Before, during and after our Thanksgiving project, we've been using this portfolio to compilate the different activities, work on vocabulary and expressions related to the topic, relate what we were learning with other learnings (reading and writing, describing, comparing, organizing ideas in a Thinking map, ...). Basically, doing some SCAFFOLDING.
You can download it below if you'd like to. Most of the activities can be adapted to many other themes (if you want the editable version, just send me an email).