Skill: write-like-james @ d1a2a04 · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script @ d1a2a04
Topic 32 "Alive or not" — your read (29 September 2026)
The first Life topic, and the strand's intro. Five lessons: every living thing grows, feeds, moves and can make more of its own kind — Calla's sunflower carries all four, the plant first each time — then the sort: ask the four questions; yes to all four is living, one no is non-living. Read by the author as you, then a non-author review (38 findings, all adjudicated, 37 applied), then a cold read of every changed or new item (43 of 43 keys agreed over two cuts). Reply by number.
The three that unblock the strand and the bank
1. Does the Life strand intro go to the pipeline as its own video, before Topic 32's intro?
Each strand opens with a short video that teaches nothing (your ruling, 25 Sep). This is the Life one — 90 words, about 45 s, a poll attached. It is also on the topic page above the topic intro.
> Look around. A bee hums past. A dog chases a ball. A tree stands by the road. And you.
> Bees, dogs, trees, people: all alive. But what does alive even mean?
> What does a tree need to stay alive? Why do puppies look like their parents, but not exactly? What happens to the fox if the rabbits vanish?
> This strand is about living things: plants, animals and you. What they need, how they grow and change, how they fit together.
> Okay, so are you ready to explore the living world?
>
> Poll: Yes, let's go! / Not sure yet / Let me watch that again.
Recommendation: yes, in Topic 32's first batch, as G3-LIFE-INTRO. The reviewer agrees.
Send it / hold / change the words
2. Do the nine question types stand, with the two typed hard types?
Your night ruling is applied: hard is typed — a pumpkin seed on a shelf all winter, planted, grows into a plant that makes seeds: living or non-living (text); a tomato plant watered every day in a dark cupboard makes no food: what is it missing (text).
Easy and medium are four-option MCQs and are the bulk. Every atom is tested alone and in a pair.
The reviewer found the first nine exemplars were lesson cases with a noun changed; all nine now sit on scenes the topic uses nowhere else (a caterpillar, a maple, a mother sheep, a dandelion in the sidewalk, clover leaves folding at night, a toy train, a hermit crab). The nine types, coverage, the inventory
Approve all / strike these / edit these
3. Is the young sunflower's top the right case for "a plant moves"?
A sunflower in flower does not turn to follow the Sun; only a young plant's top does. L03 now shows the young plant — a bud, no flower — with its top facing the window at breakfast and the other way at supper.
One line says why that counts as "by itself" and a flag flapping does not: the light did not push the plant; the plant turned itself.
A stem bending toward a window over days is growth toward light, which Topic 39 teaches, so it is not used here; the quiz uses petals opening and closing and a bean plant folding its leaves at night instead.
Recommendation: keep the young plant's top, with a register note on LIF3-008 saying so.
Keep / petals only / say what you would rather
The lessons
4. L01 Living things grow — Calla plants a sunflower seed. The shoot just sits there, she says, but every Monday it is taller: 4, 9, 15, 22 cm on a drawn scale. It got bigger by itself: it grew. A puppy grows; Calla grows. A snowball rolling downhill gets bigger, but the snow stuck on from outside: not growing. Quiz: did it grow (a bean plant, a lamb, a sand pile, a balloon, a salt crystal on a string, a river after rain), Lua's oak (yes). Article · script · quiz Fine / say where
5. L02 Living things feed — Jolyon says the sunflower can't be alive: it never eats. A rabbit feeds by eating grass; Calla by eating her sandwich; the sunflower by making its own food in its leaves, using the Sun's light and water from its roots. The roots take in water; they do not eat the soil (Topic 26's hand-over, closed here). Quiz: what soil is made of (recall), how a cow and an apple tree feed, Alma's "roots eat the soil" (no), where and from what a plant makes its food. Article · quiz Fine / say where
6. L03 Living things move — the young sunflower's top faces left at breakfast and right at supper; nobody touched the pot. The plant turned itself to follow the Sun's light: only a part, slowly, but by itself. A cat runs; a snail slides. A flag flaps, but the wind pushed it. Quiz: did it move by itself (a kite, a bean plant's leaves at night, a fallen leaf, a tulip's petals, a pushed toy car), Rue's "a tree never moves" (no). Article · quiz Fine / say where
7. L04 Living things make more of their own kind — at summer's end the sunflower's flower dries out, full of seeds; next spring, new sunflowers along the fence. A cat has kittens; a hen's chicks grow up into hens. A cat never has puppies: its own kind. A kitten cannot yet; when grown, it can. Quiz: what kind the young are, Marta's "plants have no babies" (no), Olwen's bean plant (yes), Efa's toy robot (no). Article · quiz Fine / say where
8. L05 Living or non-living? Ask four questions — Sorrel says the robot dog in the toy shop is alive and the tree outside is not. Four questions in one fixed order, ticks and crosses in a table: the tree, four yeses, living; the river moves but grows, feeds and makes more rivers — no, no, no: one no is enough; the robot dog moves and nothing else: moving is not enough; the rock; the rabbit. Quiz: a wave, a goldfish, a bean seed (living), a music box, a wind-up mouse, a fern, Meg's cloud (no), Abel's "moving is enough" (no). Fire is used nowhere: the four questions cannot refuse it honestly at this age. Article · quiz Fine / say where
Applied without asking
Hard bank items typed; every attached question stands alone with its own drawing; no option bundles a verdict with a reason; every stem a positive question; scene changes spoken with "let's"; the intro and the strand intro end on a ready line and a poll and name no lesson; three questions on the summary, each on a fresh scene; colour, photographs for every real living thing (24) and cartoons for the children (7); the plant first in every lesson (the surprising member); "the Sun's light carries energy" retrieved from Topic 29 before food chains; "plants eat soil" closed; no closed count of what a plant uses; the cactus, fire and the bending bean shoot out; seven names renamed to clear course-wide collisions; the register notes for LIF3-001, 007, 008 and 002 wait in ATOM_PROPOSALS_G3T32.md for your word.
Also on the site
Strand intro, topic intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the blueprint's decisions · the type sheet
After you answer
1 → the strand intro joins Topic 32's first video batch. 2 → a bank of about fifty from the approved types, a second cold read, the hand-over folder for David. 3 → the register note goes to the knowledge-graph repo with the other three. Topic 33 (what living things need) follows and reuses "living thing" without re-coining.