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Topic 26 "Soil" — your read (28 September 2026, night)

Four lessons in the Earth & Space strand: soil is two kinds of bits — pale hard bits of rock and dark soft bits of dead plants and animals; the bits of rock come from bigger rocks slowly breaking apart; the dark crumbs come from dead things rotting; three soils are told apart by color, feel and a water test. Authored end to end, read by the author as you, then a non-author review (41 findings — the 35 that were this topic's all applied or ruled on; two are Topic 27's), then a cold read of every changed item (30 of 30 keys agreed; six items tightened on the reader's flags and re-read: 6 of 6). Checker: 0 FAIL.

The three that unblock the bank

1. Do the ten question types stand, with the two typed hard items?

Every atom is tested alone and in a pair. Easy and medium are four-option MCQs; hard is typed — the soil's name from three observations (Wilhelmina's pale, gritty soil: "sandy soil"), and the one-word place in the jar where the bits of rock will be ("bottom", "floor" and their forms). Four exemplars were lesson or practice items with a word changed; the reviewer caught them and all four are now fresh scenes — the type sheet's inventory names each exemplar's nearest lesson-side instance so you can check in one look.

Recommendation: approve all ten.

Approve all / strike these / edit these — the type sheet

2. Do we call the third soil "garden soil"?

Sandy soil and clay soil are named for their main bit. The third plate — dark, crumbly, full of dark crumbs from rotted plants — is the soil a child digs in a vegetable bed. The lesson calls it garden soil, the everyday name; "loam" is the gardener's word and jargon at eight; leaving it unnamed breaks the three-way sort the whole L04 quiz runs on. The reviewer agrees, with one caveat applied: from L04 on, "garden soil" is only the kind's name, and item cards say "soil from the vegetable bed", never "soil from the garden".

Recommendation: garden soil.

Garden soil / loam / leave it unnamed

3. Does L01 keep the jar-shake test?

The atom's example is the hand lens. L01 adds a second way of taking soil apart: shake a spoon of soil in a jar of water and wait an hour — the bits of rock sink to the floor, most of the bits of dead leaves float. It applies Topic 19's sink / float test, it is the topic's strongest picture that soil is two kinds of bits, and it gives the bank its typed hard item. The first draft explained the sinking ("heavy for their size"); the reviewer pointed out Topic 19 deliberately gives no why (density is Grade 4's), so the lesson now says only what happens.

Recommendation: keep, as it now stands.

Keep / cut to the hand lens only

The lessons

4. L01 What soil is made of — Meera's handful; "dirt is dirt", says Lyle. A round glass that makes small things look bigger — a hand lens — shows pale hard bits that do not squash (rock) and dark soft bits, a bit of leaf, a bit of twig, a bit of a dead beetle (dead plants and animals). Then the jar. Three lines close "soil is alive": worms live in it, roots grow in it, the soil itself is not alive (the reviewer agrees; "plants eat soil" is left to the Life strand). Quiz: which kind of bit, from its look; the drawn crumb; the jar; Hester's "one stuff" (no); Bronwen's "the soil is a living thing" (no); two typed terms. page

Approve / change

5. L02 The bits of rock come from bigger rocks breaking apart — Kezia's sand: where did the grains come from? A cracked boulder with pieces and grit at the bottom of it; the waves rolling a pebble smaller and rounder; boulder → rock → pebble → grit → grain of sand, all the same stuff; far longer than a person lives; rub two rocks over white paper and grit falls. No cause for the crack — "weathering" is Grade 4's, and the reviewer agrees this is the right amount. Quiz: where a pebble / grit / sand came from, how long, what falls when rocks are rubbed, three claims. page

Approve / change

6. L03 The dark crumbs come from dead things rotting — Roshan's leaf pile, tall in fall and low and dark in spring: where did the leaves go? Under a hedge: whole leaves, leaves in bits, dark crumbs — the lower, the longer it has been there. A dead leaf slowly goes soft, falls apart and turns into dark crumbs: it rots; the crumbs mix into the soil. An apple core and a beetle rot; a pebble does not. The leaves did not vanish — they became part of the soil. Quiz: the buried apple core, Dagny's "vanished into nothing" (no), the drawn layers (which has been there longest), what rots and what does not. page

Approve / change

7. L04 Tell two soils apart — Flora's two pots: "brown is brown". Three soils on three plates: look (pale yellow-brown, orange-brown, dark brown), feel (gritty; smooth and sticky; soft and crumbly), test (the same amount of soil in each cup, one full cup of water on each, one minute: runs through fast; sits on top; some runs through). Named: sandy soil, clay soil, garden soil; the table as the summary. Quiz on the fixed set: from stated properties, from a drawn card, from the drawn water test, Mattias's "all soil is the same brown" (no). page

Approve / change

8. One small kindness to rule on. The typed term item for the hand lens also accepts "magnifying glass" — the everyday name a child may already have. Every other accept list holds the coined forms only ("dirt", "sand", "decays" are not accepted). Keep it / drop it.

Applied without asking

Hard bank items typed; every attached question stands alone with its own drawing (four lessons, three on the summary); no option bundles a verdict with a reason; claims bare yes / no; every stem a positive question; scene changes spoken with "let's", never an imperative — and the scripts never tell the viewer to press, shake, wait or feel (Meera and Flora do); the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson; contractions; colour; photos for the real things (soil close up, a cracked boulder, a beach, leaf litter, three soils on plates) and cartoons for the children, never glyph people; "Grade 4's words" (weathering, decomposer) not said; the register's "rotting away" kept pending the coordinator's word across Topics 26 and 27.

Also on the site

Topic intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the blueprint's decisions · the type sheet

After you answer

1 → a bank of about fifty from the approved types, a second cold read, the hand-over folder for David (five photos and five cartoons to source or draw). 2 → if not "garden soil", one word changes in figures.py and two glossary entries. 3 → if cut, L01 loses one subtitle, two figures and the typed jar item (type 10 is replaced). Topic 27's opening scene and its "nothing is left" line are with its author.