Skill: write-like-james @ cca3af6 · the build: write-lesson, write-mcqs, write-video-script, write-intro, write-summary @ cca3af6; the non-author review (review-lesson Role B/C, review-questions, review-figures, review-accuracy) and its fix pass @ cca3af6; the two blind reads follow
Topic 28 "How parents pass on instructions" — your read (8 October 2026)
Skim first
The lessons in teaching order, each with its one rule sentence; then the intro script; then the question types. The review page follows.
The lessons and their rules
| Lesson | Atom | Rule sentence |
|---|---|---|
| L01 Match a young one to its parent | LIF5-030 | Offspring take after their parents. Check one trait at a time. The young one that shares the parent's traits is most likely hers. |
| L02 Parents pass instructions to their young | LIF5-031 | Parents pass instructions to their offspring. The instructions set the inherited traits. A trait from how a parent lived is not passed on. |
| L03 Why brothers and sisters are not the same | LIF5-032 | A parent passes only some of its instructions to each young one. Each offspring gets a different mix. Brothers and sisters are alike, but not the same. |
| L04 Surroundings change how a trait develops | LIF5-033 | The instructions set what a trait can be. The surroundings change how the trait develops. Rich soil: taller; poor soil: shorter. The instructions themselves do not change. |
The intro script (119 words, about 60 s)
Here's Miss Bellamy's class at the window. A robin built a nest in the tree outside, and this week four chicks hatched. Every chick will grow a red chest, like its parents. Nobody will show them how. And still, no two chicks will look exactly the same. So how does a chick get its parents' red chest? And why does each chick look a little different? In this topic, we will look at how to match a young one to its parent, what parents pass to their young, why brothers and sisters differ, and how food and soil change how a living thing grows. Okay, so are you ready to find out what parents pass on to their young?
The question types (from TYPES_G5T28.md)
- Type 1 (easy · MCQ · 030): a parent's two traits named; which of four described young ones is most likely hers — four young ones, each sharing none, one or both traits
- Type 2 (easy → medium · MCQ, two drawn · 030): the reverse match (which parent), what to check, and two trait tables read (medium) — four parents / four checks / the table's four columns
- Type 3 (medium → hard · MCQ and multi · 030): why a trait is the wrong one to check yet; the TWO young ones that share both traits (multi, hard) — four reasons / four kittens
- Type 4 (easy · MCQ, the source set · 031): an inherited trait named; what set it — instructions its parents passed to it / the food it ate / the place it was born / what it learned
- Type 5 (easy → medium · MCQ · 031): where the instructions came from, when, what a seed carries from its parent trees; which trait of four came from the instructions; what a trained parent's young is born with; why chicks hatch with their parents' beak — four sources / four times / four things carried / four sentences / four traits
- Type 6 (medium → hard · typed and MCQ · 031): the one word for what the parents passed (typed); the claim's correct reason (hard); the inherited and the acquired trait on one animal (hard) — instructions, with child spellings / four reasons / four sentences
- Type 7 (easy → medium · MCQ · 032): what each young one got; why two siblings differ or match; which sentence is true of siblings — four single-statement reasons or sentences
- Type 8 (medium → hard · MCQ, typed, multi · 032): which sentence corrects a child's "all the same" claim; why every kitten has one trait; the one word for what the mix is made of (typed, hard); a matching and a differing trait at once (hard); the TWO true sentences of a litter (multi, hard) — four sentences / instructions / four sentences / four sentences
- Type 9 (easy → medium · MCQ, the height or size set · 033): the same kind in two surroundings: how does the trait develop, compared with the other — taller / shorter / the same height / taller, with a new color; bigger / smaller / the same size / bigger, with a new color
- Type 10 (medium → hard · MCQ, drawn tables, typed · 033): four-row tables read for a prediction (which pot most likely grows tallest; which two pots show what the soil alone does; which turkey is most likely shortest from its feed); why the right-hand pot's plant is short; the parent's small size does not pass, on a plant (hard) and carried a generation forward on an animal (hard); the prediction word produced for two plants in two soils (typed, hard); which sentence says the instructions did not change (hard) — the four pots / four turkeys / four sentences / taller or shorter
Four lessons for four atoms, in Miss Bellamy's class with Elio, Enzo and Ella.
Elio stands at a pen of four lambs on his aunt's farm in Vermont; the black-faced mother calls, and L01 matches her lambs to her one trait at a time (the wool, then the face; size does not count).
Then the lamb born with a black face nobody painted: L02 teaches that both parents pass it instructions before it is born, the instructions set its inherited traits, and what a parent trained for is not in them — Enzo's claim that his baby brother will be born strong because his dad lifts weights is the register's one documented belief, and the lesson answers it.
Ella and her older sister have the same parents, brown eyes alike and hair unlike, so L03 teaches that each child gets a different mix of the same two parents' instructions.
Then the capstone: Enzo's two bean plants from one pod, tall in rich soil and short in sandy soil; the surroundings change how the trait develops, not the instructions, because the short plant's seeds grow tall in rich soil.
No word is coined: the instructions are never named DNA or genes (grades 6-8); "trait", "inherited trait", "acquired trait", "offspring" and "surroundings" are recalled in Grade 3's and Grade 4's own sentences.
The non-author review found the teaching sound and fixed thirty-three things, mostly bank options that bundled a verdict with its reason, two drawings that ran off their frames, and four light-versus-height items a child who has grown a bean in a closet would answer the other way. The blind read by two cold readers follows; pictures are placeholders until you answer.
