Introduction. Awareness of the educational potential of children's communities in the educational environment actualizes the importance of their development. In modern conditions, communities operate both in real and virtual environments, while there is a risk of the destructive influence of the digital environment, leading to an increase in loneliness among adolescents. Hence the need to create conditions for the development of children's social qualities, which can be done in children's communities. The purpose of the study is to study the representation in modern educational practices of targets for the development of children's and child-adult communities and the pedagogical tools used to achieve them. Methodology and methods. For the study, the content analysis method was used. Three databases of educational practices in the education system compiled in 2021 and 2022 (experience of the Chelyabinsk Oblast) were analysed. Results. The importance of forming children's and children's-adult communities (an association that has established social ties on the basis of common interests and goals, has self-identification and implements productive activities) was determined; the search for tools aimed at the development of communities (acting in interconnection in the real and virtual environment), where the necessary social qualities of personality, interpersonal communication skills and social activity were formed; educational practices aimed at the development of communities were identified and analysed. It was found that when presenting the practices, specialists in the field of education do not fix community development as a target orientation, nor do they mention the tasks of virtual community development. The authors identified the tools most often used by the authors of practices aimed at community development: games, festivals, organisation of association activities, meetings, marathons, competitions. It was revealed that the choice of the tools used depends on the experience of the author of the practice: current educational specialists more often use methods and forms that actualise cooperation as a type of interaction, and future educational specialists use tools of the competitive type of interaction. Conclusions. In the conditions of the modern mixed environment of upbringing, the analysis of the educational practices being implemented reveals the insufficiency in fixing the purposeful activity of future and current specialists in the development of communities and the absence of practices that actualise the potential of virtual communities. There is a need for methodological reflection of existing practices and development of methods for realising the potential of communities, which should be carried out in proactive interaction between students and current educational specialists, in the conditions of professional communities of educational specialists.