Topic 23 "Where the water goes" — your read (2 October 2026)

Two readers answered 124 items cold and agreed every key. Their flags, all applied in v2: a drop card whose "rainwater running down a hillside" read as collection already under way (now "rain that has just landed"); a true distractor ("the Sun pushes the clouds across the sky", now a false one); "two steps from now" with "now" unstated (now stated); a coined term used two items before the item that names it (reordered); six bank items that were quiz items renamed (re-scened); a practice FRQ on the lessons' own puddle (now a tennis court after a storm).

Reader C then read the whole v2 bundle, 122 items, and agreed every key. Four polish flags, all applied in v3: three bank keys that were the longest option (PP-01, PP-10, PP-16); Belle and Laura both claim-makers on adjacent items (Belle is now Belle); a Lesson 2 stem saying "water vapor" before Lesson 3 recalls the word (now in Lesson 2's words); "It would stop" beside "hardly any would evaporate" (now one strength: almost stop).

Ship after two fixes, the reviewer said: one false majority claim ("most fallen water reaches the sea"; on land about two-thirds evaporates again first) and one bank item that was L02-q2 with the noun changed. Both fixed in v2, with the rest of the table: three key tells trimmed; a stem that named three of its four options; a practice item that re-asked L03's attached question; "condensation happens high up" against Grade 3's cold can and L01's dew (one running definition now); the summary's ordinals in a no-first-step topic; four typed everyday words (cut or made MCQs); D under-used in the bank keys (five rotations); "rain water" / "rainwater" (one word now); one stem with a second everyday reading. Left as they were: L03 at 317 words; ice in clouds unsaid; sleet in the US sense; hail in one honest line; wind left out.

The loop is clean (four equal arrows, no step drawn first; the cloud drawn as drops; the Sun's arrow only from L04). Six fixes, all made in v2: the drop path's return arrow ran through a card and a chip; one drop card's text ran past its box and the card was unplaced; the "nothing falls" cloud was the only light cloud, so colour predicted a key; two alt texts handed over the deciding feature; the dew-and-cloud figure's vapor dots read as falling; the cross-section's river and lake lay on the grass with the sea chip on brown ground. One register line corrected (CONDENSATION sits on the cloud, COLLECTION on the water). Still owed to the figures owner after v3, two one-line edits: "Belle" → "Belle" in the three cartoon briefs, and the With-no-Sun table's two cells to "almost stops" / "almost stop".

51 items in content/G4T23_pp100_bank.py: 50 four-option MCQs and one two-of-four select; no typed items (Question 3). Per atom: EAR4-053 11 · 054 10 · 055 13 · 056 7 · 057 10. Easy 14, medium 25, hard 12, sorted easy → medium → hard with the tags rising with the atom's place in the topic. MCQ keys A 12 · B 14 · C 14 · D 10. Ten question types on the type sheet, one exemplar each; two fixed option sets (the four steps; the four kinds) rotated per item; a bar list of words a generated item must never use (runoff, accumulation, groundwater, steam, cloud-type names, temperatures in degrees); a ⟂ list of pairs never drawn into one test. Every item names its nearest lesson-side instance; after the v2 re-scening no bank item is a quiz item with a noun changed. The type sheet.

Skill: course-build → write-lesson (five lessons: L01 fact-form concept introduction, L02 fact lesson, L03 loop routine, L04 explanation, L05 capstone prediction routine) → write-example-sequence, design-check-sequence, sentence-atomise, write-explanation, write-mcqs (quizzes, attached questions, practice, the PP100 bank and its type sheet); write-video-script (intro, five lesson scripts, the summary) @ b0fa825

Grade 4 Topic 23 — The water cycle — build record (v1, 2 October 2026)

What this is, in plain words

Five short lessons, one per atom, that follow one week's rain at Miss Hayes's school all the way round. A child first learns what falls from a cloud (rain, snow, sleet, hail — and that a cloud is tiny drops of water, not cotton wool), then where the fallen water goes (downhill into streams, rivers, lakes and the sea, or into the ground), then that these steps and Grade 3's evaporation and condensation make ONE loop with no start and no end, then why the loop keeps going (the Sun's light carries energy to the water; the water warms up and evaporates — nothing is lifted or sucked), and last how to predict a drop's next step from where it sits in the loop. The grade-5 tests lean on this topic hardest (STAAR 5.10A), so the loop drawing is the STAAR shape — four positions, four names — and the bank reads it the way the test will.

Counts. 5 lessons · 5 scripts (146, 132, 148, 147, 147 spoken words) + intro (101 words, 2 question marks) + summary (135 words) · 5 attached questions + the intro's poll + 3 summary questions · 50 quiz items (10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10) · 13 practice items (12 MCQ, 1 written answer; three Grade 3 retrievals; every coined term recognised then recalled by MCQ) · PP100 bank 53 items after the non-author cold pass (48 four-option MCQs, 4 typed, 1 multi-select; per atom 053: 13, 054: 10, 055: 13, 056: 8, 057: 9; easy 14 / medium 27 / hard 12) · 56 figures (43 SVG by code, 10 photo and 3 cartoon placeholders) · articles 302, 251, 319, 288, 259 words.

Structural decisions (in place of a blueprint — James, 2 Oct 2026: "go straight to the lessons")

Why these calls, one line each.

