Beyond the school-wide theme, each classroom focuses on a theme of its own. Classroom themes in the Infant/Toddler, Preschool and Kindergarten classes are open-ended by design. This allows teachers to learn about their students and design units of instruction that reflect student interests and developmental needs.

In grades one and above, classroom themes are selected to focus on a body of content appropriate to the grade levels, and these themes often have a strong social studies or science orientation. When possible, math topics, literature, computer software, art and music projects also stem from the classroom themes. Specific subtopics, or units of instruction, are determined by a variety of factors including teacher and student interests; relevance to the world and the classroom community; availability of resources; and the relationship between the instructional units and student skills.

During a given theme, all areas of study are tied to that theme while students continue to work on the skills for each subject area. For example, if a class theme is the study of Ancient Civilizations, the class would spend approximately six weeks studying one particular civilization. Using the example of ancient Egypt, the class would study the Egyptian culture in social studies class and do related writing projects, such as journals from the points of view of citizens at various levels of the social pyramid. In science, students would conduct controlled experiments on preserving food, perhaps through the creation of mummified apples. Expanding upon the theme, art class students would create Egyptian-style artifacts like tomb paintings. As demonstrated by the example of Ancient Civilizations, each curriculum area develops the appropriate skills and also helps students make interdisciplinary connections across the curriculum.

The themes for the 2011-2012 school year are outlined below.