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Children are among the populations at highest risk for tick bites and tick-borne diseases, in part because they spend more time outdoors in areas where ticks may be present. Helping children stay safe starts with early, practical education, including learning to identify ticks, where they like to live, and how to prevent tick bites.
Through the Ticks in Virginia, we develop evidence-based resources to support children, educators, and schools in tick safety education. Our Tick Safety Adventures Activity Book and free Tick Safety Adventures Teaching Guide provide fun, hands-on activities and practical tools to help children build tick safety knowledge and skills at home or in the classroom.
Free Teaching Guide
Free Teaching Guide
Looking for a simple, ready-to-use resource to teach children about tick safety?
The Tick Safety Adventures Teaching Guide provides practical, engaging content you can use right away in the classroom or at home to help children stay safe and confident outdoors.
Designed to support meaningful, hands-on learning that reinforces key tick safety concepts from the Tick Safety Adventures Activity Book—or can be used on its own.
Make Learning About Tick Safety an Adventure!
Make Learning About Tick Safety an Adventure!
The Tick Safety Adventures Activity Book is filled with over 40 fun, hands-on activities that help children learn how to stay safe from ticks—at home or in the classroom.
Designed for kids, families, and educators, it includes easy-to-follow sections, helpful safety tips, and ideas for learning more together. Activities include mazes, I-See-a-Tick games, Tick-or-Not-a-Tick challenges, coloring pages, word puzzles, and more.
As children explore the activities, they learn how to spot a tick, where ticks like to hide, what to include in a tick safety kit, and simple ways to help prevent tick bites.
Available in both full color and black-and-white editions.
Research & Curriculum Development
Research & Curriculum Development
Our work is grounded in research and ongoing curriculum development to improve tick-borne disease education for children and teachers. In 2022, we gathered information from 40 Central Virginia health and physical education teachers about their knowledge, current practices, and interest in teaching tick-borne disease prevention. Most participants had not previously incorporated tick-related content, but many expressed strong interest in implementing a curriculum with accessible, ready-to-use resources.
In response, we developed a Fight the Bite, Virginia curriculum that aligns with the Virginia's Standards of Learning for Health and Physical Education for elementary students. We also developed a professional learning opportunity for teachers on Teaching Tick-borne Disease Prevention, which we piloted in August 2024. We are currently finalizing the curriculum for broader dissemination and evaluation.
Our curriculum also supports Virginia House Bill HB 850, which promotes the development of education and awareness programs to help protect school-age children from Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. This work is co-led by Dr. Jenny Hall of Radford University and Dr. Katherine Bowman of the University of Lynchburg.
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