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February 4, 2022
 Join us Friday, February 11 for our SCA Spirit Day! Wear your favorite jersey to school that day to show off your school spirit!
Willow Springs families,
We hope our families had a wonderful celebration of The Lunar New Year. We began the week recognizing the Chinese New Year. The year of the Tiger symbolizes bravery, competitiveness, wisdom, and leadership. These characteristics are shown daily by our students. We truly have brave and courageous leaders in our school who find opportunities to take initiative and make an impact within the classroom and our WSES community. Our students are risk takers who allow themselves to grow while seeking growth in others.
During the month of February we are celebrating Black History Month by affirming the accomplishments and contributions Black and African Americans have made to our nation's history. It provides us a time to honor and recognize the essential role that African Americans have and continue to play in U.S. history.
As we move into next week, we encourage students and families to create handmade cards for staff members who have made a tremendous impact. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has declared on February 8, "We Love FCPS Day."
Lastly, we would like to thank our wonderful school counselors, Amanda Seminario and Tamela Shelton. As we celebrate National School Counselors Week, we want to recognize the hard work and dedication of our WSES school counselors. We are grateful for all they do for our children and families.
Have a fun and safe weekend. We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday!
Sincerely,
Dylan Taylor, Principal
Lesley Hassen, Assistant Principal
Ipsa Stringer, Assistant Principal
ST Math January Snowball Competition
During January students throughout the school competed in an ST Math Snowball Competition to see which classes could complete the most ST Math puzzles. Congratulations to the following classes for working hard to engage in math thinking and complete the most puzzles for their grade level:
- Ms. VanDerHorst’s Kindergarten class completed 2,352 puzzles
- Ms. Vila’s 1st Grade class completed 1,596 puzzles
- Ms. Creek’s 2nd Grade class completed 2,109 puzzles
- Ms. Stavros’s 3rd Grade class completed 2,534 puzzles
- Ms. Styles’s 4th Grade class completed 5,357 puzzles
- Ms. Li’s 5th Grade class completed 3,423 puzzles
- Ms. Panczyszyn’s 6th Grade class completed 3,323 puzzles
As a school, students collectly completed 54,938 puzzles in two weeks! That’s 54,938 opportunities to engage in math problem solving!
We also want to recognize the following classes who had 100% of their class participate in the challenge and demonstrated excellent teamwork and perseverance!
- Ms. Park’s 3rd Grade class
- Ms. Styles’s 4th Grade class
- Ms. Mott’s 5th Grade class
- Ms. Williams’s 5th Grade class
Way to go Willow Foxes! We are proud of you!
Positivity Project Corner
This week our school community will be focusing on the character strength of Humility. Humility means you do not seek the spotlight. You let your actions speak for themselves.
Humble people have an accurate (not underestimated) sense of their abilities and achievements. They hold the capacity to acknowledge their mistakes and limitations, and are open to advice and new ideas. They do not show off their possessions or accomplishments.
Developing humility is associated with positive developmental outcomes in individuals. It allows a person to honestly reflect on their abilities and acknowledge how and where they can improve. Humility opens them up to new ideas, advice, and (consequently) abilities that pride, arrogance, or pretentiousness often block. Therefore, humility makes them desired members of a team.
To practice and encourage the character strength of humility with your child, please visit the Positivity Project’s P2 for Families (password: P2) where together you will watch a video, read a quote and talk about the answers to three questions.
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Upcoming Lockdown Drill
Keeping students and staff safe is a priority for all of us. We have a crisis management and emergency preparedness plan for our school that is reviewed and updated regularly. Our plan includes procedures on how to respond to incidents such as fires and tornadoes. Students and staff regularly practice these drills every school year. We also practice lockdown drills.
A new Virginia Law (22.1-137.2) requires schools to notify parents at least 24 hours before a school practices a lockdown drill. However, we are not required to share the exact date and time of the drill. We are required to practice lockdown drills two times a year. FCPS lockdown drills do not include any type of active shooter scenario training, they are instruction and classroom based.
We will conduct our second lockdown drill at our school soon. Our kindergarten students were exempt from mandatory participation in lockdown drills during the first 60 days of the school year. They will participate in this drill and final drill later this school year.
Additional information on our lockdown drill program to include parent tips and FAQs can be found on the Emergency Planning and Crisis Response web page. After reviewing this content, you should discuss the value of these safety drills with your child.