• Order 053 → 054 → 055 → 056 → 057 is the architecture row's and the register's ("the process atom after the four step atoms"); evaporation and condensation are Grade 3's two steps, so L03 is where all four meet.
• "Precipitation" is coined LAST in L01, after rain, snow, sleet and hail have each been shown falling, as the task set; "collection" last in L02 and "the water cycle" last in L03 the same way (vault: Coin a term as when X, we call it Y because Z; Explain, then label).
• L01 opens with what a cloud IS before what falls from it (JM-P1b: what a thing is before what it does) — the one prerequisite sentence the atom's own wording ("water falling from clouds") rests on, and the place the cotton-wool / smoke belief is confronted by name. It is three idea lines, not a lesson.
• The non-examples in L01 are near misses only: a cloud with nothing falling, and dew (water that formed on the grass, not fallen). A sprinkler and a fountain appear only in items.
• L03 teaches ONE new link (moving air carries the water vapor high up, where the air is cold) and stops there; why warm air moves up is not taught (grades 6-8). "Rises" is never said of the water: the air carries it (CLAUDE.md: no figurative verb a young reader takes literally; the register's "nothing is lifted").
• The loop drawing carries no numbers and no first step; it is drawn with four equal arrows and used three ways — unlabelled (headache), labelled (teaching), lettered (items) — and the Sun's energy arrow is a layer switched on only from L04 (vault: A headache figure is the teaching figure with the answer's layer switched off).
• L04 recalls, never re-teaches, Grade 3 Topic 29 L03 and Topic 21 L03 (the sun-and-shade puddles are Topic 21's own picture, imported), and corrects "sucked up" by name because the register's cross note forbids "the Sun lifts the water".
• L05's items offer HAPPENINGS as options ("It evaporates into water vapor.") rather than step names, so the prediction is tested as a prediction; the step-name form stays in L03 and the bank's type 4/5.
• Dew is used twice on purpose: in L01 as the near miss (it did not fall), in L03 as the ground-level case of condensation a child can see, bridging to the cloud; the bank's condensation transfer item uses a different surface (a parked bike).
• No lesson could do without a video: each is a motion or a process (falling, flowing, going round, warming, following a drop).

Grade 3 doorways, recalled by one item and one line each, never re-taught: Topic 21 L03/L04 (Water left open to the air goes into the air, bit by bit: it evaporates. / The water that evaporated is still there, in the air, as water vapor.) — L02 and L03's lines, L03-q1, PR-1; Topic 21 L06 (When water vapor cools down enough, it turns back into liquid water. That change is called condensation.) — L03's lines, L03-q2, PR-2; Topic 29 L03 (The Sun's light carries energy to everything it lands on, and where it lands, the thing warms up.) — L04's line, L04-q1, PR-3; Topic 21 L03 (Warm water evaporates faster than cool water.) — L04's line and L04-q2; Grade 4 Topic 16 L01 (Water vapor is water as a gas. It spreads out through the air, and you cannot see it.) — L03's line, word for word.

The simplification, named (once, in L05): "We made one simplification here. A real drop splits up and mixes with other water. We follow one drop round as if it stayed whole."

Questions for James (the build did not wait on them)

• Does "collection" stand as a coined step name, or is the step simply "water gathers" with no term? Context: EAR4-055 asks the student to name the four steps in order "evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection", and the released grade-5 forms print four-step loops with a fourth name (collection / accumulation / runoff vary by form); the task brief named precipitation, evaporation and condensation as the words to coin after the happening and was silent on collection. Recommendation: coin it (as built) — the loop's fourth position needs a name the student can read off a test diagram, and "collection" is the plainest of the three the forms use. What I built: coined last in L02, in RECALL_BY_MCQ, recognised and recalled in L02-q10, PR-12 and the bank.
• Should L01 keep its three-line "What a cloud is" section, or should "a cloud is tiny drops of water" be its own short lesson? Context: no Grade 3 or Grade 4 atom teaches what a cloud is made of (Grade 3 Topic 21 cut the kettle-cloud rider on your word), yet the water cycle cannot be traced without it, and the cotton-wool / smoke belief is the most-documented one in the water-cycle literature. Recommendation: keep it inside L01 as built — three idea lines and one figure, the prerequisite the atom's own sentence rests on, with the cloud's forming (condensation high up) left to L03. What I built: L01's "What a cloud is" section, L01-q8, PP-4, PP-17, PP-37, PP-39, PP-40.

Design-check-sequence records

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Skill: design-check-sequence @ b0fa825

Part: L01 (EAR4-053)

Type: (a) one-step categorisation — for a described or drawn case, say whether it is precipitation (water that fell from a cloud): yes / no.

Plan: three cards J K L, which shows no precipitation (3 opt, K) → Chicago snow (y) → fog over a lake (n) → a sprinkler's spray (n) → Iowa rain (y) → Ohio sleet (y) → dew on a car (n) → what a cloud is made of (3 opt, 2) → why the big drops fall (3 opt, 2; the holes belief as a distractor) → the term recognised last (3 opt, 0; never typed — 13 letters). Two-option string A B B A A B; three-option B C C A.

Belongs in practice/test instead: the four-case "which is precipitation" form; the kinds set; the claims as correct-reason items (PP types 1, 2, 6).

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Skill: design-check-sequence @ b0fa825

Part: L02 (EAR4-054)

Type: (a) one-step fact — where fallen water gathers (first place, next place, soft soil, pavement) and whether a named place is a gathering place.

Plan: a Vermont hillside, first place (3 opt, 1) → a stream from the mountains, next (3 opt, 2) → a soft garden bed (3 opt, 0) → a paved parking lot (3 opt, 0) → a Minnesota lake (y) → the sea (y) → the air (n) → where most water ends up (3 opt, 2) → which place fallen water gathers in (3 opt, 1) → the term last (3 opt, 1). Two-option A A B; three-option B C A A C B B.

Belongs in practice/test instead: snowmelt, drains, a fuller pond; the typed "the sea"; the multi-select (PP types 3, 8, 10).

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Skill: design-check-sequence @ b0fa825

Part: L03 (EAR4-055)

Type: (b) multi-step routine — trace the loop: name the step at a position, name the step that comes next; two Grade 3 recalls open the part (the checks lean on evaporation and condensation).

