Helping with self-regulation

I teach 6th graders, so I often have to work with students who have trouble regulating their emotions (or even recognizing their emotions). What I usually see is students struggling with anger, but I have a lot of "hyped" students as well, who need a chance to calm and refocus. Helping these students is one of the reasons I've been doing some research on mindfulness, but (thanks to my wife) I found a great book that focuses on physical exercises.

The Kid's Guide to Staying Awesome and In Control by Lauren Brukner is probably intended for elementary school kids, but there's a lot here that middle school students can use as well. The first half of the book is written to the kid and classifies emotions as "slow and tired", "fast and wiggly", and "fast and emotional". Then Brukner outlines "Anywhere Body Breaks" (basically, short focused physical activities that can be done in your seat with minimal disruption to the class). An example would be a hand massage, where you use the thumb of one hand to press on the muscles of the opposite hand. The goal here is to give the body proprioceptive input to either calm down the student or help them stay more focused.

There's a lot of stuff besides the "Body Breaks", including more intensive physical activity and tools (e.g., fidget balls) that reflect Brukner's background as an occupational therapist. (The second half of the book, aimed at the parent/teacher, provides more resources as well as pages to copy to help students.) But what I plan to use are the "Body Breaks". I have used student separation in the past, but I often did not do much with it --- the student worked in a corner that was hopefully free of distractions, but I didn't guide the student to help her or him with self-regulation. If I can provide students with a menu of options (the stuff in this book, self-reflections, writing prompts), I have more tools to help the students help themselves.

If you're interested in this type of therapy, Lauren Brukner has a web page at awesomeandincontrol.com with details on her work and information on this book and its sequel.