Skill: write-like-james @ d1a2a04 · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script @ d1a2a04

Topic 33 "What living things need" — your read (29 September 2026)

The Life strand's second topic. Four lessons, one need each: every living thing needs food, water, air and a place that suits it to stay alive. Each lesson opens on a child's real question about a surprising case — does something as small as a budgie really need food; does an aloe plant that has gone a month unwatered need water; do pond fish that never come up need air; why does the zoo keep its king penguins cold and wet — and runs the surprising members first: the plant that never eats but makes its own food; the aloe that keeps water in its thick leaves; the fish that takes in air from the water and the whale that comes up for it; the zoo penguin that still needs a cold place with a pool though the keepers feed it. Read by the author as you, then a non-author review (31 findings — 3 blocks, 15 fixes, 13 suggestions — every one applied or answered), then a cold read of every changed item (38 of 38 keys agreed over two cuts; the reader's ten flags are all applied or answered). Reply by number.

The three that unblock the bank

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

Your night ruling is applied: hard is typed — the missing need from a list of three (Cosima's pet lizard has food, air and a warm, dry tank; type "water"), and the need that makes a dolphin come up every few minutes (type "air", with no breathing word in the stem). Easy and medium are four-option MCQs and are the bulk. Every atom is tested alone and in a pair; every exemplar is a scene the topic uses nowhere else (the reviewer caught three that were quiz items with a noun changed, and they are re-instanced: a tomato plant with a ribbon, a desert fox, a polar bear's chilled room). Two medium items (a holly bush makes its own food; a carp takes in air from the water) the reviewer would tag easy — your call, either way is fine. The ten types, coverage, the design-move inventory

Approve all / strike these / edit these / retag 2 and 6 easy

2. Does the need / want line become a small atom, LIF3-P01, taught inside L01?

"A need is something a living thing cannot stay alive without" — Teodor wants a new game; without it he stays alive and well, so the game is not a need. Three items test it (a kitten's toy ball, a puppy's rubber bone, a donkey's bell) and so does bank type 8 (the ribbon on the tomato plant), and a bank item has to name an atom. The register has none for it.

Recommendation: yes — a Fact atom after LIF3-003, taught in L01 exactly as written, no fifth lesson. The reviewer agrees. If you would rather keep the register lean, type 8 comes off the bank and the line stays as a sentence. The proposal

Yes, LIF3-P01 / keep it a sentence and drop type 8

3. Is "a fish takes in air from the water" the right grade-3 sentence?

The whole truth is dissolved oxygen through gills. The lesson says what a child can check: a little air is mixed into the water, you cannot see it, the fish takes it in; in water with no air mixed in, a fish gets weak. No gills (Topic 35's word), no oxygen (grade 6-8's). The reviewer's accuracy pass calls it an honest simplification and says keep.

Keep / say "oxygen" once / cut the fish and keep the whale

The lessons

4. L01 Every living thing needs food — Teodor is away for a week and Edda doubts that something as small as his budgie needs feeding every day. With no food the budgie gets weak, and then it dies: something a living thing must have to stay alive is called a need. The geranium on the windowsill never eats, but it needs food too — a plant makes its own food in its leaves, using sunlight and water, and it does not eat the soil (two weeks in a dark cupboard and it is pale and weak). An ant, a deer, Teodor. The toy bird on the shelf needs no food. Teodor's game is a want, not a need. Quiz: yes / no on a caterpillar, a brick, an oak tree, a millipede, a teddy bear; where a daisy's food comes from (the eats-soil trap); Gaia's fern, Harlow's kitten toy, Teagan's whale; the word "need" typed last. Article · script · quiz Fine / say where

5. L02 Every living thing needs water — Sibyl's aloe plant has gone a month unwatered and looks fine. It comes from hot, dry places: when rain falls it takes in a lot of water and keeps it in its thick leaves, so it needs a drink only now and then — left dry long enough, even an aloe dies. A camel goes days between drinks. A tomato plant droops after a week without water and stands up the day after Sibyl waters the soil. A glass bottle in the desert needs no water. Quiz: a frog, a desert lizard, a bucket, a spoon, a pine tree, a wheelbarrow in the rain, an earthworm; the floppy mint (drawn); Ugo's camel (no), Beatrix's snake (yes). Article · quiz Fine / say where

6. L03 Every living thing needs air — Tycho holds his breath at the pond; the fish never come up, so do they need air? A little air is mixed into the water and the fish takes it in; in water with no air a fish gets weak. A whale cannot take in air from the water, so it comes up, breathes in and dives again. A plant's leaves take in air; Tycho breathes; a dog pants. An old tin can on the pond floor never comes up and never gets weak — not a living thing. Quiz: a robin, a shark, a windmill, a beach ball, a rose bush, a worm, a rock in a lake; where a trout gets its air; the pump in a tank stops and by evening the fish are gulping at the top — what are they short of; Zuzu's fish (no), Bettina's seal (yes). Article · quiz Fine / say where

7. L04 Every living thing needs a place that suits it — Odessa at the zoo: the king penguins live in a cold room with a pool and ice while the goats live on a sunny hill. Wild king penguins live on cold islands by the sea; on a hot, dry hill one gets far too hot and cannot stay alive for long, so the zoo builds the cold room. A place suits a living thing when the living thing can stay alive there. A pet fish: a tank of water, not the carpet. An aloe: a dry, sunny desert, not a swamp. A frog: the damp edge of a pond, not a desert. Emil's dog needs a dry home, not too hot, not too cold — its toys are not a need. Quiz: which place suits a crocodile, a moss; does this place suit a toad in a sandbox, a snail in a pond, a desert lizard in a swamp, a trout in a mountain stream, a pill bug under a log; Britt's "the keepers feed it, so any room will do" (no); Kasia's puppy and its rubber bone; "suits" typed last. Article · quiz Fine / say where

Applied without asking

Hard bank items typed; every attached question stands alone with its own drawing (a pea plant, a drooping basil, a sea turtle surfacing, a water lily; the summary's hen, ivy and otter); no option bundles a verdict with a reason and every claim is bare yes / no; every stem a positive question; the intro (a classroom's hamster, fern and fish left for six weeks) ends on a ready line and a poll and names none of the lessons' scenes; scene changes spoken with "let's"; three questions on the summary; colour, and no drawn people (five cartoons and 29 photos briefed for David); "living thing" is Topic 32's word and none of Topic 32's scenes or names reappear here; a plant makes its own food and does not eat the soil, in Topic 32's own sentence; the order food → water → air → place is kept (the reviewer and the author agree: "need" is coined where the consequence is most visible, and air — the need you cannot see — comes third, once the test "can it stay alive without it?" is fluent); the register notes for LIF3-003…006 wait in ATOM_PROPOSALS_G3T33.md for your word.

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. 2 → the register gains LIF3-P01 (or type 8 comes off the bank). 3 → nothing changes unless you choose otherwise. Register notes → the knowledge-graph repo.