Plan: recall evaporation (a towel, 3 opt, 1) → recall condensation (a cold glass, 3 opt, 0) → the lettered loop, J (4 opt, A) → L (4 opt, C) → after rain falls (3 opt, 2) → after condensation (3 opt, 1) → after a pond gathers (3 opt, 2) → Laura's "ends at the sea" (n) → Belle's "may fall again elsewhere" (y) → the name last (3 opt, 0). Two-option B A; three-option B A C B C A; four-option A C.

Belongs in practice/test instead: before / missing / two-steps-on; the second lettering; the claims as correct-reason items (PP types 4, 5, 6).

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Skill: design-check-sequence @ b0fa825

Part: L04 (EAR4-056)

Type: (c) concept understanding — the payoff is a mechanism (light carries energy → the water warms → it evaporates) and the literature names two beliefs (the Sun sucks / pulls the water up; the Sun makes the rain).

Plan: recall a sunlit bench warms (3 opt, 0) → recall the sunny towel dries first (3 opt, 0) → WHAT: a sunlit lake (3 opt, 1) → WHY: the correct reason a sunny water bowl dries first (3 opt, 2) → Belle's straw claim (n) → Laura's TRUE claim: without the Sun's energy hardly any water would evaporate (y) → transfer: a cloudy day (3 opt, 2) → transfer: the Sun stops (3 opt, 0) → what the Sun's energy does (3 opt, 2) → where the energy comes from (3 opt, 0). Three-option A A B C C A C A; two-option B A.

Belongs in practice/test instead: July over January; a rock pool; the chained why; the typed "the Sun" (PP types 7, 8).

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Skill: design-check-sequence @ b0fa825

Part: L05 (EAR4-057)

Type: (b) multi-step routine — find the drop in the loop, then take the next arrow round; scaffolded (the step named in the stem) then bare (a place only; options are happenings).

Plan: drop card J, a lake, "a lake is collection" (4 opt, A; scaffold) → card K, a cloud, "a cloud is condensation" (4 opt, C; scaffold) → card L, rainwater on a hillside (4 opt, D) → water vapor above a town (3 opt, 1) → a wide river (3 opt, 0) → a snowflake in a cloud (3 opt, 2) → rain on a sloping field (3 opt, 0) → two steps on from evaporation (4 opt, C) → Landon's "finished for good" (n) → Belle's "snow next month" (y). Four-option A C D C; three-option B A C A; two-option B A.

Belongs in practice/test instead: fresh drop cards (a city, a pool, a hailstone); the step before; counts from other starts; the ground claim (PP types 6, 9).

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The key strings

• Attached questions, video order (L01 … L05, S1 S2 S3): A B C B C C A B — C 3 of 8, no position over 60 %. The intro's poll has no key.
• Lesson quizzes (two- / three- / four-option items counted within their own range): L01 — 2-opt A B B A A B, 3-opt B C C A · L02 — 2-opt A A B, 3-opt B C A A C B B · L03 — 2-opt B A, 3-opt B A C B C A, 4-opt A C · L04 — 2-opt A B (the true claim now first, on the cold pass's note that every pair ran no-then-yes), 3-opt A A B C C A C A · L05 — 2-opt B A, 3-opt B A C A, 4-opt A C D C. No lesson's position holds over 60 % (S7 clean after one rebalance in L03: q1 and q7 reordered, before → after strings A A C B A A → B A C B C A).
• Practice MCQs: A B C A B B D B C C A B.
• Bank MCQs (48): A 10 · B 16 · C 15 · D 7. Sorted easy → medium → hard (e×14, m×27, h×12); S11, S23 and S31 clean.
• Claims: lesson quizzes carry six bare yes / no claims, three keyed yes (true claims: the pond's water may fall again elsewhere; without the Sun's energy hardly any water would evaporate; sea water today may be snow on a mountain next month) and three keyed no — 50 % no, under the 70 % ceiling. Bank claims are all in the correct-reason form.

The example sequences, written out

L01 (FACT form; frame "<X> falls from a cloud. It is <what it is>."). What a cloud is (tiny drops of water floating together; not cotton wool, not smoke) → E rain: inside the cloud the tiny drops bump and join into bigger drops; Earth pulls the big drops down → E snow: in very cold air the water in the cloud freezes into flakes of ice; the flakes fall → E sleet: rain freezes into small grains of ice as it falls through very cold air → E hail: balls of ice from tall storm clouds, where the air high up is very cold → NE a cloud on a dry day: nothing falls → NE dew on a cool morning: it did not fall from a cloud; its drops formed on the cold grass → the name: rain, snow, sleet and hail are all water that falls from clouds; water falling from clouds like this is called precipitation. Every example varies one thing (what the falling water is); the two near misses differ by the defining feature only (nothing falls; the water did not fall).

L03 (the loop, traced). The puddle's water evaporates (Grade 3's sentence) → it is still there as water vapor (Grade 3's sentence) → water vapor is water as a gas you cannot see (Topic 16's sentence) → water evaporates from puddles, lakes, rivers, wet ground and the sea (the only-the-sea belief) → moving air carries the water vapor high up; high up the air is cold → when water vapor cools down enough it turns back into liquid water: condensation (Grade 3's sentence) → it condenses into tiny drops; many tiny drops are a cloud → dew is the same change on cold grass (figure) → the drops join and fall: precipitation (L01's word) → the fallen water gathers: collection (L02's word) → open to the air, so it evaporates again → the four steps go round and round; no step is first and no step is last → the water cycle.

L05 (the routine, worked on one drop). In the sea (collection) → the next arrow is evaporation: it evaporates into water vapor → water vapor high up in cold air → the next arrow is condensation: a tiny drop in a cloud → in a cloud, grown big → the next arrow is precipitation: it falls as rain → rainwater on a hillside → the next arrow is collection: a stream, a river, the sea → and round again. Four drop cards, then the four in a row with the return arrow.

