I am tutoring 4 students, ranging from grade 3-grade 5.  (3 girls 1 boy.)  Their parents want me to have them do a more intensive writing project.  They are pretty advanced...more advanced than the students at the public school I teach at, but I don't want to overwhelm them. 

So I was thinking of doing a creative writing project.  A short story that they create themselves.  4-5 pages max that we slowly put together and form over the course of a month.  I'm going to introduce themes such as reposted speech, the proper writing tenses, and the necessary components of writing (characters, plot, setting), but I'm worried about how difficult this might be for them or how to introduce it properly.

In the past we have done verb tenses, prepositions and vocabulary.  Tomorrow is our first day for the project and I'm just not sure how to start it off.  Any ideas?

I did something similar with my 6th graders, a fairytale group project, but it was just over their heads.

I had my summer camp middle schoolers make a movie (write script and film it) this summer. I started with a youtube video of Cinderella and had them find different story elements in it. From there we tried changing some of the elements (ie a new setting, new characters) and at the end I had them get into groups and fill out their own story elements chart for the movie they would write.
I found the idea online (don't remeber where exactly) and modified it. It was good to have some structure for the students to build on. My students freeze up when I give them a creative task with no structure.
I'll attach my powerpoint and worksheet. Maybe you can use a physical book instead of the youtube video since you are tutoring one on one.
Good luck! Hope this helps!

So normally I dedicate 10 mins of class time every other week to writing for my 5th and 6th graders.  I give them a topic, show them a video, or give them a picture.  Last week I gave them pictures of toy story 3.  My students are pretty good at English so I have them peer grade, but then I always grade them myself afterwards.

I like the idea you have about creative writing.  I'm thinking this may be a good motivator for my middle school conversation class.  Sometimes it's difficult to inspire and entertain my mostly girls class.  All they usually want to do is play games which isn't necessarily a bad thing but even this bores me week after week. 

 - So - some interesting topics (music, fashion, famous celebrities, learning English) introduced via you tube, pictures, even some personal photos etc., then a short writing assignment and presentations to the class might work!?!?!? 

Thanks for the idea!

Here's a funny writing prompt on aliens as teachers.

Mad Libs are also an excellent way of having students use their imagination.
 
http://www.classroomjr.com/summer-mad-libs/summer-mad-libs/ here's a website on a sample mad lib about a family summer vacation.
Have a separate handout with blanks so the students can plug in adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc.
When completed, allow the students to volunteer their mad libs and the teacher read the plugged in words. use DRAMATIC motions with a DRAMATIC voice as it's pretty funny for them to see a teacher act.

another fun idea is to do writing telephone.  (ha! that is my first attempt to title this activity.)
each student has a paper.  they write two sentences on the top, one sentence per line.  then they cover up the first sentence by folding the paper down.  once everyone is done, they pass it to their right (students are in a circle).  this student then proceeds to write a sentence based on the sentence before. when finished, again the paper gets folded down to cover the first sentence, leaving the one just completed exposed. get the idea-ish?  this continues until everyone gets their original papers back, at which time they unfold them and read the stories quietly to themselves before taking turns reading them to the class.  to take it further you can have them proof read their stories if you have the time.  hope this works for you!  cheers.

I've been wanting to encourage my students to break free of the awkward conversational English they learn in Elementary school.  I find however, that if I give them the change to be creative on their own they have no idea to handle this lack of structure.  Here is a structured lesson that will encourage creativity without the students knowing that is what they are doing.  I haven't used it yet but I'm sure it will work in a small class setting.

Step 1- students draw their idea of a future school.  I included required items, they must be creative with drawing these items

Step 2- They will describe the items in their future schools.

Step 3- Answer questions about their future schools.

Step 4- Combine their descriptions and their answers into a formal paragraph.