Choose Your Base

• You can use a variety of materials for the base of your mini peace poles, including wood or plastic. Typically, for full-sized poles, wooden 2-by-4s, 4-by-4s or 6-by-6s are used, but you can up-cycle anything into a mini peace pole including a flat ruler, cardboard cut and taped into a rectangular tube, a foot-long piece of wood that is about an inch thick and an inch wide, or even old toilet paper rolls taped together.
  
  

Paint Your Base

• Using non-toxic paint, paint the base of you mini peace pole, covering up any tape that you may have used to hold it together. Use a light color because you will paint your peace phrase over the base coat as soon as it dries. Make sure to protect the surface your kids are painting on with newspapers, and give your kids some aprons to protect their clothes.
  
  

Write Your Peace Phrase

• When your base paint dries, write your phrase onto your peace poles using a pencil and stencil letters. Help your child plan out the phrase so that it fits neatly on the pole. If your pole is too small to write a long phrase, try simply writing the word "peace." Have your child pick out one to three other languages to write a peace phrase in, depending on if your pole has two or four flat sides (see Resources). Paint over the penciled letters.
  
  

Decorate and Plant

• Have your children add decorations to their poles, including painted designs, glitter or stamps. When the decorations and words dry, have a peace pole planting ceremony, allowing each child to talk about what peace means to them. Plant your mini peace pole in the soil of an indoor plant, outside in your garden, at your school's playground or anywhere where your kids can see it often.