Choir

Mrs. Patty Eskridge, First Grade Teacher, has led the Farragut Choir since 1990. Students in grades 1 through 5 meet Wednesday mornings before school to learn songs that will be performed at special events including the Winter and Spring Concerts at Farragut and at the Farragut Fan Club's Fiesta Bingo fundraiser.

Every year there are 90-100 children who join the choir to make beautiful music. It is a fun experience to work with so many other students and learn how to be a choir member. The children work on being part of the team, how to present themselves in performance, how to be responsible to the group and mostly to have fun making music.

The choir is open to every child in the 1st through 5th grades; all that is needed is the desire to sing. Students learn to match pitch with each other and the piano, to count rhythms, memorize words and even sing two parts, but most of all the children have fun making music for all to enjoy.

Hand Bells

Since it began in 2007, the Handbell Choir, led by Mrs. Patty Eskridge has grown from 15 students to 60 students in grades 3 through 8 who participate in three levels: Beginning, Advanced, and Middle School. The handbell groups meet before school throughout the year on Mondays (Middle School), Thursdays (Advanced group), and Fridays (Beginning group). The recently formed Middle School group consists of former Farragut participants who did not want to stop playing bells after they moved to the Middle School.

Through the handbells program, students learn to read music including note values and placement on the musical staff, the counting of simple and complex rhythms, key signatures and accidentals and other important elements of musical notation.

Students learn the correct way to play handbells, and how to properly care for and store these instruments. Each student has one or two chimes or bells to play, depending on ability and desire, as part of the group. By working together with the others, each student playing his/her own particular chime/bell note and reading their individual music, a complete song is produced as each part of the handbell choir comes together as a whole to make the music sound properly. Cooperation and dependability are key behavioral goals that students develop as they learn the music.

The handbell groups perform at the Winter and Spring Concerts at Farragut and at different functions in Culver City, such as CCEF Tribute to the Stars, Kaiser Permanente, CC Lions, and CC Rotary Club.