Quick and Easy Author Report Lapbook

When we make lapbooks, the lapbooks tend to be the final project for big unit studies. For example, the Middle Ages lapbook that each child made last fall had multiple, multiple attachments and even had links of chain mail attached to the top! Since I tend to think BIG PROJECT when I think of lapbooks, I truly under-utilize lapbooks as great very quick learning tools.

Recently, my middle son had to do a short report on an author. His favorite author right now is R. L. Stine of Goosebumps fame. My son struggles with organizing essays so I prepared a lapbook project folder for him. I spent about 10 minutes skimming over the materials he had printed from the internet about R. L. Stine. Then I came up with a list of questions and wrote them on mini-books. Then, I put all of the materials in one of his workboxes for the next day with a brief note explaining the assignment.

For the cover, he was to draw a picture from one of his favorite Goosebumps books. He drew a picture from "The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight."
On the inside of the folder, he glued in the mini-books as he finished them. Here are the questions that I asked:
What advice does R. L. Stine have for young writers?
How many books has R. L. Stine sold?
Where does R. L. Stine get his ideas for books?
How many books has R. L. Stine written?
Where did R. L. Stine go to college?
How many days does it take to write a Goosebumps novel?

My son enjoyed this project and the report folder was VERY quick for me to prepare. Now I just have to remember that lapbooks can be used for BIG and SMALL projects.