What's so special about vowels anyway?

In an effort to strengthen the children's foundational understanding of our written language, we have gone back to the basics. It lays the foundation for understanding syllables and how they work to form our words. Is there a way to construct this knowledge rather than try to take it on the teacher's authority. Spelling is not really my strength, anyway. I'm working on it, like they are, but I certainly don't qualify to be an authority on the subject.

"Why don't we call all of these (pointing to our letter cards) just letters of the alphabet? Why do we need the special names of 'vowel' and 'consonant'?"

No one seems to know. We start to think about it.

"Maybe because they all say two different sounds."
"What about c? It makes two different sounds but isn't a vowel."
"Every word has to have a vowel. I know that is a fact."
"Is that true? Can you think of any words that don't have a vowel?"

We sort through dictionaries and books in our room. We think of words like Mr. and Mrs. or Dr. but then we realize that they aren't really the word, they are abbreviations. What about hmmmm and shhhhh? Are those even really words or are they just sounds we make?

A child comes to school the next day with a word. "What about the word Rhythm?" It seems like maybe we found one.
"But it DOES have a vowel. The Y says /i/ like igloo so it is making a vowel sound," another child responds.

We repeat the discussion with nymph and sky.

To gain more information we say the sounds of each of the letters. We pay special attention to the shape of our mouths.
"What do you notice?"
"With the vowels my mouth was wide open."
"What about the consonants?"
"My mouth was a lot more closed."

We take some time to write what we are starting to notice:

• It is like notes on a piano. Vowels sound like half notes because you hold them out longer. Consonants sound like staccato notes on the piano because it is one short little ding.
• A vowel tells you how to open your mouth and a vowel tells you how to close your mouth. Your lips or your tongue touch.
• A word without a vowel would be weird because your mouth would be closed all the time.
• Without vowels words would not make sense. It would just sound like "ct".