Hummingbirds are one of my favorite types of birds. I love watching them hover over the feeder on our porch. They are fascinating little creatures, so of course we had to include them in our bird study! Information About Hummingbirds There are over 300 species of hummingbirds and they are only found in the Americas. The world's smallest bird species is the bee hummingbird, measuring in at just 2 inches tall. Hummingbirds are the only birds that can hover and fly backwards, some can even fly upside down! A hummingbird flaps it's wings around 80 times per second. That is crazy fast! In order for hummingbirds to fuel their incredibly fast metabolisms, they need to take in a lot of high energy foods, like flower nectar and small insects and spiders. A hummingbird typically eats nearly half it's weight in a day, and may stop to eat as often as every 10 minutes. Hummingbirds build tiny elastic nests mainly from twigs, grasses, and spider silk. Female hummingbirds

Since there is a shortage on eggs many places right now, including here, I set out to find a few alternative Easter egg activity ideas, in case I can't get my hands on any real eggs this week. Here are a few of my favorite ideas that I came across: Easter Egg Rocks Collect some oval egg shaped rocks from your yard or neighborhood. Clean them up and let them dry. Then paint them like fancy easter eggs with acrylic paints. These could be used as an alternative for real eggs in an egg hunt. Decorate Easter Egg Sugar Cookies Make a batch of roll out cookie dough and cut out oval shaped cookies to bake. After they're cool, decorate them with icing and sprinkles. (Click the link for a good recipe and decorating tips) Painting Plastic Eggs If you can't find real eggs, grab a pack of plastic Easter eggs, and paint them with acrylic paints or decorate them with colored permanent markers. Then you can stuff them with goodies and hide them for an egg hunt. Yarn Eggs Y

STEM Activities  - Make a Marble Maze: Grab some plastic straws, some cardboard, glue, and a marble and challenge your kids to design and make their own marble maze.  - Make and Test Aluminum Foil Boats  : Challenge your kids to make boats out of aluminum foil. Then test how much weight they can hold by filling them with pennies in the bathtub or a kiddie pool. -  Make a Marshmallow Catapult :  Challenge your kids to design a catapult for throwing marshmallows.  - The Paper Chain Challenge  : Challenge your kids to make the longest paper chain they can with a single piece of paper. -Lego Tower Challenge: Challenge your kids to build the tallest tower they can with a predetermined amount of Lego blocks. - The Egg Drop Challenge:   Challenge your kids to design and build a contraption that will keep an egg from breaking if dropped from a predetermined height. - Build and Test Bridges: Challenge your kids to build a bridge out of whatever materials you have a