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Under One Roof

House Systems with CritterCoin

House Systems are in! Digital House Systems… ALSO IN! House Systems became popular for the education system after the birth of the Harry Potter series. Students work together to earn coins for their individual houses over the course of each week to be crowned champions. While we know that your students are already champions to you, CritterCoin is here to boost their experience as champions by taking the House System to a digital format that is easy and free.

House System Structure

Without a solid foundation of a home, we all know that it will crumble. House Systems are all about having a foundation that leads to increasing school-wide engagement (teachers included), promotes parent/community involvement, and creates a healthy sense of competition in your school. Here are a couple of things you’ll need for a healthy foundation for your school today:

• ✅Names for each house
• ✅Color(s) that represent each house
• ✅Symbol(s) for each house

After adding your houses simply assign your students to their House in the Admin portal Students tab.

Tip: CritterCoin can automatically assign students and balance House population just by toggling on “Place Students in Houses Automatically” on the Houses page.

Now your houses are ready to compete against each other!

Competitions & Activities

The beauty of having competitions across your campus is that they can be flexible to your needs and wants. House competitions can work as small as a single classroom to school-wide. These are a great way to incorporate your state learning standards or give your students a well-deserved break. Here are a couple of ways I have seen house points given in various schools.

• ➕ Math: Multiplication facts, number identification, & math quiz bowl.
• 📚 ELAR: Spelling bee, sight word competition, & writing revisions.
• 🧪 Science/STEM: Robotics competition, science fair, & science jeopardy.
• 🗺️ Social Studies: History facts and culture fairs.
• 🏃 PE: Relay races and fitness challenges.
• 🎭 Visual & Performing Arts: Talent show, art exhibit, & dance battles.

One thing that excites me about competitions, as a teacher, is having the opportunity for all students to shine! There have been times during a competition when I really see students burst out of their comfort zones. I cannot wait to hear what grit and blossoming character your students will experience in these competitions!

Rewards and Recognition with CritterCoin

If you haven’t set up your Rewards Store or Coins with us yet, this is a great time to do so! Here is how CritterCoin can enhance your house systems experience.

1. Award and view house points in real-time: While your winning house is excited about their win, they are going to lose their minds when they see their new points in real-time. When they see their score increase, especially if their house just became the new board leader, you would have thought that somebody won the Super Bowl!
2. Increase motivation & engagement: For houses that have now moved down the leaderboard, this can be deflating but I think this is a good time to DIG DEEP to develop some grit. This is a good time to increase communication with students, and create a game plan and strategy so that the next time a new house will come out on top! Remember House points can reset every week so everyone has a change to win.
3. Boost student-teacher relationships: In some schools, there are some teachers and students that love their house so much that they bleed their house color. Regardless of what grade level, age, or group of students are in our house, this will serve as a way to build genuine connections with additional students.

Unity

Regardless of how many houses you end up having, your school is going to come out stronger together on the other side. House systems promote positive & long-lasting change in schools. They create a sense of understanding, unity, inclusion, creativity, and culture.

Stay tuned for new and exciting news here at CritterCoin!