Skill: write-like-james @ 264fe96 · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script @ 264fe96 · the review and cold read: review-lesson, review-questions, review-figures, review-accuracy, review-content @ a538c92
Topic 20 "Solids, liquids and gases" — your read (28 September 2026, night)
Eight lessons in the Matter strand, after the comparisons: air is something you can feel; it is made of tiny pieces far too small to see; so is every kind of matter; air takes up space; a gas spreads out to fill its space; a liquid takes its container's shape; a solid keeps its own shape; then the sort with the awkward cases. Written by the author as you, then a non-author review (40 findings, 39 applied, 1 declined), then a cold read of every changed item (80 of 80 keys agreed). Reply by number.
The three that unblock the build
1. Do we split this topic into two topics of four, after "Air takes up space"?
Your size rule is three to six lessons; this topic has eight, because your 28 Sep rulings put three new atoms (air is something; air is tiny pieces; everything is tiny pieces) in front of "air takes up space". The joint is real: lessons 1–4 say what air IS, lessons 5–8 sort by what stuff DOES, and each half has its own headache and capstone. The cost the reviewer named: the first half's PP100 sits on four one-step facts, so its fifty items will lean on the drawn cup and the pair types. Renumbering: Matter 16–22, Earth & Space 23–32, Life 33–43 — nothing after Topic 19 is authored, so it costs nothing today. The alternative that avoids renumbering: one topic of eight with two PP100 clusters (1–4, 5–8), which your MS Life Science ruling allows.
Recommendation: split. The blueprint's decision cards Split after lesson 4 / one topic with two PP100 clusters / one topic, one PP100
2. Does "particles" stay, coined once after the plain words, with "tiny pieces" in every question?
The register's note on this atom is your own ruling from Olivia: plain words first, then the label. The first draft left the label out on the coordinator's brief; the reviewer and the coordinator put it back on your register ruling. Lesson 2 now says, after the dots drawing, "Scientists call these tiny pieces particles"; the word sits in the glossary and one typed recall item at the end of that quiz; every question in the topic still says "tiny pieces". The grade-5 test items all say "particles", and Olivia wants the idea retrieved every year.
Recommendation: yes, as applied. Lesson 2 Yes / strike the label, tiny pieces only
3. Do the eight question types stand, with the typed hard tier?
Your night ruling is applied: the hard tier is typed — the kind of matter, read off a drawn heap of lentils with no sorting words in the stem (text: solid). Easy and medium are four-option MCQs and are the bulk. Every atom is tested alone and in a pair. The reviewer found nine of the first twelve exemplars were lesson checks renamed; every one was re-instanced on a fresh scene (a hand out of a car window; a bicycle's tires; a scarf; a bottle in a bucket; a glass turned right over; a bounce house; a paint tray; a toy car in a bathtub; a cushion; lentils) and the sheet now carries a table of every item's move and scene so the claim can be checked. The sort's fourth option, "You cannot tell from this", is now taught (stuff shut in a box you cannot see into). One word is yours: the typed stem lists "solid, liquid or gas" so a child does not type "lentils". The eight types, coverage, the inventory Approve all / strike these / edit these · the listed words stay / go
The lessons
4. L01 Air is something — Astrid fans her face and feels a breeze but sees nothing; she felt the air; the wind on a hill moves Cormac's hair and the flag; Tamsin breathes in and her chest gets bigger; the rule last. Quiz: eight, a mixed yes / no run with three "what reaches her face" items; two claims. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
5. L02 Air is made of tiny pieces too small to see — how can something touch your face when you can't see it; tiny pieces, each far too small to see; "if you could see them, they would look something like this" (dots, never faces); the label once; countless pieces reach her cheek; no mechanism anywhere. Quiz: nine, the term typed last. Article · quiz Fine / say where
6. L03 Everything is made of tiny pieces too small to see — the book too; the wall, the water, you; "stuff of every kind … is called matter"; why you see the book: its pieces are packed very close together (one ant against hundreds; one grain against a beach). The page never says why air is invisible. Quiz: eight, the term typed last. Article · quiz Fine / say where
7. L04 Air takes up space — Pim's dry paper towel in the upside-down cup pushed right under the water; the cup was full of air, the air takes up the space, nothing else can be in it; tipped right over, the air comes out in bubbles and the paper gets wet; Ike's balloon grows, stays big when tied, goes small when the air comes out. The drawings were redrawn to the reviewer's note: the cup wholly under the water; the tipped cup with bubbles at its rim and a wet towel; no drawing tells a child the answer. Quiz: ten, opening with a recall of Topic 18's "an object takes up a space nothing else can be in". Article · quiz Fine / say where
8. L05 Gases spread out to fill their container — Huw's long balloon, air to the very tip; "air is a kind of matter called a gas; there are other gases too" (Olivia's line, first); the round balloon, the tire, a room; water in the same long balloon sits at the bottom with a flat top, so water is not a gas. Quiz: ten, "Is X a gas?", the term typed last. Article · quiz Fine / say where
9. L06 Liquids take the shape of their container — Winnie's juice tall in the glass, wide in the bowl, square in the box; water; honey pours slowly and is still a liquid; milk; a spoon in the same glass is not; the line against a gas: juice fills from the bottom up with a flat top. Quiz: ten, the term typed last. Article · quiz Fine / say where
10. L07 Solids keep their shape — Cormac's spoon through the same three containers; a block; a marble; a soft teddy bear (squash it, it is still bear-shaped); milk in the same box is not; the three kinds side by side; "not a gas, not a liquid, so a solid". Quiz: ten, two three-way sorts, the term typed last. Article · quiz Fine / say where
11. L08 Solid, liquid or gas? Sort the sample — Tamsin's sand pours like juice, so is it a liquid? One grain keeps its own shape; sand is many tiny solids; a heap, not a flat top; rice; a sponge (squashes, springs back: a solid); fog (tiny drops of water in the air: a liquid, not a gas); stuff shut in a box (you cannot tell yet); the three sorting questions and the table. Toothpaste is out: the reviewer's accuracy pass showed a paste fails the lesson's own flat-top test. Quiz: thirteen sorts and claims. Article · quiz Fine / say where
Applied without asking
Hard bank items typed with generated accept lists; every attached question stands alone on the video's own scene; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem a positive question; hard means more of the skill (the typed sort withholds the deciding words); colour and no drawn people (children and hands are cartoons for David; the dry paper in the cup, the balloons, honey, sand and fog are photos; the tiny pieces are dots); the surprising members first (air before liquids before solids; honey; the teddy bear; sand); "stuff" beside "matter"; the one line that air is a gas and other gases exist before any sort; no mechanism for the breeze; nothing "leaks" or "escapes"; no lesson character appears in a question and every named child in a question is used once; US words (soda, pitcher); the register notes for MAT3-064, 065, 023 and 024 wait in ATOM_PROPOSALS_G3T20.md for your word.
Also on the site
Intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the blueprint's decisions · the type sheet
After you answer
1 → the architecture rows renumber (or the two clusters are marked) and the intro, summary and sheet are cut in two. 2 → the label stays or one line, one glossary entry and one item go. 3 → a bank of about fifty from the approved types, a second cold read, the hand-over folder for David. Register notes → the knowledge-graph repo.