Offered to students in grades two to six interested in learning and playing chess. All levels are welcome! Beginners and advanced players! Players are grouped by ability, not age. Rules are taught to beginners and strategies to experienced players.

Chess teaches responsibility, discipline, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Chess players learn how to make the most of their opportunities and how to turn a bad situation to their advantage. They learn not to make excuses for their setbacks, and to win and lose graciously.

Membership in the club includes a weekly club meeting and the opportunity to participate in the Elementary Team League. Chess Club is offered through our partnership with the U.S. Chess Center https://chessctr.org. All instructors are nationally certified chess coaches.

The club meets on Thursdays from 4:15-5:30 p.m. starting September 21-January 18 for the fall semester.

Register HERE.

Welcome to Scouting! Apply for membership or to volunteer for scouting HERE.

The club is full and closed to registrations

 The PTA is sponsoring the club led by Karen and Doug Rice, Karen is a former Kindergarten Instructional Assistant.

The Garden/Farm-to-Table Club is open for third to sixth-graders and meets on Fridays from 4-5:30 p.m. at Willow Springs, starting  September 8-October 27. Club participants will learn how to plan, plant, and harvest a garden of native flowers and vegetables. They will also help with the Farmer's Market.

PTA is sponsoring the club led by STEAM Teacher, Carley Fisher-Maltese. Her email address is @email.

Willow Springs is hosting a weekly fall farmer's market this year, it will be set up in front of the basketball blacktop from 4:00-4:30 p.m. on Fridaysstarting September 8 to October 27. Students in the Garden /Farm to Table club will run the event in conjunction with Piney Meadow Farm. The money the students raise through the produce sales will go towards the Garden Club and STEAM activities. Parents are encouraged to park in the adjacent neighborhood and walk over to pick up produce. The market is open in the spring and fall.

Welcome to Scouting! Apply for membership or to volunteer for scouting HERE.

Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can develop their leadership skills and discover their strengths. They determine their focus and rise to meet new challenges. Perhaps they want to work with an arborist or climb to the top of a tree, become the top student in their class, earn musician or athlete's badges, lace up their boots for a hike, advocate for climate justice, collect supplies for the local food bank, or make life-long best friends. Girls in each troop decide what they want to focus on during the year and how they can collaborate to accomplish their goals.

We have seven Girl Scout Troops with girls from kindergarten through sixth grade at Willow Springs. They usually meet twice a month and have activities they plan together. There are a few activities each year in which all troops participate.

• The VIP Dance is where girls bring a special adult to enjoy an evening of games and music with a DJ.
• World Thinking Day is where troops present information about countries around the world to their peers.
• Juliette Gordon Low's Birthday Party is a dress-up dance party that takes place around Halloween to celebrate the Founder of Girl Scouts/Halloween/Day of the Dead. Food and Funds are collected for food banks and charities.

Good News Club (GNC) is an exciting, fun-filled weekly club for kids in which the Bible is taught with songs, stories, and games. Boys and girls, kindergarten through sixth grade can attend and parents are welcome to participate with their children. The club is sponsored by the Child Evangelism Fellowship of Northern Virginia, they will meet on Tuesdays from 4-5:30 p.m., starting February 7 through April 25, 2024.

For more information contact the Team Leader, Eun Cho at @email or 703-474-6434.

Registration details will be posted soon.

Club is currently not open for registrations.

The Willow Springs PTA is sponsoring the Grade 5-6 Virtual MathCounts Team for the fall/early winter. Team Training is an advanced and challenging way to promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills in mathematics. The club will meet every Friday night from 7-8:30 p.m. starting on 10/14 to the end of the Virginia State MathCounts competition, except holidays and winter break. 

You may Register here.

Please contact Mr. Chenggui Chu at @email with any questions. 

Registration for the WSES Mathematical Olympiad Club is open. 

