Skill: write-like-james @ cb79e2e · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script @ cb79e2e
Topic 31 "The solar system" — your read (29 September 2026)
The last Earth & Space topic. Five lessons: Earth travels around the Sun along a path called an orbit; the Moon travels around Earth and goes along with it; Earth is a planet, one of eight; the eight in order from the Sun; a lamp, a ball and a marble as a model of the three. Read by the author as you, then a non-author review (2 blocks, 11 fixes, 15 suggestions — 13 taken, 2 declined with reasons), then a cold read of every changed item (17 of 17 keys agreed; two option sets it flagged were re-instanced and re-read). Reply by number.
The three that unblock the bank
1. Do the ten question types stand, with one reorder type and two typed hard types?
Five atoms give ten types, at most two alone-types per atom, every atom tested alone and in a pair. Type 7 is a reorder (your Topic 2 ruling). Nothing here is read off a scale, so both hard types are text entry: the real thing a model's small ball stands for (the Moon — two steps: which travels around which, then what moves that way), and the planet whose orbit is the fifth one out (Jupiter — the orbit's place turned into the order). The item rows of eight planets are equal grey discs, so counting from the Sun is the only route (the teaching rows keep the planets' colours). Every exemplar is a fresh scene; two draw constraints are recorded so a test never pairs an item with the one that hands it its answer. The ten types, coverage, the design-move inventory
Recommendation: approve as written.
Approve all / strike these / edit these
2. May L03 coin "solar system"?
No atom names it, but the topic is titled by it and the state tests use it. L03 says it once — "The Sun, the eight planets and everything else that travels around the Sun are called the solar system" — in the article AND the video (the reviewer found the video had left it to the article; fixed), and the quiz and practice test it by recall.
Recommendation: coin it. If you decline, the typed quiz item goes and the phrase stays a title only.
Coin it / leave it as a title
3. Does L04 keep the memory sentence "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles"?
Eight names in order is a lot for a Grade 3 memory. L04 gives two scaffolds: the two groups of four (near and small; far and big) and this sentence — the one US classrooms already use, every word a grade-3 word (the reviewer's proposal over "My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming"). It costs two idea lines in the article and one eleven-word beat in the video.
Recommendation: keep it, in both.
Keep / article only / cut
The lessons
4. L01 Earth travels around the Sun — Alder stands still on the school field; but Earth, under his feet, is moving. Where is it going? The runner's path goes around the field and comes back: one lap. Earth's path goes around the Sun the same way, seen from far above — a curved path that comes back round, called an orbit; one lap, then round again; nobody can feel it. Every orbit drawing says NOT TO SCALE and the article says what it gets wrong (the real Sun far bigger, far away). Quiz: what Earth travels around, Dorian's "the Sun travels around Earth" (no), curved or straight, Rudi's straight-line drawing (no), the term typed last. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
5. L02 The Moon travels around Earth — Blythe at her window; Earth is traveling around the Sun — is the Moon left behind? (The reviewer caught the first draft asking "why isn't it left behind?", a why the topic cannot answer without the Sun's pull; now it asks the question it can answer.) The Moon travels around Earth, about a month a lap; it keeps doing so the whole time, so wherever Earth goes, the Moon goes along; it does not travel around the Sun on its own. Quiz: Topic 13's recall (the Moon makes no light of its own), Ivor's "on its own" claim (no), Osric's "the Moon stays still" (no), half a lap later. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
6. L03 Earth is a planet — Florian on the hill: one point of light is brighter than most of the others, and a little orange. Through a telescope it is a round ball (it looks small only because it is far, far away): Mars. "A large ball that travels around the Sun is called a planet" — Mars is one, Earth is one, eight in all. The Moon travels around Earth, so it is not a planet; the Sun is a star, so it is not a planet — four cards under the drawn question "Is it a planet?". A planet makes no light of its own: sunlight lands on Mars, like the Moon. The register's own intro idea, taught as the register asked. Quiz: Jupiter, Venus, the Moon in the one frame; Anselm's "the Sun is a planet" (no); Dulcie's "the Moon is a planet because it is a big round ball" (no); two terms typed last. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
7. L04 The eight planets in order — Elspeth's poster: which is closest, which farthest? Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune; Earth third; the four near the Sun small, the four far out big. A poster cannot show sizes and gaps at once, so two honest drawings: the eight to size (Jupiter 11 Earths across; the Sun left out — it would not fit) and the gaps to size (equal dots; the near four crowd the Sun). Quiz: closest, farthest, right after Earth, two reorders, Basil's "Earth is the biggest" (no), which planet is ringed on a row of grey discs. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
8. L05 A model of the Sun, Earth and the Moon — Briony's lamp, blue ball and marble. A small copy that shows how the real things move is called a model; the lamp stands for the Sun, the ball for Earth, the marble for the Moon. She walks the ball around the lamp and carries the marble around the ball: the marble travels around the ball while the ball travels around the lamp. Two wrong models under "Does it show the real paths?" (the marble around the lamp; the lamp around the ball). The model gets the paths right and the sizes and the gaps wrong. Quiz on Kiri's, Matteo's and Nuno's models; Wynter's lamp-around-the-ball claim (no); Pippin's flashlight, apple and bead. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
Applied without asking
Hard bank items typed; every attached question stands alone with its own drawing (three fresh drawings on the summary); no option bundles a verdict with a reason (fourteen claims, all bare yes / no, five keyed yes); every stem a positive question; scene changes spoken with "let's"; the intro ends on a ready line and a poll and names no lesson; three questions on the summary; scripts 126–148 words; colour, and no drawn people (five cartoons and three photos for David); the Sun, Earth and the Moon drawn by Topic 29's own drawers; every orbit drawing NOT TO SCALE, sizes and distances each on its own honest drawing; nothing said about gravity, pull, the year, day and night or Pluto — no atom here asks, and the register scopes them to Grades 4 and 5 (the year stays unsaid, as SPA3-010's cross field asks, while L02 gives the Moon's month, the register's own example); five names renamed after the course-wide register found them in Topics 10, 19, 21, 25 and 26; the register notes for SPA3-010…014 wait in ATOM_PROPOSALS_G3T31.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 → a bank of about fifty from the approved types, a second cold read, the hand-over folder for David. 2 → the typed "solar system" item stays or goes. 3 → the L04 video keeps or drops its eleven-word beat. Register notes → the knowledge-graph repo.