School Appropriate Live Streams

I’ve been working part-time at a school for a few years now. One of my daily tasks (that I love) has been finding a new Live Stream to run in the background on a large Promethean Board in the Library everyday. It’s a lot of fun finding new streams or going back to old favorites - sometimes they have to do with timely current events (like a NASA launch), other times it’s a nature-related live stream, and other times it’s a peek into a different part of the world and their culture. We always mute the streams so they’re not disruptive and just add a fun element running in the background. Here I thought I’d share some favorites and I’ll be sure to add to the list periodically.

DISCLAIMER: Please use your best judgement and double check links before showing. At the time of writing this post, these links point to the topics described but there’s always a chance the streams/channels may change in the future. Also while all of these streams would likely be considered “school safe” for most grades/age groups, they are LIVE and therefore there’s always the chance of something unexpected happening on them. Stream at your own risk.

Nature

• Bird Feeder in Gettysburg, PA - I particularly like this one because it's pretty active and often you see deer in the field in the background too.
• Ryan's Bird Buffet in Brownville, ME - this one is more local to us (in the Northeast) so it's a favorite.
• South Africa Bird Feeder/Wildlife Cam - This stream has some very exotic birds and when it turns to night there (afternoon our local time), they switch the foods over to attract fruit bats. Very cool channel to watch!
• Sea Otters at Monterey Bay Aquarium - these otters are just so cute and playful!
• Bald Eagle Nest in Big Bear Valley, CA - very scenic eagle nest which is especially interesting to watch during hatching season.
• African Penguin Live Cam at New England Aquarium - always enjoyable watching the penguins, especially during feeding or training.
• Giant Ocean Tank at New England Aquarium - very relaxing view of fish swimming around the tank.
• Namib Desert Live Stream in Namibia (Africa) - this stream shows a watering hole in the desert and it almost always has some animal activity.

Science

• SpaceX Launches - I'm linking to the general SpaceX channel here, since new live stream videos will be made as new things are launched. SpaceX launches happen pretty frequently, and they're always exciting and interesting.
• NASA Launches - Linking to the general NASA channel here. NASA Launches happen less often than SpaceX ones but are still fun to see.
• International Space Station (ISS) Stream - This shows a live view of Earth as seen from the ISS. A very relaxing and neat stream to run in the background.

Around the USA

• Rotating New England Live Streams - we enjoy this stream because it rotates amongst many locations around New England. We often put this stream on when bad or snowy weather is coming in (we're local to New England) to see how the weather is in other areas and how much snow they're getting. (Many of the videos featured have their own stand-alone streaming channels too and you can look them up individually if you choose to.)
• Mount Washington, NH Live Stream - Mt. Washington is known as "Home of the World's Worst Weather" and can be an interesting channel to live stream.
• Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Live Cam - busy stream of traffic coming and going across the Brooklyn Bridge and surrounding area.

Around the World

• Sydney Harbor, Australia Live Cam - since it's on the other side of the world it's usually dark/night when we're at school, but you can still see the lights and boats.
• Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy - very scenic bridge with lots of gondola and boat traffic.
• Lucerne, Switzerland - beautiful views of this scenic city.

Planes, Trains, & Boats

• Midway Airport, Chicago IL - always super busy live stream of planes coming and going at the busy Midway Airport.
• Trains in Ashland, Virginia - a set of railroad tracks that gets a lot of train traffic.
• Soo Locks, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan - interesting feed that shows the Soo Locks and lots of boat and other commercial activity around.

Seasonal

• Bank of America Winter Village Skate Cam at Bryant Park, NYC - This is a favorite live cam to run in the library around the holidays/Christmas. The kids love watching the ice skaters and the wide range of skills they have ;)
• Boston Marathon - no link for this one because coverage changes every year. But when "Marathon Monday" (which is the 3rd Monday in April) rolls around every year we put on some kind of live stream or news coverage of the Marathon.
• Everest Base Camp - I can't find the link for it now, but last spring we were able to watch a live stream of Everest Base Camp.

Current Events

I won’t link anything here because these are often temporary or one-time events… but here are some general ideas of things we have streamed or could stream for current events:

• Weather coverage of a current weather event somewhere in the US - like an incoming nor’easter snowstorm or hurricane

• Presidential election coverage or inauguration

• Local election coverage

• Royal wedding or coronation abroad

• 9/11 or Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony

• Olympics coverage

• SpaceX or NASA Launch

• News conference regarding a science discovery

• Baby watch of an animal about to give birth (like a giraffe at the zoo)

• Livestream of a local event

DISCLAIMER: Please use your best judgement and double check links before showing. At the time of writing this post, these links point to the topics described but there’s always a chance the streams/channels may change in the future. Also while all of these streams would likely be considered “school safe” for most grades/age groups, they are LIVE and therefore there’s always the chance of something unexpected happening on them. Stream at your own risk.

Giving Back - Who We Donated To This Year

A tradition I started four years ago was to donate a percentage of profits from Birch Landing Home at year-end to Charity.  I’m so happy to say that this year we were able to help support Gather NH as well as The Nature Conservancy. I chose to support Gather NH because food insecurity has become an issue for many more families this year due to the economical impact of the pandemic. I chose The Nature Conservancy because turning to nature and time outside has become such a saving grace for many during this time and it’s more important than ever to protect our natural resources.

Thank you so much for all your support this past year, it has definitely been a strange year for Birch Landing Home too with less Etsy sales (due to me temporarily pausing my Etsy storefront) and less partnerships and projects on the blog. Nevertheless, I am thankful for my Wholesale Accounts and continued traffic on my blog to make these donations happen. I hope to continue to grow Birch Landing Home and be able to give back more each year in return. Thank you all!