The question the author put to you (built without; one sentence and one item either way)
Applied without asking
8 Oct 2026, the non-author review and fix pass. Seven quiz and bank items whose options joined a verdict to its reason ("…, so the puppies are alike, but not the same."; "yes, and they set the leaf shape") are bare statements now; the goat-table item whose key rested on "a young goat's horns can still change shape" (never taught) has a table where the white goat shares both traits; the hard chick item that never said which chick got more feed is a fresh instance that carries the atom's boundary a generation forward (two hens raised apart, their broods in one coop grow alike); the four items that keyed height on light (a fern in shade, mint under a shelf, a cucumber in a dark corner) now key on soil or on "weak and pale", because a plant in the dark grows tall and pale; two bank tables that were plain cell reads (tallest pot, least feed) lost their height columns and ask the prediction; the L02 rule card and the pepper table's title that ran off their frames fit now; the L01 rule says "the young one that shares the parent's traits is most likely its offspring" instead of "the offspring … is most likely its offspring"; the L01 video's last lamb stays small so only its face changes; each article's rule card, which printed the rule twice in a row, is cut from the article and kept for the video; a chick with a red comb is a young hen, a red cardinal chick is a young male, nestling bluebirds have spotted chests, a three-week bean plant makes its pods "later in the year" before its seeds are sown; "down", "kits" and "a cutting" are plain words. Keys unchanged. Every gate at its stated result; the blind bundle re-cut; the batch rebuilt and not sent. Record: REVIEW_G5T28_2026-10-08.md.
Six simplifications are left and named in the record: Grade 4's "how it lived" is "how a living thing lived" here (the sentence stands alone, so the pronoun needs its noun); each instruction line on the mix cards comes from one parent (grades 6-8 do two copies); "what a plant needs to grow" is not named (minerals is a term; "food" plants a belief the plants topic must avoid); "a parent passes only some of its instructions" (half); two black cats "most likely" have black kittens; a match by traits is "a best guess", said once.
Also on the site
Topic intro and poll · summary and three questions · mixed practice · the PP100 bank · the type sheet
After you answer
Nothing on the page changes if you keep it name-free. One told sentence and one recognition item is one L02 line, one bank item and one term declared recognition-only; coining and using the phrase is one coining line, a line in L03 and L04, the summary, and a recall item. Either way the two blind reads run on the re-cut bundle, the picture pass starts on the twelve placeholders, and the six-video batch waits for your go on the Living things sample.
What the review found, and what changed
The non-author review and fix pass (8 October): 13 must-fix, 20 worth fixing, 6 left, 12 cleared
The science holds at this level and the four lessons teach what the register asks, the reviewer said; the faults were in the items and on the drawings. Must-fix, all applied: seven verdict-and-reason option sets (L03-q9, PP-14, PP-31, PP-32, PP-44, PP-49, and the "so" distractor in PP-45) made bare statements; PP-24's goat table redrawn so the key follows the lesson's rule; PP-49's missing datum replaced by a fresh hard instance; four light-versus-height items re-cased on soil or re-keyed on "weak and pale" (L04-q4, PP-21, PP-50, PP-51), the two typed ones made closed comparisons between two plants; the L02 rule card and the pepper table's title brought inside their frames. Worth fixing, all applied: the L01 rule's double "offspring"; the L01 video's two-feature step; the duck, sunflower, chick and pepper items' wording; the seed timeline in L04; two bank cell-reads made predictions and the fair-test ask tied to the atom; the cardinal, parakeet, bluebird and rooster claims made true of the birds; the duplicate rule cards cut from the articles; three plain-word swaps. Left: six named simplifications. Cleared: Enzo's claim, the openers, the term sweep, the Grade 3 and 4 recalls, the key strings, the typed "instructions", the code-drawn lamb, the ruling-12 claim form, the two-clause L04-q9, the parentage distractors, every named organism's claim.
The bank, in brief
52 items in content/G5T28_pp100_bank.py: 45 four-option MCQs, 5 typed words (instructions ×3, taller, shorter) and 2 two-of-four selects. Per atom: LIF5-030 12 · LIF5-031 13 · LIF5-032 13 · LIF5-033 14. Easy 22, medium 17, hard 13, sorted easy to hard and rising with the atom's place. MCQ keys A 10 · B 12 · C 12 · D 11; key tells 0 of 107. Ten question types, one exemplar each on the type sheet. Draw constraints: PP-33 ⟂ PP-34 (one radish table); PP-29 ⟂ PP-43 ⟂ PP-46 (typed "instructions"); PP-50 ⟂ PP-51 (typed height words); PP-41 ⟂ PP-42 ⟂ PP-43 (a trained or injured parent); PP-48 ⟂ PP-49 ⟂ PP-52 (the parent's small size does not pass); PP-20 ⟂ PP-21 (the height set on two soils); PP-23 ⟂ PP-24 (trait tables); the source set at most two per test.
The records, in full
The review and fix pass
See REVIEW_G5T28_2026-10-08.md (findings by verdict, the ten Grade 4 faults looked for, the author's calls judged, gates before and after, the figure table, the changed ids).
The build record (v1, the author's)
See BUILD_RECORD_G5T28.md. Its article counts (346 / 400 / 326 / 403) and figure count (35) are the pre-review values; the review record carries the after values (348 / 400 / 326 / 414; 36 figures).