Topic 36 — Eggs, body parts and senses — blueprint (29 September 2026)
What I need from you: 3 decisions
Do the animals the quizzes name need their group in the stem?
every L01 quiz stem names the animal AND its group ("A gecko is a reptile. How does a gecko make more geckos?"), so the item is one step: group → rule. Without the group the student must also place the animal (Topic 35's skill), which makes every item a pair item. The bank's type 1 ("Which of these four animals lays eggs?") does NOT give the groups, on purpose — that is its medium-ish bite, kept easy because the four animals are ones every child knows.
My recommendation: keep the group in the lesson quiz stems, leave it out of the bank's type 1 — the quiz drills the rule; the bank tests it as the state tests will.
Is "senses" coined on the five body parts, or on the word "notices"?
L03 coins it as "When an animal notices something around it with its eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin or feelers, we say it senses it." (the reviewer added feelers, so the lesson's own snail fits its rule). The five parts are the five senses without the word "senses" as a noun (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch are not named — K-2 words the atoms do not carry). Quiz items ask "which body part did it sense with?", never "which sense did it use?".
My recommendation: as written — the body parts are things a child can point at; the five sense-nouns can arrive in Grade 4 with the brain step (LIF4-003).
Do the nine question types stand (course_preview/review/TYPES_G3T36.html)?
nine types for three atoms after the non-author review — type 1 in two forms (the group named: the atom alone; the group not named: a pair with Topic 35's sort), two typed hard types (the vulture's nose; the word egg-layer), two more pair types (live young → mammal; a walrus's whiskers, a sensing part's survival job), and a ninth on the no-sensing boundary (a beetle creeps past a sleeping badger in the dark — what does the badger do?) that the reviewer proposed and I have written; strike it if the boundary is the lessons' job only.
Topic 36 at a glance — 3 lessons
| Lesson | Opens on | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| L01 | Egg-layers, or babies born alive | Fiorella's uncle keeps a pet python. | video + article |
| L02 | Body parts do jobs that help the animal survive | Griffin feeds the ducks at the pond. | video + article |
| L03 | Animals sense, then respond | Clemency's cat is asleep on the sofa. | video + article |
What this topic is, in five lines
Three short lessons, one per atom, the fifth topic of the Life strand. L01 sorts animals across the five groups by how their babies begin: birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects lay eggs and the babies hatch out; mammals give birth to live young. L02 matches an external body part to the job that helps the animal survive — getting food, staying safe, keeping warm or cool, or moving about where it lives — opening on a minimal-difference pair, a duck's webbed foot (moving about the pond) beside a hen's thin toes (getting food). L03 splits sensing from responding on the atom's own cat: the cupboard clicks, the sound reaches the cat's ears (Topic 12), THEN the cat runs; the same cat far down the garden hears nothing and does nothing.
Every real animal is a photograph; the three children are cartoons for David's pipeline; the egg sort table, the jobs table, the sense → respond cards and the rule cards are SVG. Topic 35's group words are used exactly as taught and nothing there is contradicted; Topic 32's "makes more of its own kind" opens L01; Topic 12's and Topic 13's lines carry the sound and the light in L03.
Applied without asking (rulings you have already given, and the coordinator's seam note from Topic 35's review): the platypus stays out of Grade 3 — LIF3-013's cross does not ask for it, so the rule stands as "Mammals give birth to live young" (a register note is filed in records/ATOM_PROPOSALS_G3T36.md); no rattlesnake, garter snake, boa or adder is named as an egg-layer (the python is, and every python lays eggs); no animal is shared with Topic 35 as a SCENE — the python's eggs appear in a pet's tank at Fiorella's uncle's house, not with a keeper and a class; hard PP100 items are typed (two of eight exemplars); every attached question stands alone with its own photo; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem a positive question; colour in figures; scene changes spoken with "let's" and never as an imperative; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names none of the lessons' examples; three questions on the summary; surprising members of each category first (the python before the hen, the dolphin before the cow, the snake's tongue before the rabbit's eyes); a verdict mark sits under the question it answers; a headache character never appears in an item; a claim-maker is used once; names grepped course-wide.
