I have used the Aliens in Underpants story as a hook before and the students loved it. We then created an art lesson based on it where the students created their own underpants for an alien. This links in materials also, what materials should an aliens underpants be made of?
I will definitely be trying out the flying mice experiment next year. I have always wanted to create rockets with junior infants but didn’t know how to do it interactively and safely. I will definitely add this to our themed activities during our Aistear Space station. We could further develop it on how the different designed mice fly, keeping the same bottle launcher. Eg size, paper vs card, googly eyes or no googly eyes (weight)