• Third and fourth-grade students will meet weekly after school in the cafeteria and will have over 15 opportunities to participate in various tournaments and competitions.
• There will be no club meetings for fifth and sixth graders, they will participate in various tournaments

Fees

• Only club meetings, no competition- $25 
• Club meetings with competitions-$25, plus the fee for selected competitions
• No Club meetings, only competitions-Pay for selected tournaments

Math Competitions

• MOEMS - Mathematical Olympiad for Elementary and Middle School-$25 (covers 5 contests)
• Perennial Math Competition Fall and Spring Season-$25 per season
• NOETIC Learning Math Contest, Seasons 1 and 2-$25 per season
• Math Kangaroo-$25

 Please get in touch with Nunik Nishanian at [email protected] for more information.

Currently not open for registrations.

The Willow Springs PTA is sponsoring the Mindful Math Club for current 4th graders who love challenging math, enjoy working on math puzzles, and find different solutions to given problems.

Club Activities: 

• Mathematically designed games, stories, and puzzles.
• Apply math theories to the real world.
• Apply creative solutions to challenging math problems.
• Discuss advanced concepts NOT in the current curriculum. 
• No homework!
• A maximum of 20 students are accepted.

Please contact Zenobia Geadah at [email protected] or 703-447-3713 with questions.

Has not opened for 2023-24, more details to follow.

Grades three students will learn how to solve Rubik's cubes simply and efficiently, promoting mathematical planning within a small amount of time as well as memorization skills. Open to advanced and beginner players.

The club is full for the fall of 2023-24

The club is currently not open for registrations.

Please get in touch with Nunik Nishanian at [email protected] for more information.

 Willow Writers Club

Who?  Students in grades 4, 5, and 6

What?  Willow Writers is a space for students to write and share creatively outside of school assignments with a supportive group.  It is not tied to the academic program. 

Where?  Mrs. Young’s Classroom

When?  Tuesday mornings, 8:15 – 9am.  There will be two sessions, each capped at 30 students.  

Session One:  January 2 – February 6, 2024

Session Two:  February 13 – March 19, 2024

Why?  Writing in a no-pressure environment helps us tap into our imagination and emotions.  It can crystallize our thoughts and strengthen communication.  Willow Writers provides support, encouragement, and mini-lessons on elements of the writing process while exploring a variety of writing genres.  

How Much?  Willow Writers is FREE to join. 

What will students do?

Alternate weeks between a focus lesson and an "open-write" session. Focus lessons will dive into an aspect of writing with related reading examples and exercises. During the open writing sessions, students will write to different prompts, have the opportunity to share their writing with others and learn how to offer (and receive) feedback. They will explore different genres and styles of writing (poetry, scriptwriting, fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, blog, essay, memoir, dialogue, etc.).

What will students need?

A notebook and a pen or pencil, or they can bring their own device and type - their choice!

Willow Writers Anthology

Our Inaugural Willow Writers Anthology was sent to Fox Printing Press at the end of the 2021-22 school year, and has officially been published! It is 58 pages of creative, thoughtful, inspiring writers from both sessions of the club that met in the winter and spring. There's humor, there's a mystery, there's poetry, there's fantasy, there's a memoir, there's everything! Students chose the title “That’s Write!” and submitted artwork/illustrations to go with some of the stories.  Students in the club received a hard copy of the book, and all are beyond excited to celebrate these published writers! 

The second annual Willow Writers Anthology, titled "Paws and a Pencil" has been published by our own Fox Printing Press at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Over 30 students from the club contributed pieces across several genres, resulting in over 70 pages of fun, thoughtful, creative writing. We are proud of them ALL​​​​!

The Yearbook Club for 2023-24 will open soon.

Band is a year-long graded course open to fifth and sixth graders.

Our AAA School Safety Patrol Program consists of approximately 100  fifth and sixth-grade students. The program provides opportunities for our members to be leaders and role models for their peers and younger students.

There are two categories of Patrols; Bus Patrol and School Grounds Patrol.

• Bus Patrols help load and unload students on the bus, and they are trained to help bus drivers in emergencies such as bus evacuations. They also help our kindergarten students to and from the bus in the morning and afternoon.
• Grounds Patrols help in school hallways, Kiss & Ride, and the walking path. They also help raise and lower the American and Virginia Flags and track the arrival and dismissal of buses.