Egg-layers, or babies born alive L01
Fiorella's uncle keeps a pet python.
It lives in a big glass tank in his living room.
One morning there is a heap of eggs in the tank.
'Those can't be the python's,' says Fiorella.
'Only birds lay eggs,' she says.
Is Fiorella right?
Which animals lay eggs?
The python mother laid the eggs, and baby pythons will hatch out of them.
A toad, a goldfish, a butterfly and a hen lay eggs too.
A dolphin mother lays no eggs: her baby is born alive, and swims beside her.
Birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects lay eggs.
Mammals give birth to live young.
Video: the sort table growing a row at a time under "Lays eggs?", a tick or a cross landing as each animal is named — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-013 — Sort an animal as an egg-layer or as giving birth to live young
Part 1q — quiz, 12 items
Body parts do jobs that help the animal survive L02
Griffin feeds the ducks at the pond.
A hen from the farm pecks about beside him.
He looks at their feet.
The duck's foot is wide and flat, with skin between the toes.
The hen's foot is thin, with the toes spread apart.
Why are the two feet so different?
To survive means to stay alive.
The duck's webbed foot pushes the water, so the duck swims about the pond where it lives.
The hen's thin toes grip the ground and scratch up seeds, so she gets her food.
A polar bear's thick fur keeps the warmth in, a woodpecker's sharp beak chips insects out of wood, a hedgehog's spines stop a fox, and a camel's wide feet do not sink in sand.
Every body part does a job that helps the animal survive: getting food, staying safe, keeping warm or cool, or moving about where it lives.
Video: the two feet ringed; the jobs table filling a row per animal with its job chip — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-020 — Match an external body part to the job that helps the animal survive where it lives
Part 1q — quiz, 11 items
Animals sense, then respond L03
Clemency's cat is asleep on the sofa.
In the kitchen, Clemency opens the food cupboard.
The door clicks.
The cat's ears twitch.
Then it jumps down and runs to the kitchen.
How did the cat know?
The click travels through the air to the cat's ears, so the cat hears it.
When an animal notices something around it with its eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin or feelers, we say it senses it.
Then the cat does something because of what it sensed: it runs to the kitchen.
We say it responds.
First the animal senses, and then it responds.
No sensing, no response: when the click cannot reach the cat's ears, it sleeps on.
Video: sound lines from the door to the cat's ears; the card's two boxes filling in order; the garden case with its two red crosses — video and article.
Part 1 — LIF3-027 — Describe an animal sensing something, then responding
Part 1q — quiz, 12 items
Language decisions
- The atoms' words: "egg-layer" and "live young" (L01); "survive" = stay alive (L02); "senses" and "responds" (L03). "Hatch" is Topic 32's plain word. "Webbed foot" is described, not coined ("skin joins the duck's toes").
- Topic 35's group sentences are reused as taught; this topic adds "mammals give birth to live young" and contradicts nothing.
- The animal SENSES a change, THEN responds — never a response without a sensed cause; "no sensing, no response" is the boundary line.
- Not said: reproduce, offspring, adaptation, stimulus, instinct, camouflage, pregnant, the brain (LIF4-003), the five sense-nouns, plants (Topics 38 and 39), the platypus (decision 1).
- No "gravity", "force", "energy" or "matter" anywhere in the topic; no figurative verb a young reader takes literally.
PP100 type sheet (TYPE_SHEET_ONLY; James's 28 Sep night ruling: hard items are typed)
Nine types, ten exemplars (type 1 in two forms), at most two alone-types per atom; eight four-option MCQs (easy and medium) and two typed hard items (text entry). Coverage table in records/TYPES_G3T36.md.
