Blog for the week of October 11 - 15

Howdy Partners!

Rain, Rain, go away... come back another day! One good thing about the rain, besides keeping everything green... vs. California where its ugly brown... is that sooner or later... it will be Summer! So button up that slicker and get ready for another weeks of the big trail ride!

REMEMBER THE BLOOOOOOOG!!!

OLD WEST FACT: The Signing Cowboy

The original country western music! Western Cowboys really did sing cowboy songs to the cattle at night. Singing songs like "Old Dan Tucker," "Nearer My God To Thee," "In the Sweet By and By" or "The Texas Lullaby" soothed jittery cows, which helped reduce the likelihood of stampede. Thunder and lightning were the most common causes of cattle stampedes. At night, if a storm came and the cattle started running, it was the cowboy's job to jump on his horse, head them off and round them up safely. The job was a dangerous one in the wild west, riding through the dark, with prairie dog holes all around, not knowing if the next turn would be your last.

That's why singing to cattle was so important. Two men on guard would circle around with their horses on a walk. If it were a clear night with the cattle bedded down and quiet, one man would sing a verse of a song, and his partner on the other side of the herd would sing another verse. They would go through a whole song that way, right through the night. The cattle songs and cowboy poetry tell of a "free" life entwined in nature and work.


Here is one of their songs... A Cowboy Needs Wide Open Spaces

A cowboy needs wide-open spaces.
A cowboy needs wild, untamed places.
A cowboy needs untrammeled trails.
A cowboy needs grassy hills and dales.

A cowboy needs meadows that have never been plowed.
A cowboy needs room to roam freely around.
A cowboy needs to be where deer and antelope abound.
A cowboy needs to be where only the grazing's cowed.

A cowboy needs water clear, pure, and bright.
A cowboy needs to look up at the stars at night.
A cowboy needs to breathe air that's fresh and clean.
A cowboy needs to see he's part of Nature's scene.
A cowboy needs the panoramic vistas of the open range.
A cowboy needs to see the seasons change.
A cowboy needs to have all these things that Nature's arranged,


'Cause if he doesn't, that cowpoke'll become plumb "de-ranged!"

1st and 6th Period:
This week we will be working on decimal place values and rounding decimals... which of course leads us to adding and subtracting decimals... and since multiplication and addition are like cousins... we will hopefully get into multiplying decimals by Friday!

1st & 6th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:

READ THE OLD WEST FACT... it will help you with your answer for this week’s blog question. #1) At night how many cowboys were on watch over the herd (all of the cows) at night____? #2) During the night the cowboys would circle the herd 2 times in one hour... if each cowboy were on watch for 6 hours how many times did they circle the herd_____?

4th Period:

Howdy there cowpokes... this week on the big ranch we will be steer wrestling with mixed numbers along with multiplying fractions... look at it this way.. Wouldn’t you rather wrestle with mixed numbers than with a big cow with horns?

4th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:

Make sure you read the Old West Fact for the week.... #1) In the above Cowboy song... what word can you make with 3/6 of the word cowboy____? #2) Count up all the words in the above song and make a fraction for how many times the word cowboy is used out of all the words in the song____? #3) Why would the cowboys sing to the cows________? #4) If a Cowboy would sing all night long and would sing 2 songs per hour and would be on watch for 6 hours how many songs would he possibly sing during his shift of watching the cows____?

GONZAGA MENS BASKETBALL

FEEL THE SPIRIT!!! Soon our favorite team will be hitting the floor!

Have a wild and woolly ride this week! As always, you are amazing, incredible people with the whole world waiting to be changed by YOU!
Mr. Rott