Howto display featured content 1etc?

I am trying to use WordPress to setup a “Newspaper” site for the online-journalism society on my university campus. Having next to no experience with programing, I opted for the Producer theme, as it looks perfect for the task with just a few minor tweaks.

My problem is that I want the “front page” of the site to work like the front page of most online newspapers, displaying the top stories first with fluff pieces further down on the page. This seemed simple by just using the Featured Content 1-4 that Producer uses to decide how things are displayed on the site.

My problem is this: How do I “tag” posts as ‘Featured Content #’ so it appears on the front page?

Thank you in advance for any help.