Keeping our school safe and secure for all students and staff involves the participation of the entire school community, and we thank you for your help to keep our school safe.
National School Counseling Week:
Thank you, Ms. Seminario and Ms. Shelton!
 National School Counseling Week 2022 (#NSCW22) is Feb. 7-11, 2022, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by ASCA, highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. National School Counseling Week is always celebrated the first full week in February.
"We Love FCPS Day" - February 8
 The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is declaring February 8 "We Love FCPS Day." Join us in the celebration. Show your love for your school by creating a handmade card for the FCPS employee who has made a difference in your student’s life this year.
Health and Safety Measures Update
While the Virginia Department of Health shifted the expectation for contact tracing in schools to only on outbreaks, the CDC continues to indicate that contact tracing, in combination with testing, wearing a well-fitting mask, and quarantine and isolation, are effective strategies to identify people with COVID-19 (cases) and to reduce transmission.
FCPS has and continues to implement CDC recommendations, to the greatest extent practicable, to prevent or reduce the spread of COVID-19 in schools and to foster the continuation of in-person learning for students and staff. As a result, FCPS will continue contact tracing until further notice.
The following changes are effective 5:00 p.m. Friday, February 4:
- FCPS Pause (Close Contact) Letter includes quarantine guidance and replaces the FCHD quarantine email to families
- FCPS Student Quarantine Exemption and Attestation Form replaces the FCHD Vaccine Verification Survey (Will be embedded in the FCPS Pause Letter and available on the FCPS webpage, physical copies will be available if needed)
Monitoring COVID-19 cases is critical to maintaining a safe in-person learning environment for all students. Please continue to let us know if your child has tested positive for COVID-19 or may be a close contact. We will work with you through the process to return your child to the classroom as quickly as possible.
Immunization Clinic - February 5
Elementary Language Arts Resource Review
 Parents, students, and community members have a unique opportunity to help FCPS select important learning resources. These reviews do not happen frequently, so selected resources will be in classrooms for years and are a significant financial investment.
Resources for elementary language arts are being reviewed through February 28. Interested individuals can review and provide feedback on digital resources online. Physical texts can be reviewed at the Willow Oaks Administrative Center in the lobby. Please ask about the books at the reception desk from 8 a.m. - 3 p.m., Monday-Friday. In-person review hours will be extended to 7 p.m. on February 3, 10, 17, and 24. You are encouraged to review both sets of resources for the full catalog of resources under review. Learn more about the elementary language arts resource review here.
Cafeteria Volunteers Needed
 Please consider volunteering in our cafeteria this week. No training required, we will give you a bucket with condiments, etc. to pass out as kids raise their hands for help. If you're interested in a paid position, please send your resume to Amanda McCabe at anmccabe@fcps.edu.
If you are interested in volunteering this week, please click here or use the QR code above to sign up. Hope to see you in the cafeteria!
Watch D.O.G.S.
Have you heard about our Watch D.O.G.S? The Watch D.O.G.S group is our group of men who volunteer at school and help the school as needed during their day. You can be a dad, stepdad, grandpa, or uncle. Sign up for a time that fits your schedule as many or as few times as your schedule allows. See upcoming spring spots at https://signup.com/go/mWNvXOp.
WSES Spirit Wear
The newly revamped Willow Springs PTA spirit wear store is live! Instead of a once a year sale, our new store is open 24-7 all year long. We have so many fun new designs and clothing options for you to check out HERE.
We are excited for our community to show their Willow Pride!
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PTA Membership Drive
The PTA has started the fall membership drive and is encouraging all families to sign up. The PTA is an excellent way to support the students and teachers, which we do through a variety of activities including Staff Appreciation week, building upgrades, books and games to teachers, Read Across America activities, etc. Sign up at https://wses1.memberhub.com/store.
Funds for Foxes
Here are some of the easy ways you can help earn money for the Willow Springs Elementary PTA! Take a look at some of the partnerships we have.
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February 8 "We Love FCPS Day"
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February 9 PTA Meeting at 7 p.m. - Virtual Zoom Link
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February 11 SCA Spirit Day - Jersey Day
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February 21 Presidents' Day Holiday - NO SCHOOL
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February 25 PTA Game Night
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April 22 Cub Scout Pack 1858 Movie Night
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