Recently, I created an alternative to the popular Harry Potter and Hogwarts School. I renamed our school the _____ School for Spirituality and Sainthood. It's a private Catholic Schol, so this was acceptable. For the public school version, I created another name based on a fictitious animal mascot, be creative. The four "Houses" in the Harry Potter books were renamed for the 4 elements of antiquity: Earth= The Groundwalkers, symbol: Apatosaurus, color: green; Air= The Swiftfliers, symbol: a soaring Hawk, color: yellow; Water= Waterbearers, symbol: leaping Dolphins, color: blue; Fire= The Firekeepers, symbol: a burning wood fire, color: red. Each student put on a "Sorting Hat" that I made from construction paper & decorated with the 4 colors. They chose a slip of paper on which I had written the House name. Obviously, I divided the number of students into the 4 Houses beforehand. During the sorting ceremony, they went to a plain piece of paper mounted on construction paper of their House color and signed their name. After all were sorted, I maded a colorized list on my computer Word program and mounted them on a bulletin board with their House symbols and names grouped separately. They have responded to the earning of House points, which I award for behavior I want to reinforce such as cleaning up, listening to directions, neatly written papers. I do not award points for academic work. The whole system of Houses encourages friendship & loyalty, just as in the books. Only none of Houses are negative, like Slytherin. They are only calling on the students' strengths. In my Catholic school, I based the 4 Houses on the 4 Gospel writers, Matthew (the ox= Oxenstrength House - green), Mark (the lion= Lionsheart House-brown or yellow), Luke (the Angel=Angelclouds House-blue) and John (the eagle=Eaglesclaw House-red). Have fun!