Chorus is an activity open to fifth and sixth graders during the school day, it is not a graded course.

Sixth-grade students volunteer/help out in the morning by collecting and shelving library books in the library.

Strings is a year-long graded course open to fourth, fifth, and sixth-graders.

Our student ambassador program is new to Willow Springs for the 2023-24 school year. Ambassadors meet monthly to ensure new students have a warm welcome to Willow Springs! 

Students discuss student needs and share ideas with school staff about how to make Willow Springs a welcoming school.  Our ambassadors also meet with new students to show them around, answer questions, and make sure each new student knows that they belong at Willow Springs!

The Student Council Association is composed of students whose primary role is to serve and help make Willow Springs Elementary a better place for all students. The SCA builds character and develops leadership, confidence, responsibility, organization, and teamwork. All this takes is a student's time, energy, and willingness to work. SCA general meetings are held once a month during school hours. The Executive Board meetings (officers) meet about once a month during school.

There are four officer positions and two class representatives from grades three to six who make up the SCA. They are tasked with identifying school spirit day activities, making posters, and reporting back to their classrooms with events planned.

• President-Sixth Grader
• Vice President-Fifth Grader
• Secretary-Sixth Grader
• Treasurer-Sixth Grader

WSES Morning News – Join our crew!

Our WSES Morning News is a student-produced live show that airs in all classrooms Monday-Friday from 9:17-9:22 a.m. and connects our school community by sharing important news, updates, and events around our school. Led by a team of enthusiastic and dedicated student anchors in grades 2-6, the News Crew is a fun and informative way to stay current at our school. Any interested student at WSES is eligible to join our crew, new students join throughout the year! We have more than 40 active crew members in grades two to six. We typically meet during lunch, Fox Den, or recess. Please reach out to to your teacher if you are a student at WSES, and interested in joining our crew. We have behind-the-scenes and anchor positions available.

Our crew brings you the latest news and happenings each week, from upcoming events and special guests to student achievements and classroom highlights. They also feature interviews with teachers, staff, and students, giving us a glimpse into the daily life of our school community. In addition to being a great way to stay informed, the News Crew is also a fantastic learning opportunity for our student anchors. They learn valuable skills such as public speaking, teamwork, and critical thinking as they research and prepare their segments for the show.

But the WSES Morning News is more than just a show - it's a community. Our team works together to create a positive and inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome and valued. They strive to represent our school community's diverse voices and perspectives and encourage all students to get involved and share their ideas. We are proud of our News Crew and their role in bringing our school community together. We hope you'll tune in and join us in celebrating the amazing things happening at our school!

Many people don't know what happens behind the scenes and all that is involved in having a live production. We have 4 behind the scenes jobs and between 2-3 anchors to run the live show.  To have a more in-depth understanding of the show, check out the description of each element below. 

News Crew Jobs

Switcher- The switcher controls which camera students are seeing live in their classroom. In the news studio, we have two different cameras so we can have two different sets. The main set is for our two main anchors. We have a more relaxed talk show vibe. Our second camera is for our additional anchor. Each day of the week we have a special news segment that our additional anchor helps out with.

Slides- Our students use Canva to control our backgrounds. You'll notice in our behind-the-scenes video below, that we use green screens to be able to have whatever we want as our background. We have our "news set", followed by slides to do the pledge and a moment of silence. Then students share what's for lunch each day and then we add our additional segment's set, before we wrap out the news show. Students have fun adding to the slides and being creative. 

Audio Mixer- Our audio mixer controls which of our three microphones are on and transmitting audio to the classrooms and the crew member can also control the volume. 

Script- The news anchors who are on for the week help to prepare the script. They start from a template and then customize parts and fill in parts on their own. It is their responsibility to make sure the script is ready for the morning and the slides are ready to go as well. 

Main anchors- Our two main anchors are live for the week. They collaborate to get the script and slides ready for the whole week. 

Additional anchors- Our additional anchor will run the additional news segments.