This lesson has now been posted in the Drupal handbook: http://drupal.org/node/313510

While the page.tpl.php file of your theme is the “highest level” template which controls the layout of your site overall and by default is consistent through all the pages of your site, there are a number of more specific template files that control how sub-elements of pages are themed “within” page.tpl.php, such as the different content that appears on each page throughout the s

At this point the majority of the underlying “functionality” for your Article content type and the Views that will display the Article listings/teasers are now complete. However, it’s very unlikely that things are “looking” the way you want them to quite yet. That’s where Theming comes into the picture (customizing the “look and feel” of your site).

You can design/code your whole home page’s content within the same main template file that the rest of your site’s pages use (page.tpl.php), by wrapping the following bit of PHP code around all the code/content that is meant to be shown only for the home page:

One interesting method of making a home page that offers a mix of easy editing of static fields, plus the ability to embed blocks and other dynamic content, is by making your front page using CCK.