I have to say that I agree with others on here about clustering the gifted students and placing them with the teachers who are trained/certified to teach gifted students. Since your principal's thought is to change the curriculum, have you considered accelerating the students through the curriculum? Especially if these students are clustered together, this would provide a unique and challenging experience for them. You could still take them deeper into science and social studies standards, but what if you accelerated them as they were ready in math and reading? There could be a lot of good integration throughout the curriculum.
I agree that enrichment, even if in random subject areas, is still a great opportunity for these students. My gifted students (4th graders) this year have thoroughly enjoyed learning about World War II (through the lens of Japanese Internment and the Holocaust). This started out as read-alouds during reading workshop, but a number of the kids really developed a strong interests and did a lot of independent research themselves. I think it is crucial that we expose these learners to as many as topics as possible so that their passion for learning continues.
Good luck with this! It sounds like an amazing opportunity, but a daunting one too!