The rules applied (the demo record's table, re-run for this topic)

Misconception rows (the Grade 3-5 physics catalogue is silent on the water cycle; the literature named in the brief, and what was done)

Checker: 0 FAIL, 26 WARN (python3 build_tools_check_topic.py grade4/topic23_build/content/G4T23.py), every WARN answered

• S8 ×15 "beat carries 3–4 sentences": kept — the elementary script is a continuous take (vault: Script narration is laid out as continuous speech); every beat stays under 42 words and every script under 150 spoken words (S25 / the Grade 4 checker both clean).
• S36 ×11 unusual words: collects (fine — it is the explanation of "collection", said once in the coin line and echoed in fb); condensed / condense (fine — forms of Grade 3's term "condensation", in the topic lexicon); spray / sprays (fine — everyday; a sprinkler's spray is the near miss); simplification (fine — the course's standing word for the named simplification, used in Grade 3); grassy (fine); shrinking (fine — a caption word a nine-year-old knows); soccer (fine — US child word); puffy (fine — the everyday word for a fair-weather cloud); salty (fine — in a distractor). Swapped before this record: mist → fog; misted → covered with tiny drops; concrete → the deck; sunlit → "the water in the sunny bowl".
• The Grade 4 article checker: L03 at 319 words, WARN above 300 — kept, because the article carries the three Grade 3 sentences word for word plus Topic 16's, which the task asked for, and it keeps a subtitle or figure every ≤ 4 idea lines (longest run 4); one dew line was cut (the figure's caption carries it). L01 at 302: two words over, with a subtitle or figure every ≤ 3 lines.
• check_brief: every video clean except the INTRO's one standing accepted hit (no closing bullets — an intro teaches nothing, so it has no rule slide; accepted on every topic since 25 Sep). The summary's third bullet was shortened from 14 words to "One loop with no start and no end" and the Sun given its own chip; L05's rule has no chip (four is the ceiling) and is spoken in full.

Bank freshness: the scene-noun grep (re-performed before this record)

Scene nouns of the lessons, quizzes, attached and summary items: playground · puddle · classroom window · fence · school building · the hill behind the school · classroom · towel (L03-q1, L04-q2) · glass of lemonade (L03-q2) · metal bench (L04-q1) · parking lot (L02-q4) · sprinkler (L01-q4) · Chicago · Iowa cornfield · Ohio · Vermont hillside · garden bed · Minnesota lake · pond (L03-q7, L04-q7, L05's attached) · wide river (L05-q5) · snowflake (L05-q6) · sloping field (L05-q7) · town (L05-q4) · Kansas road · sunny beach · grassy slope · water bowl (L04's attached, L04-q4) · stream from the mountains (L02-q2) · dew on a car (L01-q7) · fog over a lake (L01-q3).

Grep over the bank and the practice set (python3 loop, counts of each noun): zero hits for playground, fence, school building, hill behind, classroom, towel, lemonade, bench, parking lot, sprinkler, Chicago, Iowa, Ohio, Vermont, garden bed, Kansas, beach, bowl, snowflake. Six collisions were found on the first run and re-scened before this record: PR-7 "rain water gathered in a pond" (= L03-q7) → a ditch beside a road; PP-1's options "fog over a lake" and "dew on a car" (= L01-q3, L01-q7) → fog in a valley, dew on a tent; PP-2's "rain falling on a cornfield" (= L01-q5) → a wheat field; PP-8 "a steep hillside in Oregon, where does it gather first" (= L02-q1's move with the state changed) → snowmelt on a Colorado slope; PP-26 "dew on cold grass → condensation" (L03's own taught case) → drops on a parked bike; PP-31 / pp_drop_n "water vapor high above a town" (= L05-q4) → above a city; PP-28 Minnesota → Wisconsin. Remaining shared nouns are content words (cloud, rain, snow, lake, river, stream, sea, ground, drop) or different moves on a common noun (pond: a farm pond's extra water, PP-20; window: "frost on a window" as a distractor). The one SHARED move kept: PP-30 (a lake where the Sun never shines) and L04-q9 (the Sun stops shining) — the same imagined removal on a different object, listed in the type sheet.

Blind bundle (grade4/topic23_build/blind/2026-10-02/): 118 MCQ, 4 typed, 1 FRQ, 1 multi; keys sequestered (re-cut after the cold pass)

grep "[Drawing:" BLIND_BUNDLE_G4T23.md | grep -iE "evaporat|condens|precipitat|next|falls|rises" → 6 hits, all the same phrase and none an answer: the six item drop cards (J, K, L, N, P, Q) print their two row headings, "WHERE THE DROP IS — <place>; WHAT HAPPENS NEXT — ?". The word "next" is the card's own row heading, printed on the drawing with a question mark under it; it is the question, not the answer. With "next" removed from the pattern the grep is 0 hits: no blind line says evaporates, condenses, precipitation, falls or rises. The lettered loop's blind text lists dots, a cloud, drops and water at each position; the fall cards' blind text lists what is drawn (balls, flakes, grains, lines, drops on grass, a sun, no cloud) and never a kind's name.

Names run (python3 build_tools_names.py Hayes Landon Belle Laura → exit 0; all four free)

Only the topic's row is used: Miss Hayes (the teacher; never in an item), Landon, Belle and Laura (the children; claim-makers in items). Places are real US places (Chicago, Iowa, Ohio, Vermont, Minnesota, Kansas, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon, Wisconsin) with no claim made about any of them beyond ordinary weather.

Sentence-atomise self-check (one row per lesson; S1 / S2 / S38 clean)

Every idea line names its actor (the water, the drops, Earth, the Sun's light, moving air, the drop) and carries one causal link; plain word before the term in every coin line; no pronoun carries two referents.

