There are several factors that justify the relevance of creating communities of children and adults in rural areas. Thus, it is determined by the necessity to ensure the continuity between older and younger generations, successful socialization of rural children, development of students’ experience in building up relationships with adults based on partnership, dialogue and cooperation. The purpose of the study is to identify the functions and peculiar activities of communities of children and adults in rural schools. The study proposes the definition of the concept of ‘communities of children and adults’. On the basis of a number of features, a comparison of this concept with the category of a ‘collective body’ is given. The author considers the classifi cation of communities of children and adults grounded on various approaches. Distinctive characteristics of communities of children and adults and their functions are determined. Based on the analysis of the experience of rural schools, especially those with a small number of students, the study determines some requirements for the pedagogical staff to use as their guide. It is necessary when school collectives organize the activities of children’s and adult’s communities in order to ensure the realization of the above-mentioned functions. The author makes the conclusions: various child-adult communities are formed in rural areas; a school can become a community of interacting subjects of diff erent ages, where everyone can realize themselves and achieve success. Communities of children and adults in rural educational organizations are the most important mechanism for the personal development process, a means of solving pedagogical tasks and social problems of the countryside. The success of community activities depends on the profi ciency of teachers, on their position in the interaction with all the subjects of educational relations, on the possibility to have an authoritative leader.