Figures
35 figures: 10 SVG (the egg sort table at five and eight rows, the jobs table at two and six rows, the cat's card, the no-sensing card, the three-card stack, three rule cards); 22 photos (every real animal, egg and baby; six item photos); 3 cartoons (Fiorella at the tank; Griffin at the pond; Clemency's cat). Every figure has an IMAGE_BRIEFS entry and an IMAGE_KINDS entry; people and hands are never drawn as glyphs. Item figures carry a blind comment naming the scene, never the verdict.
Deliberately not taught
The platypus and echidna (out of Grade 3 by the seam note; a register note asks James whether Grade 4 names them); sharks and snakes that give live birth; how long a baby grows inside its mother; internal body parts (a seal's fat); why a part has the shape it has (adaptation, Grade 4–5); the brain between sensing and responding (LIF4-003); the five senses as nouns; plant parts and plant responses (Topics 38 and 39).
This grade’s course architecture — open only if you want the whole map
Skill: course-build → atomise (architecture, step 6b gate) → write-like-james @ acc4fb6
Grade 3 Science — course architecture v3 (James's rulings of 25 September, plus Olivia Mullins's sequencing)
Read this in five minutes. Grade 3 Science is ONE course with a fixed order; nobody picks strands. It arranges the 183 Grade 3 atoms into four strands and forty-two small topics, each with its own mixed practice, summary video and PP100. Nothing below writes a lesson sentence. The atoms stay where they are: the Science Knowledge Graph's 3-5 registers.
Rulings recorded (James, 25 September 2026)
- Strand order: Physics, Matter, Earth & Space, Life. James: "I don't think it matters hugely … Happy to go with 1 Physics 2 Matter 3 Earth and space 4 Life. That works well." Strands may be intermingled later if a reason appears; none does yet.
- Grade 3 is one course. "We're not going to allow students to pick any strand … we need to structure Grade 3 as we think Grade 3 should be structured best." v1's line about students choosing strands was wrong and is gone.
- Topic 1 is the pilot. "That topic 1, I think, works as a good pilot."
- Small topics. "3 atoms is fine for testing. PP100s on quite granular stuff is absolutely fine … A 4-atom topic and a 5-atom topic is great. 9 is too many, really … if something's got 9 atoms, we should be considering splitting it." So sound, soil, fossils and natural resources each stand alone, and every v1 topic of nine or more was split (Card 2). Topics 1 and 2 keep 8 and 7 lessons because James approved Topic 1 as it stands and Topic 2 is one chain about speed; both are flagged as split candidates once their PP100 data arrives.
- Forces opens with Earth's pull and magnets, before the word "force" (Olivia Mullins call, 25 September; James: "I think I'll follow that"). Topics 3 and 4 teach the two non-touching pulls with no talk of forces; Topic 5 coins "force" on both of them and on the hand push together, so the hand push never becomes the whole category. Her two classroom misconceptions (Earth pulls only on your feet; "balanced" is a kind of force) are in the register and the lessons.
- States of matter start with air (Olivia): air takes up space → gases spread → liquids → solids → the sort.
Applied from the earlier rulings: four strands; Motion before Forces before Energy; Scientific Reasoning atoms taught inside the topics that use them; one intro video per strand and per topic, each teaching nothing; one atom, one lesson, both video and article; a summary video before every PP100; PP100 banks of at least fifty items tagged by depth of reasoning; the Forces topics reuse the golden pack; the language rules (Earth's pull, carriers not forms, no "leak" or "lift").
Card 1 — The strands and their order
The call: Physics → Matter → Earth & Space → Life, each with its own intro video and its own end-of-strand test.
| Strand | Topics | Atoms | Why it sits here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physics | 1-15 | 64 | Motion first: what you can see, before the invisible cause. Energy last: "faster means more energy" needs speed. |
| Matter | 16-21 | 22 (+7 Scientific Reasoning) | Uses the measuring tools and feeds Earth's water cycle in Grade 4. |
| Earth & Space | 22-31 | 41 (+4 Scientific Reasoning) | Weather uses tables and graphs; "the Sun powers Earth" must precede food chains. |
| Life | 32-42 | 43 | Ends the year; leans on Space (the Sun), Forces (Earth's pull) and Matter (properties). |
Scientific Reasoning's 13 atoms are spread through Topics 1, 16, 17, 22, 23 and 25 (Card 4). Total 183 lessons.