Figures (56: 43 SVG by code, 10 photo and 3 cartoon placeholders; author's review-figures self-check on 22 opened renders)

Renders opened at page width: cycle_four_steps, cycle_with_sun, cycle_sun_only, q_cycle_jklm, pp_cycle_npqr, four_falling, not_falling, q_fall_cards, pp_fall_cards, cloud_closeup, drops_grow, where_headache, where_labels, dew_vs_cloud, sun_shade_morning, sun_shade_afternoon, drop_card_sea, drop_path, table_four_steps, table_sun_or_not (and the cloud glyph three times while it was being fixed). Fixed on the render, not the source: the cloud glyph showed its base's inner edge (redrawn as layered puffs with every inner edge painted over); the loop's step chips sat on the arrow ends (moved beside the arrows, inside the loop; CONDENSATION beside the cloud, not over it); the Sun's energy chips collided with the EVAPORATION chip (moved to the top left); the snow cards' ground read as an empty box (filled pale blue); the drops-grow strip's falling drops fell below the card (re-positioned). Every label points at the thing it names; nothing is out of frame; no item render carries a step word.

Judgement calls, recorded

• "Collection" coined (see Questions for James) rather than left as "water gathers".
• "The water cycle" coined as a term at L03's end, so the intro, blurb and L01–L02 never say it; the summary opener says it (after L03). Its options are "water cycle / rain loop / cloud cycle" so the checker's exact term match sees the recognition item.
• A cloud is "tiny drops of water" throughout; ice crystals in cold clouds are folded into "the water in the cloud freezes into flakes of ice" (snow) and "balls of ice" (hail). Not said: that high clouds are often ice already (a grade 6-8 refinement).
• Sleet in the US sense (frozen raindrops, small grains of ice), matching STAAR's word; the British mixed-rain-and-snow sense is on the type sheet's bar list.
• Hail "forms in tall storm clouds, where the air high up is very cold" — the honest one-line version; the up-and-down growth of hailstones is not taught.
• Dew explained in one line in L01 ("its drops formed right there, on the cold grass") without naming condensation there — L01 is the precipitation lesson and the name belongs to L03's recall, where dew returns as the ground-level case.
• Four typed items, all medium, and a hard tier of twelve MCQs: all three coined terms are nine letters or more and are recalled by MCQ by the brief's rule, so typing is used only where it produces an everyday thing the student recalls (cloud, drops, the sea, the Sun) — and the cold pass was right that producing one everyday word is one step, so those are medium; the hard tier is the correct-reason claims, the loop counted or run backwards, the chained why and the set answer, per James's 28–29 Sep refinements ("hard means more thinking"; "type only where typing does a job"). This leaves the bank short of the brief's "roughly 12–18 typed" line on purpose; it is a judgement for James to overturn.
• No Grade 3 character returns; Grade 3's Cosmo, Florrie, Zosia and Bertie stay in Topic 21.
• Imported, not redrawn: Topic 21's sun-and-shade puddles are L04's headache picture, as Grade 3 drew them.

Owed

• The blind read of blind/2026-10-02/ by a reader who has not seen the keys (review-lesson Role A); zero unverified keys ship.
• James's two questions above (the build did not wait on them). Because the record carries questions, the picture pass (David's pack: 10 photo and 3 cartoon placeholders, briefs in figures.py IMAGE_BRIEFS) waits for his sign-off; the code-drawn figures do not wait.
• The video batch is built and checked (handoff/G4T23/videos/batch_G4T23.json, READY.md written) and NOT sent — James's review of the scripts is the cue.

The non-author cold pass (review-questions + review-figures, a separate agent, 2 Oct 2026) — findings and what was done

The reviewer answered every keyed item cold before reading the keys and agreed with 124 of 124. Its table, and what was done (every Essential and Worth-fixing finding acted on; the Leave rows recorded):

After the pass: checker 0 FAIL, 26 WARN (the same S8 and S36 warnings as above); the Grade 4 article checker 0 FAIL; the blind bundle re-cut (118 MCQ, 4 typed, 1 FRQ, 1 multi) and its drawing lines re-grepped (0 hits on evaporat / condens / precipitat / falls / rises; the five "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT — ?" row headings as before); the batch rebuilt and check_brief clean but for the INTRO's standing accepted hit; names exit 0.

v2 — reviews applied (2 October 2026)

Skill: course-build → write-lesson (article lines) → write-video-script (the summary beats) → write-mcqs (every item change) → write-explanation (fb / why lines) → sentence-atomise (every new sentence) @ efd8fba

What changed, in plain words. The one false sentence is gone: the course now says "Rivers carry a lot of fallen water to the sea", never "most fallen water reaches the sea" (on land about two-thirds evaporates again first). Six bank items that were quiz items with the nouns changed are now fresh cases. Every "condensation happens high up" feedback line now speaks one running definition, so Grade 3's cold can and L01's dew are not contradicted. The summary no longer counts its beats "First … Next …" in a topic whose rule is that no step is first. The typed items are gone (typing is for a coined term or a number). Four drawings were corrected on the render: the return arrow of the drop path, the cross-section's water now lying in the ground, the no-fall cloud the same gray as the others, the vapor dots that read as rain. Every key was already agreed by two blind readers; no key changed except by rotation.

#### Finding → change

The drop-tracking cards stay text cards with a state icon (the reviewer's design call for the author): the card carries the place in words so the item's figure, not its stem, holds the data.

#### Questions for James — built as recommended

1. "collection" is coined (the register names the atom so; a test loop needs a readable fourth name). Built: L02 coins it last; every later line and item uses it.
2. "What a cloud is" stays inside L01 as the opening section, with the two typed cloud-rider items (v1 PP-38 "cloud", PP-39 "drops") cut; the cotton-balls claim (PP-37) and the why-a-cloud-does-not-fall item (PP-16) remain as the section's bank coverage.

