Fourth graders have grown a bit sturdier than their third-grade counterparts, both emotionally and physically. During the year, they will have come through the storm of the 9- year transformation and are building connections with the world they now fully inhabit.
Imagination and thinking no longer weave together in a magical fantasy, and students are able to think objectively. For this reason, the year brings opportunities to practice objectivity in geography and zoology blocks of study. 
Fourth grade is the year when everything falls into pieces. Numbers fall into pieces with fractions, the class play falls into pieces with everyone having an individual part, writing falls into pieces with a focus on grammar, the familiar world around us is partitioned into pieces with mapping and the one God of Genesis is replaced by the many gods of the 
Norse myths. However, there are threads that hold these pieces together, that relate them to one another, and these relationships can be examined. How does 1⁄2 relate to 1⁄4? Every part in the play relates to the other parts. How do the parts of speech relate to the meaning of a sentence, how do sentences relate to the meaning of a passage? How do the parts of a map hold the sense of the whole? The Norse gods certainly do a lot of “relating” to one another.
Everything falls apart, everything changes, but there are still relationships that tie it all together. This realization, even if largely subconscious, is a wonderful support for young people who have fallen out of unison with the people around them, who are experiencing separation, and need to know how to build ties between themselves and the world.