Frisco Teacher Creates Monet Inspired Classroom, Changes Student Learning

Monica Noel, an art teacher at Newman Elementary in Frisco, spent weekends and the holiday break building a Monet inspired classroom that includes painted walls, a water lily pond set and period dress to bring Claude Monet to life for students. Noel developed the idea over the summer and opened the immersive space for students from kindergarten through fifth grade, with other Frisco ISD schools contributing easels and supplies so each child could create an original painting.

The classroom served roughly 650 students and aimed to give them context about artists lives, including struggles and perseverance. The reaction inside the room underscored the emotional impact of the experience. One kindergartener reportedly said, "This is the best day of my life." Frisco ISD shared the transformation with NBC 5, which featured the story as part of its Something Good series, and NBC 5 encouraged community submissions for similar segments.

Beyond the immediate delight and creativity, the project illustrates broader public health and education implications. Immersive arts experiences can bolster social emotional learning, provide stress relief, and strengthen school connectedness for young children. In communities where extracurricular arts opportunities vary by neighborhood and family resources, classroom based initiatives like this can reduce barriers to cultural participation and support equitable developmental outcomes.

The installation also exposed how much such programs can depend on individual teacher initiative and informal resource sharing. Contributions from neighboring schools made it possible for every child to paint, yet the need for donated materials points to gaps in district funding for experiential art instruction. That raises questions for local education policy makers about sustained support for arts programs that contribute to mental health, creativity and lifelong learning.

For Collin County families and policymakers, the Newman Elementary project is a vivid example of what well resourced art instruction can do for children, and a reminder that supporting teachers and equitable access to arts materials yields benefits beyond the classroom. The classroom is now part of a wider community conversation about how schools can promote student well being through creative learning.