For the names pool (not edited here): Belle and Laura are confusable in one topic — the reviewer's Leave row. Noted for build_tools_names.py's pool; the topic keeps both because every live item and figure brief names them.

#### Counts and key strings after v2

• 5 lessons · 50 quiz MCQs (10 per lesson) · 13 practice items (12 MCQ, 1 FRQ) · bank 51 (50 four-option MCQs, 1 multi-select, 0 typed): EAR4-053 11 · 054 10 · 055 13 · 056 7 · 057 10; easy 14, medium 25, hard 12, sorted easy → medium → hard; tags rise with atom order (053 mostly easy, 057 medium and hard only).
• Attached (video order): A B C B C C A B (unchanged).
• Quizzes: L01 2-opt A B B A A B · 3-opt C C A B (the card item now last) · L02 2-opt A A B · 3-opt B C A A C B B · L03 2-opt B A · 3-opt B A C B C A · 4-opt A C (the J and L items now last) · L04 2-opt A B · 3-opt A A B C C A C A · L05 2-opt B A · 3-opt B A C A · 4-opt A C D C. No position over 60 %.
• Practice MCQs: A B C A B B D B C C A B (PR-6's key stays B after its rewrite).
• Bank MCQs (50): A 12 · B 14 · C 14 · D 10 — string ABDCCABDDBACBBAAACDADCCCCCCDDCABDCBBBCAD-AABBDBABBC (the dash is the multi-select).

#### Checks

• python3 build_tools_check_topic.py grade4/topic23_build/content/G4T23.py → 0 FAIL, 28 WARN (the S8 beat-length warnings as in v1; S26 "no typed item" — by the reviewer's ruling; S36 words: collects, condensed, spray, simplification, puffy, sprays, grassy, shrinking, condense, soccer, uphill, salty — all fine, the v1 answers stand; "puffy" is new and plain).
• python3 grade4/check_g4_articles.py … → 0 FAIL (L03 at 317 words, the standing WARN — Leave).
• python3 build_tools_names.py Hayes Landon Belle Laura → exit 0, all four free.
• python3 build_tools_build_topic_site.py … /tmp/g4t23_v2.html built (5 lessons, 13 practice, 51 PP100, 56 figures); every lesson's article route and the PP100 route screenshotted at 900 px (/tmp/g4t23_figs/page_*.png) and read: every figure renders; the placeholders print their briefs; no empty box.
• check_svg_ids.py content/figures.py → PASS (56 figures, 0 ids).
• Figures re-rendered to /tmp/g4t23_figs/ and the changed ones opened as PNG: where_labels, drop_path, q_fall_cards, dew_vs_cloud, pp_drop_p, pp_drop_n, four_falling — each as described above.
• python3 build_tools_video_batch.py … → 7 videos; check_brief.py → every video ✓ except the INTRO's standing closing-bullets line (excepted). Not sent. The batch tool's "Words NOT to use" line bans "energy" in every G4T23 video while L04's protected lines say it 7 times and the SUMMARY's 4 times — the tool was not edited; the coordinator adds the UNBAN data row "G4T23": {"L04": ["energy"], "SUMMARY": ["energy"]}.
• python3 ~/Documents/CourseBuilding-Vault/skills/write-mcqs/check_key_tells.py grade4/topic23_build/content/G4T23.py → KEY TELLS: 0 of 121 MCQs flagged (a: 0, b: 0, c: 0) (v1 content: 7 flagged). Seven keys trimmed, none padded: L03-q1 "It evaporated into the air."; L05-q4 "It condenses."; PR-3 "Sunlight carries energy to the rock."; PR-8 "More sunlight lands on the pond."; PP-37 "A cloud is many tiny drops of water."; PP-44 (v2) "The water is in the air as water vapor."; PP-47 (v2) "The Sun's light warms the water. It evaporates." The two fixed sets the type sheet declares (the steps set, the kinds set) are listed in KEY_TELL_EXEMPT_SETS in G4T23.py. The bundle, the site and the batch were re-cut after these trims.
• Blind bundle re-cut to blind/2026-10-02-v2/: 120 MCQ, 0 typed, 1 FRQ, 1 multi (122 held; keys sequestered). grep "[Drawing:" | grep -iE "evaporat|condens|precipitat|collect|falls|rises|next" → 6 hits, all the word "next" in the drop cards' own row heading "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT — ?" (cards J, K, L, N, Q, P): the heading is the question's frame printed on the card with a question mark under it, never an answer; 0 hits on any step word, "falls" or "rises".

#### Item ids whose stem, options, key, model, figure, blind text or accept list changed

Lesson quizzes: L01-q1 → L01-q10 (moved; stem unchanged) · L02-q1 (fb) · L02-q6 (fb) · L02-q7 (stem) · L02-q8 (stem, options, fb, why) · L02-V1 (fb) · L03-q3 / q4 → L03-q9 / q10 (moved) · L03-q7 (fb) · L04-q9 (option A, fb) · L05-q1 (fb) · L05-q3 (figure q_drop_l text and blind text, fb, why) · L05-q5 (fb) · L05-q7 (fb) · L05-q8 (stem, fb) · L05-V1 (fb). Summary: S2 (fb), S3 (fb). Practice: PR-3 (key text), PR-6 (stem, options, key position, fb, why), PR-7 (fb), PR-8 (key text), PR-10 (task). Key-tell trims in the quizzes: L03-q1 (key text), L05-q4 (key text). Bank (v1 numbers): PP-3 (stem) · PP-9 (options, key → D) · PP-11, PP-12 (stem, options, key, why) · PP-17 (stem, options, key, why) · PP-19 (options, key → D) · PP-20 (type text → MCQ; stem, options, key, why) · PP-21 (options, key → D) · PP-27 (key text) · PP-29 (options, key → D) · PP-32 (stem, options, key, why) · PP-33 (options, key → D) · PP-35 (stem, why) · PP-36 (stem, why) · PP-37 (key text) · PP-38, 39, 40 (cut) · new PP-39 (card P; figure pp_drop_p text, icon and blind text) · PP-44 (key text) · PP-45, PP-46 (stem, options, key position, why; v2 PP-44's key trimmed for the key-tell check) · PP-49 (v2 PP-47; key text, key-tell check) · PP-50 (key text) · PP-51 (stem). Figures whose alt or blind text changed with no item change: not_falling, q_fall_cards, pp_fall_cards, card_snow, dew_vs_cloud, where_headache, where_labels, drop_path, drop_card_vapor, pp_drop_n, pp_drop_q.

