Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Gustavo, the Shy Ghost will love this post. It has tons of great information and resources. They’ll make planning quick and easy!
With themes of friendship and problem solving, this Gustavo picture book by Flavia Z. Drago is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will quickly become one of your favorites too. It’s one of mine!
Check out the Gustavo activities and lesson ideas below!
Engage Your Students with Gustavo Activities & Lesson Plans in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Gustavo. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Gustavo reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
GUSTAVO SUMMARY
The book Gustavo, The Shy Ghost tells the story of a very shy ghost named Gustavo. He is very lonely and wants to make friends. He struggles to approach any of the characters in the story because of his shyness. However, he finally gets the courage!
Gustavo gets up the courage to invite the other characters to a violin concert he is hosting. He sends out invitations to everyone. On the days leading up to the big event, he feels worried that no one will show up. On the night of the event, no one shows up. He decides to play his music anyway. After a short time, the other characters finally arrive! They praise him for his talent and apologize for being late. They had gotten lost on their way. Gustavo gains many friendships from this experience.
GUSTAVO LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide. This makes lesson planning quick and easy. They also include printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Gustavo, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you. We make it easy!
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Gustavo reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making predictions
- analyzing character
- analyzing illustrations
- making connections
- author’s purpose
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- friendship
- problem solving
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- contractions
- verb tense
- ellipses
GUSTAVO ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Gustavo?
- Lexile® Measure: AD550L
- Guided Reading Level: K
- DRA Level: 16 – 18
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2-2.6
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written and illustrated by Flavia Z. Drago.
What genre is Gustavo?
It is a fantasy book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.
