Welcome to Art with Mrs. French

I've put together this site to showcase some of the wonderful art work my students are creating. Take a look around and enjoy!

We Are Art Smart!

Howard Gardner, Ph.D., professor at Harvard University, first identified seven different kinds of intelligence in his classic book Frames of Mind. His theory has challenged assumptions about intelligence and learning and deeply influenced the path of education in the United States.

Gardner identifies Spatial intelligence as the ability to "think in pictures," to perceive the visual world accurately, and recreate (or alter) it in the mind or on paper. Spatial intelligence is highly developed in artists, architects, designers and sculptors. When we create art, thinking and acting to increase and develop our spatial intelligence, we become Art Smart!

Click here for an interesting article from ARTSEDGE on why being Art Smart is an important 21st century workplace skill.

About me

Julie French

I started my career in advertising as a graphic designer working with some very interesting businesses and non-profits. Click here to see some of that work. After taking time off to start a family, I wanted to combine my two loves — children and art. I'm now in my eighth year teaching art and I love it! My students' creativity amazes me every day, they are a joy to work with.

Contact Me

Parents may reach me through our school website, everyone else please email juliefrench@mac.com.

Summer Nature Art

Last summer I taught a one week course of nature-based art. My students were third, fourth and fifth graders. It was a fun group to work with and we made LOTS of art!.

We began by picking leaves, buds and seeds from the grounds around John Lyman school and pressed and dried them early in the week. Later that week we read the book "Look What I Did with a Leaf" and created some cool leaf animals by gluing our dried leaves to paper.


We looked at Georgia O'Keeffe's gorgeous flower paintings and made our own versions, taking care to look carefully at flowers from nature and getting so close the shapes became almost abstract.

The students spent a few days making handmade paper, adding leaf petals and small leaves to the pulp. When the paper was dried, we made twig and twine bound nature journals.

Believe it or not, we fit in one more project. Using stones, beads, shells and sand the students made mosaics featuring their favorite animals. A very busy, very productive week of art!