Card 2 — The topics
The call: forty-two topics, most of three to six lessons; a mixed mastery practice set, a summary video and a PP100 at the end of every one.
| # | Topic (student-facing title) | Atoms (in teaching order) | Lessons | The big idea it serves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physics | ||||
| 1 | Where is it? Did it move? | MOT3-001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008 (+ SR3-020, 021 inside L07/L08) | 8 | You say where something is with a landmark; moving means its position changed; motions can repeat |
| 2 | Fast and slow | MOT3-020, 021, 022, 023, 024, 025, 026 | 7 | Faster means farther in the same time, or the same distance in less time |
| 3 | Earth pulls things down | FOR3-021, 029, 030, 028, 022 (+ a closing lesson naming gravity) | 6 | Earth pulls every object, all the time, straight down, on every part of it, without touching; a strong enough pull can beat it; the pull's name is gravity (JM 28 Sep 2026; no word "force" yet) |
| 4 | Magnets | FOR3-023, 024, 025 | 3 | A magnet pulls steel without touching; two magnets pull or push; use a magnet to solve a problem (no word "force" yet) |
| 5 | What a force is | FOR3-012, 001, 008, 006 | 4 | Earth's pull, a magnet's pull and your push are all forces; push or pull; on one object; in one direction |
| 6 | Forces that touch, and forces that don't | FOR3-020, 027, 026 | 3 | Some forces act without touching: Earth, magnets, a rubbed balloon; most pushes touch |
| 7 | Pushes and pulls change things | FOR3-002, 003, 004, 005, 007 | 5 | A push or pull starts, stops, turns or squashes; you can test it |
| 8 | Strong or weak: drawing a force | FOR3-009, 010, 011 | 3 | A stronger push makes a bigger change; an arrow shows a force's direction and strength |
| 9 | Balanced forces | FOR3-040, 041, 042, 043, 045 | 5 | Several forces act at once; balanced forces leave motion as it is, still or steady |
| 10 | Unbalanced forces | FOR3-044, 046, 047 | 3 | Unbalanced forces speed up, slow down or turn |
| 11 | Energy: what has it, how it travels | ENE3-001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 034 | 6 | Energy makes things happen; light, sound and electricity carry it; faster means more |
| 12 | Sound | ENE3-030, 031, 032 | 3 | Sound comes from vibration and travels to your ear |
| 13 | Light: sources, straight lines, shadows | ENE3-010, 011, 012, 017 | 4 | Light comes from a source, travels straight, makes shadows, must reach the eye |
| 14 | Light bounces, bends or soaks in | ENE3-013, 014, 015, 016 | 4 | Reflection, refraction, absorption, sorted |
| 15 | Light and heat | ENE3-020, 021, 033 | 3 | Light-givers give heat; rubbing makes heat; light carries energy |
| Matter | ||||
| 16 | Describe it, sort it | SR3-001, 002, MAT3-001, 002, 003 | 5 | Observe with more than your eyes; describe an object by its properties; sort and order |
| 17 | Measuring tools | SR3-003, 004, 005, 006, 007 | 5 | Thermometer, scale, measuring jug; pick the right one; two groups can disagree |
| 18 | Which has more? | MAT3-004, 062, 005, 006 | 4 | More mass, more space, warmer, decided by a measurement; MAT3-062 "everything takes up space" (JM ruling on Olivia's comment, 28 Sep 2026) sits before the space comparison |
| 19 | Sinks, floats, sticks to a magnet: choosing materials | MAT3-007, 008, 060, 061 | 4 | Test a property, then pick the material for the job |
