The other bears, hearing what Edward was saying about having fun, gathered round to see what he was doing.
"Can I help then?" asked Crackers. Several of the other bears wanted to join in too.
"Of course you may," said Edward. "Actually, everyone can help."
"What do we do first?" asked Crackers eagerly.
"First of all," Edward explained, "we're going to write numbers on each of these strips of paper. They don't all have to be the same style, just that they are marked from 1 to 24. Make them as pretty as you like."
The bears numbered themselves off from 1 to 24, meaning that some bears actually ended up with two strips of paper to write numbers on.
"Just make sure the numbers are in the centre of each strip - like this," Edward showed them.