v3 — polish (2 October 2026)

Skill: write-mcqs → write-explanation → sentence-atomise (every new sentence) @ 69d9899

In plain words. A third cold reader (Reader C) read the whole v2 bundle, 122 items, and agreed every key. She left four small flags and nothing blocking. All four are applied; no key letter, no key meaning, no tag and no figure changed. Three bank keys that were the longest option are now one clause or sit among options of the same shape. One of the two look-alike claim-makers has a new name: Belle is now Belle, so Belle and Laura can no longer be read as one child. One Lesson 2 quiz stem that said "water vapor" (a word Lesson 2's page never says) now uses Lesson 2's own words. And the no-Sun chain speaks one strength everywhere: hardly any water would evaporate, so the water cycle would almost stop.

#### Flag → change

#### Checks after v3

• python3 ~/Documents/CourseBuilding-Vault/skills/write-mcqs/check_key_tells.py grade4/topic23_build/content/G4T23.py → KEY TELLS: 0 of 121 MCQs flagged (a: 0, b: 0, c: 0); KEY LONGEST (any margin) 45 of 121 (was 47).
• python3 build_tools_check_topic.py grade4/topic23_build/content/G4T23.py → 0 FAIL, 28 WARN (the same S8, S26 and S36 lines as v2; "uphill" now sits in PP-10's distractor, as before).
• python3 grade4/check_g4_articles.py grade4/topic23_build/content/G4T23.py → 0 FAIL (articles 300 / 249 / 317 / 291 / 259; scripts 146 / 129 / 148 / 148 / 147; intro 101; summary 130; L03's 317 the standing WARN, Leave).
• python3 build_tools_build_topic_site.py grade4/topic23_build/content/G4T23.py /tmp/g4t23_p.html → 5 lessons, 13 practice, 51 pp100, 56 figures.
• python3 ~/Documents/CourseBuilding-Vault/skills/review-figures/check_svg_ids.py grade4/topic23_build/content/figures.py → PASS (56 figures, 0 ids).
• python3 build_tools_names.py Hayes Landon Belle Laura → all four free, exit 0.
• python3 build_tools_video_batch.py … → 7 videos, key string A B C B C C A B; check_brief.py → every video ✓ except the INTRO's standing closing-bullets line. Not sent. (L04's beat 4 changed, so the batch was rebuilt.)
• Blind bundle re-cut with build_tools_blind_bundle.py to blind/2026-10-02-v3/ (the same tool as v1 and v2): 120 MCQ, 0 typed, 1 FRQ, 1 multi; 122 held; keys sequestered. grep '^\[Drawing:' | grep -icE 'evaporat|condens|precipitat|collect|falls|rises' → 0; with "next" added, the six "WHAT HAPPENS NEXT — ?" row headings as before. "Belle" → 0 hits in the bundle.

#### Counts and key strings after v3

Unchanged from v2: 5 lessons · 50 quiz MCQs · 13 practice items (12 MCQ, 1 FRQ) · bank 51 (50 four-option MCQs, 1 multi-select, 0 typed): EAR4-053 11 · 054 10 · 055 13 · 056 7 · 057 10; easy 14, medium 25, hard 12; bank MCQ keys A 12 · B 14 · C 14 · D 10; attached A B C B C C A B; every quiz and practice key string as in v2 (no option moved position).

#### Item ids changed in v3 (for the mini re-read)

Lesson quizzes: L02-q7 (stem, fb, why) · L02-q8 (fb B) · L02-q9 (fb A) · L02-q10 (fb C) · L03-q7 (claim-maker's name) · L04-q6 (name) · L04-q8 (key text, fb, why) · L05-q10 (name). Bank: PP-01 (options, why) · PP-10 (options) · PP-16 (options) · PP-42 (name) · PP-48 (name). Lesson text, not items: the blurb and intro beats 1 and 3 (name); L03 script beat 1 (name); L04 article "Imagine no Sun" lines 2–3, L04 script beat 4 and its screen chip. Figures: none. Type sheet: the type 1 and type 2 exemplars and the names updated; a v3 line added.

#### Owed after v3

• A mini re-read of the thirteen changed items above (blind/2026-10-02-v3/), by a reader who has not seen the keys.
• Two one-line figure edits for the figures owner (outside this pass): "Belle" → "Belle" in the three cartoon briefs; table_sun_or_not's two With-no-Sun cells to "almost stops" / "almost stop".
• James's questions on the Needs-you page (records/REVIEW_NEXT_G4T23.md → course_preview/review/REVIEW_NEXT_G4T23.html); the picture pass waits on them.

Nothing committed.