| 20 | Solids, liquids and gases | MAT3-063, 064, 065, 022, 023, 021, 020, 024 | 8 | Air first (Olivia's order): air is something you can feel; it is made of tiny pieces too small to see; so is every kind of matter; air takes up space; gases spread out to fill their space; liquids take their container's shape; solids keep theirs; then the sort with the awkward cases. MAT3-063, 064, 065 were added on 28 Sep 2026 (JM's rulings on Olivia's comments) before MAT3-022 in the chain; eight lessons is over JM's 3–6 size, so the Topic 20 build record (decision 1) proposes a split after MAT3-022 into "Air is something" (4) and "Solids, liquids and gases" (4), renumbering Matter to 16–22, Earth & Space 23–32, Life 33–43 — nothing after Topic 19 is authored, so the renumbering costs nothing now |
| 21 | Heating and cooling | MAT3-040, 041, 042, 043, 044, 045, 046 | 7 | Heating and cooling change the state but it is the same water (split candidate: melting/freezing vs evaporating/condensing) |
| Earth & Space | ||||
| 22 | Measuring the weather | EAR3-017, 018, 019, SR3-010, EAR3-020, SR3-011 | 6 | Three instruments, a weather diary, reading it back |
| 23 | Weather over a season, and far away | SR3-012, EAR3-022, 023, 021, 024 | 5 | A season's records make a chart; the chart predicts; other places differ |
| 24 | Volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides | EAR3-007, 010, 008, 011, 009, 012 | 6 | What each one is, then how it changes the land fast |
| 25 | Dangerous weather | EAR3-013, 014, SR3-022 | 3 | Weather can do damage; a defence holds it back; pick the sensible cause |
| 26 | Soil | EAR3-001, 002, 003, 004 | 4 | Soil is broken rock plus dead things |
| 27 | Fossils | EAR3-029, 030, 031, 032, 033 | 5 | A few dead things last as fossils and tell of the past |
| 28 | Using and conserving natural resources | EAR3-040, 041, 042, 043 | 4 | Everything you own started as a natural resource; some run short |
| 29 | The Sun | SPA3-001, 007, 002 | 3 | A huge glowing ball of gas; a star; the source of Earth's energy |
| 30 | The stars | SPA3-003, 004, 005, 006 | 4 | Stars differ; they look like dots because they are far; telescopes show more |
| 31 | The solar system | SPA3-010, 011, 012, 013, 014 | 5 | Earth orbits the Sun with seven other planets; the Moon orbits Earth |
| Life | ||||
| 32 | Alive or not | LIF3-001, 007, 008, 009, 002 | 5 | Living things grow, feed, move and make more; sort living from non-living |
| 33 | What living things need | LIF3-003, 004, 005, 006 | 4 | Food, water, air and a place that suits them |
| 34 | Backbone or no backbone | LIF3-010, 011, 070 | 3 | Grouping by shared features; vertebrates, invertebrates, arthropods |
| 35 | The five vertebrate groups | LIF3-015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 012 | 6 | Mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, then the sort |
| 36 | Eggs, body parts and senses | LIF3-013, 020, 027 | 3 | Egg-layers or live birth; body parts do survival jobs; animals sense, then respond |
| 37 | How plants make new plants | LIF3-071, 072, 014, 024 | 4 | Seeds, spores, the sort, the flower's job |
| 38 | Plant parts and their jobs | LIF3-021, 022, 023 | 3 | Roots, stem, leaves |
| 39 | Plants respond | LIF3-025, 026, 028 | 3 | Stems grow to the light, roots grow down; plants respond by growing, animals by moving |
| 40 | Life cycles and family likeness | LIF3-030, 031, 040, 041, 042 | 5 | Every life runs in a cycle; offspring take after their parents but differ |
| 41 | Food chains | LIF3-050, 051, 052 | 3 | Every food chain starts with the Sun; remove a link and the rest changes |
| 42 | Living together and coping with change | LIF3-060, 061, 062, 063 | 4 | Groups, places and seasons decide who survives |
Totals: 183 lessons, 42 practice sets, 42 PP100s (banks of at least 50 items each), 4 strand tests (after Topics 15, 21, 31, 42), 1 end-of-grade test.
