I do the letters in order each month as in one per day and then the story I have picked is based on that letter. That is as much as we do with the alphabet for the age group I have. So on P day we might read a book about pigs or pickles or pancakes. And then do activities based on the book.

I do shapes and colours as part of my seasonal time.

Instead of a long circletime I do 3-4 per morning with each lasting about 5-10 minutes with a different topic/subject for each one. That way I cover seasons, themes of interest to the kids, science, and a topic of my choosing to introduce something new.