Third through fifth graders take a Central Study class three times a week, and instruction is rich, varied, and highly experiential. Teachers gather print and video resource materials, plan field trips and related activities, and develop coordinated units of study that support the theme’s broad concepts while developing essential skills in geography, map-reading and mapmaking, reading and listening for information, notetaking from readings, discussions, oral presentations, and films, gathering and evaluating sources, conducting research, critical thinking, and expository and creative writing. Projects are designed to provide students with multiple entry points into the material under study, and simulations and dramatic replay encourage them to inhabit for a time the lives and experiences of others. Periodically throughout each year events are planned that bring the entire school together around the launching or culmination of a particular unit of study, providing opportunities for students to connect with one another around the common theme. Among many others, past themes include: Journeys, H2O, Food for Thought, Cultural Chemistry, Work & Play, and Voices.