Why this grouping
- Every prerequisite edge points backwards in this order. Checked atom by atom in the assembled files; no forward reference.
- Animal topics (33-35) and plant topics (36-38) are separate, as James asked; the plant-versus-animal response contrast (LIF3-028) closes Topic 38 because it needs both sides taught.
- Topics 3 and 4 teach Earth's pull and magnets without the word force; Topic 5 coins it on all three kinds (Olivia's sequence). Topic 8 carries the two force-arrow atoms so Topics 9 and 10 can draw balanced and unbalanced forces.
- Topic 24 puts "what a volcano is" straight before "volcanoes change the land fast", and the same for earthquakes and landslides: what it is, then what it does.
What changes: the folder gets grade3/topicNN_build/ per topic; Topic 1's blueprint is approved; Topic 1 is built first.
Card 3 — Topic 1 is the pilot (approved)
The call: pilot "Where is it? Did it move?" end to end — 8 lessons, an attached question per video, a ten-item quiz after each, mixed practice, summary video, PP100 — before any other topic starts.
- It is the first thing a Grade 3 student meets, so the whole format ladder gets tried where the stakes are lowest.
- It holds a fact, four sorts, two routines and a prediction. Every check type the course needs appears once.
- Its quiz items are drawings of everyday scenes, so the figure pipeline for young grades gets tested too.
- Topics 3 to 10 follow, reusing the golden Forces pack where its lessons match (push or pull, force on one object, strength, direction, more than one force, the balanced and unbalanced lessons).
Card 4 — Scientific Reasoning is taught where it is used
The call: each of the 13 Scientific Reasoning atoms is a lesson inside the topic that first needs it, with its check there; no separate strand, no separate test.
| SR atom | Host topic | Why there |
|---|---|---|
| SR3-001 Observe with more than your eyes; SR3-002 Observation or idea about it? | 16 Describe it, sort it | describing an object's properties is observing |
| SR3-003 Read a thermometer; SR3-004 Measure mass with a scale; SR3-005 Measure the volume of a liquid; SR3-006 Pick the right measuring tool; SR3-007 Two groups, two different answers | 17 Measuring tools | the tools before "which has more?" uses them |
| SR3-010 Record results in a table; SR3-011 Find a value in a table | 22 Measuring the weather | the weather diary is the first table students fill and read back |
| SR3-012 Read a pictograph or bar graph | 23 Weather over a season | the graph before the graphing routine |
| SR3-020 Spot the pattern; SR3-021 Use the pattern to predict | 1 Where is it? Did it move? (inside L07 and L08) | the swing's repeat is the pattern |
| SR3-022 Choose the sensible cause | 25 Dangerous weather | first place students pick a cause for an event |
Card 5 — Tests and benchmarks
The call: a PP100 per topic; a static end-of-strand test per strand (some free response); one static end-of-grade test; all Grade 3 tests are our own banks, seeded from released grade-5 items filtered to Grade 3 atoms.
- No state tests science before grade 5 (D1 ruling). The released STAAR, Florida SSA and AZSCI grade-5 forms give the style and difficulty; items tagged to Grade 3 atoms seed the banks.
- The strand tests fall after Topics 15, 21, 31 and 42.
- The end-of-grade test samples all four strands with free-response items.
What happens next
Topic 1 is built as the first interactive version for James: the topic intro (video script and article), eight lessons each as a video script with animation guidance and an article with figures, one attached question per video, a ten-item quiz per lesson, mixed practice, the summary video script and the PP100 bank. Topic 3 follows, reusing the golden pack.