crash at the first turn

After working with kids for so long I have realized that there are certain patterns of interest.  There was one boy who loved NASCAR.  Everything he did involved race cars.  In the block room he made a nearly life sized model of race car, in art he drew pictures of race cars and when he was in the library, he wrote and read books about race cars.  


My classroom has a lot of windows that face out and look across the campus.  This is so that the adults can watch the children as they move from class to class and building to building.  The walkways are gravel and sort of snake through the fields.  I was looking out the window, towards the art building.  I saw the race car lover running along the path at full speed.  He was even pretending to shift imaginable gears along the way.  As he approached a turn in the path, his legs slipped out from underneath him and he was airborne.  I went out to make sure that he was alright.  He didn't hit his head, he just had a skinned knee and his elbows and hands were slightly bloody.  Once I knew he was okay, I said "That was a pretty good fall, what do you think happened?"  Without hesitation he said "Well I was going along on fine I got to turn one, dropped the hammer,  then  lost control   But I am okay."  


 I was ready to console a boy that just fell and scraped his knees.  He was ready to pretend that he was being interviewed by the camera crew covering the race.