Skill: course-build → review-lesson (Roles B, B2) → review-questions → review-accuracy (non-author pass; filed by the coordinator from the reviewer's hand-back) @ efd8fba

Topic 23 — guidance, questions and accuracy review, 2 October 2026

Ship after two small fixes. The science is right at Grade 4 depth and the language rules hold everywhere (light carries energy → the water warms → it evaporates; nothing sucked or lifted; Earth pulls the drops; a cloud is tiny drops; the loop has four equal arrows and no first step). Every Grade 3 and Topic 16 sentence is recalled word for word. All five misconceptions have a lesson line and an item. Counts re-performed and true. Two things need fixing: one keyed claim is false ("most fallen water reaches the sea" — on land about two-thirds evaporates again before reaching any sea), and one bank item is L02-q2 with the noun changed.

The author's two questions, the reviewer's view: (1) coin "collection" — yes (the register names the atom so; a test loop needs a readable fourth name); (2) keep "what a cloud is" inside L01 — yes, but cap the bank's cloud-rider items (cut the two typed ones).

Skill: course-build → review-figures (non-author pass; filed by the coordinator from the reviewer's hand-back) @ efd8fba — figures at g3-5-science commit 4761525

Topic 23 — figure review, 2 October 2026

The loop is clean: four equal black arrows, one way round, no step drawn first; the cloud is drawn as drops, never cotton; the Sun's arrow appears only from L04 and points at the water. Page pass PASS (every route screenshotted; every figure renders as alone; check_svg_ids.py PASS). Letters match stems; blind texts list dots / cloud / drops / water, never a step word; counts match the renders; captions never say "real". Six fixes before a cold read, four unplaced keys.

1. drop_path: the dashed return arrow runs through the fourth card and across the chip "RAIN ON A HILL". Start the return from the card's bottom edge.
2. pp_drop_p: row text runs past its box; also unplaced. Shorten; place in the bank (EAR4-057 has only two drawn cards) or delete.
3. q_fall_cards / not_falling: the "nothing falls" cloud is the only LIGHT cloud, so colour predicts L01-q1's key. Same grey.
4. Alt text hands over the deciding feature: q_fall_cards alt says K has "nothing falling"; pp_fall_cards alt says N has "no cloud". Describe what IS drawn; the verdict words only in blind=.
5. dew_vs_cloud: the vapor dots sit under the cloud and read as falling. Move beside / above, or drop them.
6. where_water_goes (both layers): river and lake lie ON the grass; "THE SEA" chip on brown ground; the soak-in arrows start below the surface. A shallow dip for river and lake; the chip on the water; the arrows from the surface.

Confirmations and one register fix: CONDENSATION sits on the cloud and COLLECTION on the water (not on the arrows, as the register line says) — fine pedagogically; amend the register text and the summary script's "lights on the loop's bottom arrow" to match. The drop-tracking cards are text cards with a drop icon (the drop is not placed on a loop arrow) — a design call for the author, recorded. Engine note: narrow frames scale to the column (table_four_kinds at ~2.7×) — the frame-floor rule.

Unplaced (4): cloud_fair_photo — place beside "a cloud looks like cotton balls" or delete; card_rain, card_hail — script-only, keep and mark; pp_drop_p — as (2).

Minor: a liquid drop icon on the snow, hail and vapor cards; rain_lines redraws Grade 3 Topic 25's rain() locally (import); _puddle_small unused; snow / sleet / hail ground pale blue-grey while blind text says "white ground"; cloud_fair_photo's brief lacks the eye line.

Three best: cycle_four_steps, cloud_closeup, drops_grow. Three weakest: where_water_goes, drop_path, dew_vs_cloud.

Skill: course-build → review-lesson (Role A blind key read, two readers; Role C adjudication by the coordinator) @ efd8fba

Topic 23 — The water cycle — blind read, 2 October 2026

Every key agreed by two blind readers (124 items each; MCQ disagreements 0 for both; PP-43 multi B, C matched; the four typed words on the lists; the FRQ model in the key's words). Both readers name the same one item a careful child could land on twice. The intro poll is not bundled by design.

Flags carried into the fix pass

Readers' files: blind/2026-10-02/READER_A.md, READER_B.md.

Skill: review-lesson @ 80719f4 — Role A (blind key reader), Reader C, cold read of BLIND_BUNDLE_G4T23.md only (keys, content and records unopened)

Takeaway

All 122 items can be answered from the stem, the options and the bracketed drawing data alone, reading at a nine-year-old's level. Every "next step" item has exactly one next step from where the drop sits; the four two-steps-on counting items (L05-08, PP-24, PP-45, PP-49) each resolve to one letter. No item restates a Miss Hayes school scene (no school, class or teacher appears anywhere in the bundle). Nothing here I would refuse to ship. Four small things to look at: three PP100 keys are the longest option (PP-10, PP-16 and, mildly, PP-01); "Laura" and "Belle" are both used as claim-makers, sometimes on adjacent items (L03-06/07, L04-05/06), and a young reader may read them as one person; L02-07 uses "water vapor" in a Lesson 2 quiz though the bundle's own order teaches evaporation in Lesson 3; and L04-08 ("It would stop") sits slightly harder than L04-05 and PP-29 ("hardly any would evaporate") — one defensible option each, but the two wordings differ.

Items

Cross-item notes

• Names: Laura and Belle both appear as claim-makers, on adjacent items in L03 (06/07) and L04 (05/06). One defensible answer each, but a nine-year-old may read them as one child who changes her mind. Suggest two unlike names.
• No item mentions a school, a class or a teacher; nothing reads as a lesson scene renamed (checked against the brief's "one rainy week at Miss Hayes's school").
• Drawings: all five described drawings (L01-10, L03-09/10, PP-02, PP-11/12, the drop cards) give exactly the data the item needs and do not print the step name.
• Terms: precipitation, condensation, evaporation, collection, water vapor, water cycle, hail, sleet are all in the bundle's own coining items (L01-09, L02-10, L03-08, PP-04/05/06); nothing else is assumed.