Blandford Elementary School students did their part Thursday to enter the Guinness Book of World Records ­— along with more than 400,000 other people.

Blandford’s entire student body took part in “Stack Up,” a worldwide effort to set a record for the most people participating in sport stacking in one day.

Sport stacking has been described as a “track meet for your hands.” Students stack specially-designed cups up and down in predetermined sequences as fast as they can. Sport stacking has been shown to help improve reaction time, hand-eye coordination, concentration and focus.

“Research says this works your right brain and left brain, and it carries over into your reading classes and your math classes,” said BES physical education teacher Suzanne Dasher.

Stackers race against the clock, compete in relays and combine sport stacking with fitness challenges. As they raced to stack cups, BES students ran, crawled backward and forward, and partnered for “wheelbarrow” relays.

Blandford’s approximately 850 students helped the World Sport Stacking Association toward its goal this year of 450,000 stackers. Last year, 412,259 people stacked in 24 hours, shattering the previous year’s record of 316,736.

Students enjoy the challenge so much they try their hand at it outside of school as well, Dasher said. Although the cups at home aren’t custom-made like the ones for sport stacking (with holes at the bottom), that doesn’t stop the students.

“The more they do it, the better they get,” she said. “They really like it.”