Educational potential of a theme session in a summer camp

The paper presents an experience of educational civic and patriotic work in children's camp in the theme session, devoted to the events of Russian history. The author accounts for a system of organising and conducting a camp session underpinned by a competence-based paradigm and using the potential of a substantial component of a high school history course. Analysis of the history of forms of organised children's summer vacation allows the author to justify the merits of the thematic profile shift for character-building and educational work with children of "accidental", unprepared set. The paper advocates the need for domination game approach to the organization of children's lives during the holidays: students receive not only historical knowledge, develop a personal relationship to the events and people in the country's history, but also gained practical experience. The main form of activity is represented by children projects. The paper also contains characteristics of teacher training squad peculiarities of thematic shifts and range of social partners in the process of carrying out its activities.