Blog for the week of November 1 - 5

Howdy Partners!

I hope each of you enjoyed your extra few days off! I truly enjoyed visiting with your parents I had about half of your parents show up, which I felt very good about! I really did want to tell each of them what a great young person you are! Hopefully more will come to the spring conference.

                                REMEMBER THE BLOOOOOOOG!!!
OLD WEST FACT: Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss came to California for the gold rush thinking that he would make lots of money finding gold. He came to San Francisco in 1850, where thousands came hoping to strike it rich.

Levi was trained as a tailor and planned to manufacture tents and wagon covers for the people going out to pan for gold, but very few were interested in his items. So instead, he used the tent canvas he had brought with him to make very durable pants which miners found perfect for their line of work. He quickly began selling these "wonderful pants of Levi's" as fast as he could make them.

Strauss opened a factory at 98 Battery Street in San Francisco and began adding copper rivets at the stress points in his pants. He then switched from canvas to a heavy blue denim material called “genes” in France, which became "jeans" in America. The company Levi Strauss founded remains one of America's leading apparel manufacturers, and even today, the garment he created, still known as "levis", represents the lifestyle and spirit of the American West: egalitarian, utilitarian and independent.


There is a story that talks of Levi tied a pair of his pants between two horses and had each horse pull as hard as they could so that Levi could demonstrate how tough his pants were! Believe it?

1st and 6th Period:
Great work this last week! This week we will be talking about exponents... those are funny little numbers on the top of numbers... sound confusing? It wont be after this week!

1st & 6th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:
#1) It is said that in 1873 Levi officially started making pants, if he arrived in San Francisco in 1850 how many years did it take him to officially start selling pants?

#2) If a pair of levis pants cost $32.50 and you need to buy 4 pairs for the rest of the school year how much will all 4 pair of pants cost?

#3) How many pair of “blue jeans” do you own?

4th Period:

Howdy there cowpokes...this week we really get into hot water! Hahahah yep... you’ll be boiling hot... ok.. All that means is we will be shrinking fractions... get it hot water? Boiling water?? Oh man that is so funny!! Reducing or simplifying or just plain old shrinking fractions.. All fractions like to be in shape so we will be getting them into shape this week!
4th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:

#1) In 1850 if 1,234 people arrived each day in San Francisco to make it rich finding gold, how many people would have come in 1 month (based on a 30 day month)?


#2) Of the number of people in your answer for #1), if 350 left each week to go into the mountains to find gold how many people would have left IN a  month (30 day month) COMPARED TO how many would have STAYED?


#3) If a pair of levis pants cost $32.50 and you need to buy 4 pairs for the rest of the school year how much will all 4 pair of pants cost?


#4) How many pair of “blue jeans” do you own?

                                     GONZAGA MENS BASKETBALL

                                                FEEL THE SPIRIT!!!
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



Here are the notes from  1st period and also homework help and answers for the first 4 questions :) ENJOY!

Also here are some cool links for estimating ... :)

Guess the  number game

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Estimate/estimate.html

And another
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/games/ballparkestimation/ballparkestimation.html

Blog for the week of October 25 - 29th

Howdy Partners!

I guess we can say that Summer and Fall are past and now we are heading right into Winter! This was a great weekend to sit by the fireplace, if you have one, and do MATH!... hahaha I know.. You were thinking more of watching Icarly or Wizards of Waverly Place! I do hope you had a great weekend. Remember NO school this Thursday and Friday. Please remind your parents that I look forward to meeting them or seeing them again!


REMEMBER THE BLOOOOOOOG!!! SHORT week but still a BLOG QUESTION

OLD WEST FACT: Cattle Stampede

As it refers to cattle, probably from the Spanish word "Estampidea" which means that the herd becomes "spooked" and takes off running wild. This was more of a problem on long trail drives, as they were being taken to market because the cattle were constantly in unknown territory. Longhorn cattle were more prone to stampede because they were more "jumpy and skittish" than domesticated cattle were. Longhorns could be provoked to stampede by any sudden noise, like a gunshot, a thunderclap, or even a broken twig, or a dropped cookpot being enough to set them off running.


When the Longhorns stampeded, the cowboys had several ways to try and stop the cattle, one was to ride and get ahead and turn them to the right (for some strange reason cattle don't want to turn to the left while running) and get them running in a tight circle, which would tighten until the cattle stopped. Another tactic was to just let them "run themselves out" and they would eventually stop and could be rounded up. Longhorns tended to stay together during a stampede unlike domestic cattle which tended to scatter.

