Students at St. David's Preschool have joined the Guinness Book of World Records for taking part in the largest shared reading experience.

The students will be included in the overall worldwide count for reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', by Eric Carle.

Last Thursday, St. David's Preschool joined preschoolers from around the world to break the record for the largest shared reading of a single book.

The school was invited to take part in Jump Starts, Read For the Record International Campaign, to encourage early literacy at the preschool level.

Teacher Dawnette Simons-Walker explained how the initiative came to be. "Actually, we are part of the Eric Carle fan club and they informed us that he would be joining hands with Jump Starts and they had selected his book."

The students join schools in countries including Brazil and Germany in the record book.

"It was the official date that Jump Starts set aside to break the world record and to get one million people. Jump-start is a programme that involves trying to bring about literacy especially for lower-income families."

This is the third year the programme has run and each year, the organisers try to increase the numbers.

Asked how the 11 students at the school felt about being in a global initiative, Mrs. Simons-Walker said: "They were excited to be a part of it. They enjoy Eric Carle books. His books in general tend to deal with insects and nature."

Speaking about additional reading programmes, the teacher said: "We're definitely going to be working towards other authors. We're going to be doing several author studies and puppets and a way to incorporate our literacy skills.

"We're also looking at not just reading the story but also understanding their life as how it's shown in the story and also to re-encounter the story detail and sequence of the story."

Eric Carle's work includes "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and "1, 2, 3 to the Zoo".