losers. And all the kids stay active.

The Legislature set aside $1 million last year for school districts to apply for grants to expand their PE offerings and related expenses, but the state was able to support new teachers for only about half the schools that applied.

Still, for small places such as Coos Bay, the money allowed the district to hire its first PE specialists in nearly 20 years.

But the money barely begins to address the issues for larger districts such as Beaverton and Portland.

In testimony to the Joint Ways and Means committee recently, Mary VanderWeele, vice chair for the Beaverton School Board, said her district of nearly 38,000 students would need 60 new teachers and $4 million to meet the requirement for more PE hours.

State officials don't know whether they've set up an unrealistic deadline or not. There isn't comprehensive data on how much PE kids get now. This fall, the state will do a survey to find out.

Sen. Peter Courtney, D-Salem, who has led the effort in the Legislature to establish higher PE standards, told the Joint Ways and Means Committee that he intends to request more money in the upcoming session to help schools.

"We have to do something about it now," he said. "It's where we can make a difference for kids and the state. We have to make a run at this. It's that simple. It's that straightforward."