1st and 6th Period:
This week we are working on dividing decimals... that will take most of the week since we do not have school Thursday and Friday due to Parent conferences... this will be a short week but full of a lot of material!


1st & 6th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:
To add to our usual question from Old West Fact of the week I have also added a question about Rosa Parks.

On December 1, 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks changed America forever when she was arrested for refusing to yield her seat to a white patron on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus. Mrs. Parks was found guilty of disorderly conduct and taken to jail. Many believe that this started the push for equal rights for all people not just for white people. #1) Rosa parks died October 24, 2005 at the age of 92. How old was Rosa when she refused to move to the back of the bus and as a result was arrested______?



#2) In the above Old West Fact what geometric shape did the Cowboys try to get the cattle to make in order to stop the stampede_____?

#3) If it usually took 1 hour and 15 minutes to stop a stampede and on one cattle drive the cowboys reported that there were 5 stampedes how many hours and minutes did it take in total to stop all of the stampedes_____?


4th Period:
Howdy there cowpokes... this week on the big ranch we will continue our with fractions.. I know we took a short break for decimals but we will pick that up in a week or so... this week... equivalent fractions...sounds like rootin tootin fun time!


4th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:
SEE 1st & 6th Period BLOG QUESTION ... LOOK ABOVE...


                                GONZAGA MENS BASKETBALL

FEEL THE SPIRIT!!! Soon our favorite team will be hitting the floor! I read this week that one of the first games that our Zags play will be against San Diego State. This will be a tough game, one that San Diego will really want to win and also one that the Zags need to win to show that they are ready for anyone! Should be exciting... aren’t all their games exciting!??!? YOU BET!

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



1st & 6th Period Help With Multiplying Decimals

1st & 6th Period Multiplying Decimals

Blog for the week of October 18 through the 22

Howdy Partners!

 What a beautiful weekend! Hopefully your fully rested ready to get to it! We have a lot to get to and as John Wayne used to say... "We are burnin daylight!" So pull down that hat, tighten your spurs cause we are off to work today!
REMEMBER THE BLOOOOOOOG!!!

OLD WEST FACT: Branding Cows
Branding of livestock was a common practice to indicate ownership. It meant burning a mark on livestock using a hot iron.  Most cows were branded on the left hip. Rustlers (cattle thieves) who were good at altering brands after stealing the cows were known as "brand artists".

In the American West, a branding iron consisted of an iron rod with a seal-like mark which ranchers heated in a fire. After the branding iron turned red-hot, the rancher pressed the seal-like marker against the hide of the cow.

The unique mark meant that the cow could then graze freely among other cattle on the free-range of the American West. Cowboys could then separate the cattle at round-up time for driving to market. These customs of the American West evolved from the practices of the vaqueros (a Spanish term for "cowboy")..

1st and 6th Period:
This week we will continue working on decimal multiplying and dividing.. Of course we will continue working on place values and rounding of decimals. Remember... decimals are portions of numbers where as whole numbers are the WHOLE ENCHILADA!

1st & 6th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:
READ THE OLD WEST FACT... it will help you with your answer for this week’s blog question. #1) If you were a rancher in the old west and had 678 cattle and 356 had already been branded how many more would you need to brand___? #2) If it takes 15 minutes to brand a cow and you were planning on branding 15 cows in one day how long would you expect to be branding___? #3) Look at the pictures of brands... If you were to create a brand that resembled your name, what would it look like_________?

4th Period:
Howdy there cowpokes... this week on the big ranch we will continue our steer wrestling with mixed numbers along with subtracting and dividing fractions...sounds like rootin tootin fun time!

4th PERIOD BLOG QUESTION:
Make sure you read the Old West Fact for the week.... #1) You have 2 different brands and you are going to brand 1,000 cows and with two brands on each cow. How many total branding marks will you leave on your 1,000 cows___? #2) In the old west it cost 0.15 to brand a cow, if you had 245 cows how much would it cost to brand all of your cattle___? #3) Look at the pictures of brands... If you were to create a brand that resembled your name, what would it look like_________?

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

Adding and Subtracting Decimals 1st and 6th period

Remember FOLLOW the steps........

Stesp for rounding whole and decimal numbers 1st and 6th period

Notice that there are some things that are the same BUT 1 thing that is completly different....

Rounding Decimals 1st & th Period

You can look at a few posts below,... around 10/4 for the handout on rounding numbers ... but here is some help and also the answers to the first 3 homework questions for tonight :) Enjoy!

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