The importance of classroom management in promoting learning success, especially in lower-grade classes with unique psychological dynamics and high student heterogeneity, is the driving force behind this study. The study's objectives are to examine the various challenges that third-grade teachers at Muhammadiyah Elementary School in Tapung Hilir encounter and to pinpoint the internal and external causes of these challenges. This study is qualitative and uses a descriptive methodology. In-depth interviews, document analysis, and passive participatory observation were used to gather data. The principal of the school and student representatives served as informants, and the teacher of the third-graders was the main subject. Data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing were all part of data analysis, and data validity was confirmed using the triangulation technique. The findings show that: (1) Due to a lack of instructional media, teachers struggle to implement interactive lesson plans, maintain a conducive classroom environment in the face of excessive noise, and accommodate differences in students' foundational skills (reading, writing, and math). (2) The reasons for these challenges can be divided into two groups: internal factors, like students' short attention spans and the heavy pedagogical workload; and external factors, mainly the school's inadequate facilities, especially the lack of visual projection media, which limits instruction to lecture-based (verbalistic) methods and makes students bored. To lessen teachers' managerial challenges, this study suggests implementing peer tutoring and gradually acquiring visual media facilities