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Brayton students play literary bingo last Monday to showcase their word skills.
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Brayton Students Play Bingo For Books

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — More than 50 students and their parents participated in the first "Bingo for Books" event last week at Brayton Elementary school during which students showcased their literary skills.
 
Fourth-grade teacher Marie McCarron said she and fellow teacher Karen Cellana brought the event to Brayton because they wanted to get parents more involved in the classroom.
 
"We were trying to come up with ideas to involve our parents in what our students were learning in the classroom and make it fun at the same time," she said. "We had also heard that this type of event was successful in another school from one of our other colleagues."
 
McCarron said instead of the bingo cards having numbers, they had literary terms. The caller would call out the literary term and give out the meaning, describe it, or use it in a sentence.  
 
"Some of the time the students would give the meanings of the terms which allowed us as well as their parents to see what they have been learning in school," she said. "We played different versions such as blackout, crisscross, and diagonal."
 
Also, she said during the evening, parents had the opportunity to read student essays and review their child's work.
 
McCarron said the students received books that the teachers have been ordering through Scholastic teacher points or with their own money.  
 
"We made a point to order more than we needed to make sure that every student left with a book," she said. "Every child left with at least one book. What made it even better is that they had a huge variety to select from which varied in both interest and reading levels."
 
McCarron hopes that students walked away with a deeper understanding of the literary terms they have been studying and will be exposed to during district and state testing. 
 
It's an event they plan on doing again   
 
"Our Brayton parents are an important part and a great asset to our Brayton Community and students really enjoy participating in events like these alongside their parents," McCarron said. 
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Macksey Updates on Eagle Street Demo and Myriad City Projects

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

The back of Moderne Studio in late January. The mayor said the city had begun planning for its removal if the owner could not address the problems. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Moderne Studio building is coming down brick by brick on Eagle Street on the city's dime. 
 
Concerns over the failing structure's proximity to its neighbor — just a few feet — means the demolition underway is taking far longer than usual. It's also been delayed somewhat because of recent high winds and weather. 
 
The city had been making plans for the demolition a month ago because of the deterioration of the building, Mayor Jennifer Macksey told the City Council on Tuesday. The project was accelerated after the back of the 150-year-old structure collapsed on March 5
 
Initial estimates for demolition had been $190,000 to $210,000 and included asbestos removal. Those concerns have since been set aside after testing and the mayor believes that the demolition will be lower because it is not a hazardous site.
 
"We also had a lot of contractors who came to look at it for us to not want to touch it because of the proximity to the next building," she said. "Unfortunately time ran out on that property and we did have the building failure. 
 
"And it's an unfortunate situation. I think most of us who have lived here our whole lives and had our pictures taken there and remember being in the window so, you know, we were really hoping the building could be safe."
 
Macksey said the city had tried working with the owner, who could not find a contractor to demolish the building, "so we found one for him."
 
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