Elementary Activities: Knights of Right Challenge with Paper Dolls (Writer's Workshop)

by: Deborah Pace Rowley

On the third day of the Writer’s Workshop, my oldest daughter Melissa M’Lin Rowley came to talk to the kids about her books. She had the first book in the Knights of Right series published when she was just 16 years old. (See the side bar for more information on these amazing books.) During her senior year of high school, she was able to travel around the country visiting different elementary schools, talking about writing and making positive choices. It was fun for the students in the Workshop to meet a real “author” and to learn that you don’t need to be old like ME to publish books. It was especially fun because several of the students at the workshop were serious fans of Knights of Right! 

During her elementary school presentations Melissa would hand out paper dolls of knights and challenge the students to complete different activities to earn the armor for their knights to wear. In the books, the main characters earn armor for completing quests like being honest and saying ‘No’ to drugs. The elementary school students were challenged to complete their homework and thank their teachers. They were asked to help a friend and stand up for someone being bullied. For each task on the list that they would complete, they would earn a new piece of armor for their knight. 

I thought it would be fun to share the knights and their armor with you for your own summer Knights of Right Challenge. Your kids can color the knights and hang them on the fridge or the wall. The armor page is purposefully left blank so that you can write your own  challenge beside each piece of armor. Would you like your child to read more this summer or to do more outdoor activities? Write these things down next to a piece of armor. Would you like your child clean up his room or do the dishes? These would make great armor challenges. Maybe you would like to award a piece of armor for each time your son is kind to his sister or each time your daughter helps her little brother. Personalize the armor for your own family and let the Knights of Right tournament begin!  

Note: These Knights and Armor were drawn by Melissa’s illustrator: Michael Walton! 

Girl Knight

Boy Knight

Girl Armor

Boy Armor